Within hours of the massacre last week at Fort Hood, reporters were asking Dave Cullen if the rampage was “like Columbine.” Cullen cautions that we can’t know yet—that we must wait for the facts. “If we guess now, the myths will be with us forever.”
Cullen knows how hard myths die. He was a reporter at Columbine on April 20, 1999, and has worked on the story ever since. He has seen the stubborn persistence of early, inaccurate beliefs: the crime was variously blamed on some combination of Marilyn Manson, a “Trench Coat Mafia,” Satanism, and bullying in those first chaotic days. Ten years later, Cullen puts the myths to rest in a masterwork of reporting that finds the ideal balance between sensitivity and service to the truth.
Columbine sets out to answer the question of questions: why? Should we be surprised to learn that there are at least two whys? Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were both seriously messed up, but in very different ways. Drawing on interviews and reams of documents, including journals by the killers that were made public in 2006, Cullen details their final year, during which they planned the attack and engaged in troubling behavior that was not exactly unknown to authorities.
The narrative shifts back and forth in time from the murder plot to the personal stories of the victims—those who survived and those who died—to the community’s response to the tragedy. There are accounts of heroism that I hadn’t known about: two Eagle Scouts who tried to save a beloved teacher who was bleeding to death… a Lutheran minister who held a secret funeral for Dylan Klebold and expressed sympathy for his parents, acts of compassion that cost him his job.
Of all the books that I have read in 2009, Columbine is the one that stays with me. It tells a dark and disturbing story, difficult to read but important to know. Mostly, it makes me grateful for reporters like Dave Cullen who work to bring the truth to light, no matter how unwelcome it might be.
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This sounds like a sad but important book. I’d really like to read this, but I’m not sure I have the guts to read something that’s likely to break my heart so. Hopefully, by the time the paperback comes out, I’ll have the courage. Great review.
“Columbine” by Dave Cullen is very well written and I did find it riveting. People should know however that it isn’t without controversy. Several parties who are very close to the Columbine school shooting are upset with Mr. Cullen’s book because he downplays the bullying aspect as the reason for why it happened and instead greatly plays up Dylan and especially Eric’s supposed mental illnesses. Brooks Brown, who was a friend of both boys and attended Columbine High School with them, personally witnessed the two being harassed and bullied on a daily basis for four years. His book, “No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine” details these incidents and makes for a good counterpoint of Cullen’s book. Also, Randy Brown, Brooks’s father, has been quite vocal and public about his dislike of Cullen’s book (you can read his review and comments at the Amazon.com page for “Columbine”).
I personally think it was a combination of both factors that drove Eric and Dylan to do what they did: mental illness and the bullying. I don’t see why it has to be one or the other.
Penelope, thanks very much for the kind review of my book. I really appreciate it.
Lisa, you’re correct that a few people close to the case are upset, most prominently Randy and Judy Brown. Considering how many people are close to this case, I’ve been very happy with the response.
I don’t see why it has to be one thing or another, either. I went in open-minded. But when you read the nearly 1,000 pages left behind by the killers and see the absence of complaints about bullying, it’s hard to see that as a factor.
I’d also caution against characterizing psychopathy as mental illness. It is a mental condition, but very different from illnesses like psychoses or even depression. (I know the terms are annoyingly similar, but I try to clear the confusion up in the book, and explain what a psychopath is in some detail.)
Eric knew exactly what he was doing and did not care. That is very different than, say, Cho in the VA Tech case, where it was true mental illness.
Dave, thank you for replying to my comments. I’m sorry about the “mental illness” comment; I think that myself and others are quick to use that term as an easy, catch-all reference to any sort of mental condition, psychopathy or otherwise.
In regards to the bullying being a factor in causing what happened: you make a good point about the absence of complaints about this in the private papers of both boys. But why then do you think that people such as the Browns still seem so convinced that bullying was indeed the cause of what happened that day? Is it because Brooks Brown was a personal witness to some of the bullying and harassment that went on at that school? Or is it because of the comments made by the shooters in the library regarding jocks and white hats? It can be confusing for readers to have such different theories presented to them. That’s why I went with “not one or the other but possibly both”.
In reading their papers it didn’t seem that either Eric or Dylan kept a very thorough journal or diary, I mean not like a person who writes in one every single day and captures that day’s events and thoughts and feelings. Isn’t it possible that the bullying that Brooks Brown and others say the two experienced wasn’t mentioned by them because by their junior and senior years it was already so ingrained in them that they didn’t feel it worth mentioning? And that it may have been a factor in why they did what they did without them realizing or acknowledging it? I don’t know, it’s just a thought.
Lastly, even though I didn’t mention it in my original comment but I’ve been wondering what your opinion is on the people who doubt the statements made by Brenda Parker regarding any sort of relationship she may have had with Eric Harris. I’ve read comments online about people having dismissed her as an obsessed “fangirl” who made up things just for a bit of time in the spotlight yet you seem to have regarded her as credible.
Regardless of my opinion or others I still found your book to be very interesting and so well written and I’m sure that it’s a book I will definitely read more than once.
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Dave Cullen is nothing but a lying,opportunistic famewhore.
People with serious knowledge about Columbine know this. The only reason why his book is so popular is because he gives people nice , simple , easy answers that they want to hear.
His book should rightly and fairly be classified as fiction.
Read it if you must but don’t take Cullen’s word as the” truth” or the final say.
Its not by any stretch of the imagination.
If you read it, read others like Jeff Kass and Brooks Browns books( friend of Harris&Klebold) as well.
Dave, I had a realization. You mentioned this : “I don’t see why it has to be one thing or another, either. I went in open-minded. But when you read the nearly 1,000 pages left behind by the killers and see the absence of complaints about bullying, it’s hard to see that as a factor.”
I see where your train of thought is heading with that idea, because at the surface it sounds great, it truly does. But, I have to disagree, strongly. I myself was a troubled youth that was bullied quite bad, went through 3 different school systems before finally getting lucky, I considered it. Anways, I kept a diary at that time as well, much as these boys did.
Here’s where it get’s interesting. I hated the idea of keeping a journal, or diary, in fact I’m pretty sure most of my other male friends felt the same way, for if I told them about MY diary, they thought I was “girly” and made me feel more miserable about myself. I remember when I first started keeping a journal, I had 50 or so pages written in, detailing and outlining horrible experiences and painful feelings I had undergone.
However, at one point my brother found my Diary, he did not make fun of me, in fact he gave me a hug and said that he always knew that I had it bad, he wished he could help but was much older than me. Eventually he got me into therapy, and voila, a much happier me emerged… but that’s not my story, the point is, after he found my diary I made the discovery that I could not write down my TRUE emotions, in the case of someone discovering and reading my inner thoughts and real feelings. I ditched that journal, and decided my future journals would be much more masculine, as I felt I had really lost a sense of respect from my brother, even though he assured me I had not.
Point is, the idea of people finding my writings, and then saying “what a sad miserable soul, pity.” did not exactly fill me with excitement. In fact, after re-reading my original journal, after my bro found it, I suddenly realized how weak and pathetic I sounded, and altered my writing style from then on. Just because they didn’t mention being bullied, might actually be the painful truth that they did not, enjoy delving and dwelling on their own weaknesses or making such weaknesses possibly available for others to see.
Like, basically, the best professor I ever had, told me once “anyone that claims to know the truth is lying.” So do you know the truth?
I’m not mad at you for writing your book or anything, it’s your opinion. It stinks, but….whatever right? Anything for a buck…
Also I find it strange the level of involvement you had with people that were originally involved in all kind’s of scandalous accusations when this thing first happened, and you know who I’m talking about man. Can you really publish this book and feel morally comfortable about it, having used Kate Battan and Dwayne Fuselier as your main resources. Really? REALLY?