Columbine (2009)

Columbine is a non-fiction book written by Dave Cullen and published by Twelve (Hachette Book Group) on April 6, 2009. It is an examination of the Columbine High School massacre, on April 20, 1999, and the perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The book covers two major storylines: the killers' lives leading up to the attack, and the survivors' struggles with the aftermath over the following decade. Chapters alternate between the two stories. Graphic depictions of parts of the attack are included, in addition to the actual names of friends and family (the only exception being the pseudonym "Harriet", which is used for a female Columbine student referred to in Klebold's journal entries, with whom he was obsessively in love).

Cullen says he spent ten years researching and writing the book. He previously contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London, and The Guardian. He is best known for his work for Slate and Salon.com. His Slate story "The Depressive and the Psychopath" five years earlier, offered the first diagnosis of the killers by the team of psychologists and psychiatrists brought on the case by the FBI. Publication was timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the massacre, which occurred on April 20, 1999. The book spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list in the spring of 2009, peaking at #3.

The book gained considerable media attention for addressing many of the so-called Columbine myths that were widely perpetuated by the news media and believed by the general public. According to the book, the massacre had nothing to do with school bullying, jocks, the Gothic subculture, Marilyn Manson, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Cullen also writes that the attack was intended primarily as a bombing rather than a school shooting, and that Harris and Klebold aimed to perpetrate the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. The book garnered glowing reviews from Time, Newsweek, People, The New York Observer and Entertainment Weekly. One of the few dissenting views came from Janet Maslin, who wrote in The New York Times, "What good can a new book on Columbine do? Mr. Cullen's Salon coverage had already refuted some of the worst misconceptions about the story by the fall of 1999... Emerging details mostly corroborate what was already known."

Columbine won a bevy of awards and honors, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Barnes & Noble's Discover Award, and the Goodreads Choice Award. It was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, the Audie Award, and the MPIBA Regional Book Award. Additionally, Columbine was named on two dozen Best of 2009 lists, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, iTunes and the American Library Association. It was declared Top Education Book of 2009, and one of the best of the decade by the American School Board Journal.

Development

In a 2015 Vanity Fair essay, the author described the powerful impact his mentor Lucia Berlin had on the creation of the book and on his ability to vividly portray such characters as Klebold and teacher Dave Sanders, describing Berlin as “the guiding force in my work, and my life” even long after her death.

Synopsis

Columbine has two main storylines, told in alternating chapters: the 'before' story of the killers' evolution toward murder, and the 'after' story of the survivors. There are shorter 'during' accounts, describing the attack itself, dispersed throughout the book. Formally composed of 53 chapters divided into five parts, the book also includes a timeline, 26 pages of detailed endnotes, and a fifteen-page bibliography organized into topics.

The 'before' story focuses primarily on the killers' high school years preceding the massacre. According to the experts cited in the book, using retrospective diagnoses based on their writings and accounts of those close to them, Eric Harris was a textbook psychopath, and Dylan Klebold was an angry depressive.

The 'after' story is composed of eight major sub-stories, focused on individuals who played a key role in the aftermath of the attack, including Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis, alleged Christian martyr Cassie Bernall (a myth that came from a student mixing up Cassie and Valeen Schnurr in his account of the events that occurred in the library), "the boy in the window" (Patrick Ireland), FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, and the families of victim Daniel Rohrbough and teacher Dave Sanders, who died saving students from the gunmen. The Evangelical Christian community's feverish response to the alleged "martyrdom" issue is also chronicled.

Columbine opens at a school assembly hosted by Principal DeAngelis just before Prom weekend, four days before the massacre. Scenes from the massacre are graphically depicted in the early chapters, and later through flashbacks.

Reception

Published by Twelve (Hachette Book Group) on April 6, 2009, Columbine debuted at number seven on the bestseller list for The New York Times in the United States. It peaked at number three, and spent eight weeks on the list.

The book was very well received by critics, and by news media, which focused heavily on the dispelling of numerous Columbine myths, and the extensive exploration into the possible motives and the minds of the two killers. In The New York Observer, Stephen Amidon described Columbine as a "gripping study... To his credit, Mr. Cullen does not simply tear down Columbine's legends. He also convincingly explains what really sparked the murderous rage... disquieting... beautifully written."

Several critics compared the book to In Cold Blood, including former Publishers Weekly Editor-In-Chief Sara Nelson, who reviewed it for The Daily Beast and called it "a riveting read, on a par with the greatest crime analysis from In Cold Blood or The Stranger Beside Me." A debate sprang up on the issue, with some critics concurring, and others arguing that Cullen's artistry fell short of Truman Capote's.