Columbine is a book that most of us probably wish would grow dusty on library shelves, forgotten. That’s no comment on its contents (which are mind-blowing), but rather its subject. Unfortunately, as per the blurb of this updated edition, “the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year”. As the title suggests, it is a comprehensive examination of the Columbine High School Massacre, and the evolution of its perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
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What sets Columbine apart as a definitive account of everything that happened at Columbine High School on 20 April 1999 is that Dave Cullen was there from the very beginning. He was one of the first journalists on the scene that day, and spent the subsequent ten years researching, interviewing, writing, and trying to make sense of the massacre. He became part of the community, friends with survivors and families of the fallen. Even though he deliberately and meticulously excises himself from most of the narrative – after all, it’s not his story, he’s just the one telling it – it’s clear from his Afterword and Epilogue that he was part of this tragedy, and it took a major personal toll on him.
I don’t want to go too much into the facts of Columbine, because if you want those you should simply read the book. There were a couple of facets that stood out to me, though, as an Australian who knew about this tragedy only in the vaguest terms from the other side of the world before reading this account.
First off, the length of time the perpetrators spent discussing and planning this massacre, and the level of detail in their plans, was truly shocking. There were so many opportunities for intervention and de-escalation that were simply missed. As I understand it, Cullen has made some of the headway he hoped in publishing this book, by making guardians and caretakers more aware of signs to look for in troubled teenagers who might stumble down Harris and Klebold’s path.
Secondly, and forgive me for flogging a dead horse here, but the ease with which these young people were able to get their hands on military-grade weapons was truly horrifying. It was easier for them to get their hands on guns while underage than it was for me to get my hands on liquor when I was underage. That is beyond comprehension for me – and that this book has been in circulation for over two decades and the situation remains basically the same is quite literally unbelievable.
As for the telling of the story itself: Columbine is incredibly detailed. Cullen goes through everything minute-by-minute: not just the events at the school on that day, but the aftershocks as the community and survivors reeled in the days, weeks, and years afterwards. Sensitive readers will need to be wary, as there are details in here that will turn even the strongest of stomachs. It’s relayed in sharp, staccato sentences, frame by frame.
In examining the massacre so closely, Cullen is able to address and dismantle many of the ‘Columbine myths’ – stories about the ’cause’ that are taken for granted in popular consciousness even though they have no basis in the actual facts. It turns out, Harris and Klebold weren’t bullied, they weren’t targeting ‘jocks’, they weren’t Goths, they weren’t inspired by Marilyn Manson, and even though the jokey name of the Trench Coat Mafia existed, it had nothing to do with the outfit choices or actions of Harris and Klebold on 20 April 1999.
What’s more, Cullen does a great job of exposing the Cover-Your-Ass approach taken by local cops in investigating this crime, without sounding overly accusatory or vindictive – a tough line to walk, given the ramifications. I was gob-smacked by the self-interest of people in authority, and the lengths they would go to cover up their own mistakes and oversights, in the face of such a horrific tragedy and a community clamoring for answers.
To my great relief, Cullen avoids most of the hacky true crime cliches – Columbine is closer to In Cold Blood than true crime pulp from the $2 clearance bin. The only downside was that he made the conscious literary choice not to include any photographs… and then went on to describe and discuss specific photographs in great detail. I found myself having to stop and Google them often (though this may not be as big an issue for American readers or readers who were older at the time of the Columbine tragedy, as those images are probably burned into their psyche and easier to recall in memory).
The only aspect that I wish Cullen had explored more—and perhaps he will, in future editions of Columbine, as the relevance of this story only seems to grow—is the fact that, as he mentions on page 66, this was the “first major hostage stand off of the cell phone era”. The calls from frightened children and teachers inside the school grounds in the moment gave us access to the horror in real-time, rather than after the fact or just one or two accounts from people within reach of a landline. Of course, this translated to real-time all-night coverage on the news, with the dawn of 24/7 news coverage around the same time.
That’s a big factor, in my view, in why the Columbine massacre penetrated the public consciousness to a degree that earlier school shootings had not. What’s more, the situation has only been exacerbated with the advent of social media and live streaming. Cullen spends more time than you’d expect from a journalist on the role of mass media in perpetuating the conditions where a young man might envisage himself ‘notorious’ with coverage of his crimes, but the problem has clearly grown exponentially from Cullen’s initial writing. Would-be perpetrators can now instantly access an international audience of millions with a few taps, on a device that most of us carry in our pockets every day.
Is Columbine a good book? Yes, undoubtedly. Would I recommend it? It’s hard to say. It’s a book that is incredibly well written and beyond reproach in terms of research and attention to detail… but that’s also its downfall. It’s scary and depressing and gory, at times. So, I guess, I could only recommend it with an asterisk: read with caution.
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