A Softer Dave Cullen

A word to the wise - the new softcover edition of Dave Cullen's stupendously well-researched and emotionally searing account of the 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold high school massacre, Columbine, (reviewed at this site) is now available. 

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

I would never have found this book on my own.  Normally, books about the emotional tribulations of people when bad things happen to them doesn't really pique my interest, nor do inspiring stories of redemption.  But after I reviewed Dave Cullen's Columbine, my dear cousin, the Archduchess of Lambeth-Steinmetz, suggested The Hour I First Believed as something I might enjoy. 

I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it, but I can recommend Lamb's book as compellingly readable.  Enjoyment is not a word one uses lightly when dealing with a plot involving the husband of a high school teacher who barely survives the Columbine massacre in 1999, and who then goes through years of intense PTSD and prescription drug abuse, climaxed by a fatal hit-and-run killing of a teenager. 

Columbine by Dave Cullen

I didn't pay too much attention to the Columbine massacre back in 1999.  I was doing drugs, Clinton was President, and all was right with the world, so why bother.  I got the general gist from the constant and unending stream of television news on the subject:  two loner misfits, bullied in school, revenge with guns, shot a bunch of kids, including one religious girl.  End of story.