Love is not enough

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Love is not enough - I am the mother of a gunman (original title: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy ) is the title of the 2016 German-language edition of the memoirs by Sue Klebold , the mother of Dylan Klebold, who on April 20 In 1999 he and his friend Eric Harris committed the rampage at Columbine High School . Andrew Solomon wrote the foreword . The translation from the American is by Andrea Kunstmann.

background

On April 20, 1999, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold went on a rampage at Columbine High School in which they shot 13 people and injured more than 20 others, some seriously, before killing themselves. The fact that as a school massacre in Littleton became known, was considered the hitherto most serious school shooting in US history and inspired many copycat world. Investigators came to the conclusion after evaluating Dylan Klebold's diary entries that he had been depressed and suicidal two years before his death .

After the rampage, the Klebolds rarely spoke publicly about their son's rampage. In 2014 it was announced that the Crown Publishing Group ( Penguin Random House ) had secured the rights to Sue Klebold's memoir. In writing the book, she was assisted by the ghostwriter Laura Tucker. The foreword was provided by Andrew Solomon, who interviewed the Klebolds for his own 2012 book Far From the Tribe . Klebold donates her share of the book's proceeds to suicide prevention, for which she has been committed since the rampage.

Structure and content

The book is divided into two parts and a total of 18 chapters. At the beginning of each chapter, Klebold quotes excerpts from her diary entries. In the first part of the book she describes how she experienced the day of the rampage and the time immediately afterwards. It provides an insight into Dylan's childhood and family life before the crime and describes how she coped with grief. In the last chapter of the first part, she describes the rampage, but largely omits details.

In the second part, the focus of the book is on trying to understand how the rampage came about. In particular, Klebold examines the last two years of her son's life and his friendship with Eric Harris. She believes her son's suicidality and Harris' influence are the main causes of his involvement. She sees her own failure as failing to recognize or misinterpret the signs of her son's psychological problems.

In addition, Klebold discussed topics such as bullying at school , media coverage of rampages and the risk of piracy. To support her assumptions, she cites studies and experts in law enforcement, psychiatry, and neurobiology .

At the end of the book, reference is made to offers of help for those at risk of suicide and their relatives as well as for the survivors of people who have committed suicide.

reception

The book made it to number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list in the non-fiction category in the first week of its publication .

Rachel Shteir of the Boston Globe found that Sue Klebold's memories were not digging deep enough: "In 'A Mother's Reckoning' there is much more suffering than understanding." ("In 'love is not enough' there is much more suffering than understanding.")

In her review, Susan Dominus of the New York Times wrote : “[Klebolds book reads] as if she had written it under oath, while trying to answer, honestly and completely, an urgent question: What could a parent have done to prevent this tragedy ? [...] She earns our pity, our empathy and, often, our admiration; and yet the book's ultimate purpose is to serve as a cautionary tale, not an exoneration. " ("[Klebold's book reads] as if she had written it under oath while trying to honestly and fully answer an urgent question: What could a parent have done to prevent this tragedy? [...] She deserves our pity , our compassion and often our admiration; and yet the ultimate purpose of the book is to serve as a cautionary example rather than a discharge. ")

Meghan O'Rourke wrote in the Guardian : “[The book is] part confessional, part grief-memoir, part apology and part activist literature. [...] The narrative arc takes us from denial to anger to acceptance and some kind of comprehension. " ("[The book is] part confession, part mourning memoir, part apology and part activist literature. [...] The narrative arc leads us from denial to anger and acceptance to a kind of understanding.") The most haunting thing about the work, however, is that it raises important questions that it cannot answer itself.

Barbara Ellen described the work in her review for the Observer as "harrowing, brave, sad, self-castigating" ("shocking, courageous, sad, self-flagellation") and held Klebold credit that she never shared her son's deeds with his sorry for mental health problems.

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ralph W. Larkin: The Columbine Legacy: Rampage Shootings as Political Acts . In: American Behavioral Scientist . tape 52 , no. 9 . SAGE Publications, New York, NY 2009, pp. 1311 ( online [PDF; accessed April 3, 2018]).
  2. ^ André Grzeszyk: Unreine Bilder: On the media (self-) staging of school shooters . Transcript Verlag , Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1980-5 , p. 44 . Manny Fernandez et al .: For 'Columbiners,' School Shootings Have a Deadly Allure. In: The New York Times. The New York Times Company, May 30, 2018, accessed July 28, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Ralph W. Larkin: Comprehending Columbine . Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA 2007, ISBN 978-1-59213-490-8 , pp. 148 .
  4. ↑ Mother Of Columbine Shooter Gets Book Deal. CBS Denver. September 23, 2014, accessed June 2, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b mother of a Columbine perpetrator: "The guilt is so enormous". In: Spiegel Online . Spiegelnet GmbH, February 13, 2016, accessed on July 28, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Rachel Shteir: 'A Mother's Reckoning' doesn't dig deep enough. In: The Boston Globe. February 17, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ a b c Meghan O'Rourke: A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold review - why my son killed at Columbine. In: The Guadian. February 14, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b Barbara Ellen: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of the Columbine Tragedy by Sue Klebold - review. In: The Observer. March 13, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019.
  9. ^ The New York Times Best Sellers. In: The New York Times. The New York Times Company, March 6, 2016, accessed July 14, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Susan Dominus: 'A Mother's Reckoning' by Sue Klebold. In: The New York Times. February 15, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019.