The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story (Vintage) [Paperback]

Ken Dornstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007 | Series: Vintage

David Dornstein was twenty-five years old, with dreams of becoming a great writer, when he boarded Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. Thirty-eight minutes after takeoff, a terrorist bomb ripped the plane apart over Lockerbie, Scotland. Almost a decade later, Ken Dornstein set out to solve the riddle of his older brother’s life, using the notebooks and manuscripts that David left behind. In the process, he also began to create a new life of his own. The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky is the unforgettable story of one man’s search for the truth about his brother--and himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On December 21, 1988, Dornstein's older brother, David, went down with Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Shattered, Dornstein returned to college and tried to move on. But eight years later, he started reading the papers left behind by his brother, who was an unpublished but prolific writer. He decided to travel to Lockerbie, believing "I could still save David's life if I went right away." This memoir cobbles together the author's memories, past news accounts and David's passionate journal entries and letters. It is this comprehensive blending, as well as Frontline series editor Dornstein's clear and eloquent writing about understanding the mystery of who his brother really was—he uncovers that David had been molested as a child—that keeps this from being a sappy, self-indulgent account. Dornstein employs some clever literary devices, such as a list of things to do in Lockerbie, which includes a walk to Tundergarth, one of the wreckage sites, with "hills so lush, soft, and rolling green you will want to drop onto them yourself." Seventeen years after the bombing, Dornstein is married (to his brother's first love, incidentally), a father and at peace with the loss. (Mar. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Dornstein's memoir is characterized by a surpassing drive to express truths as he investigates the emotional landscape of loss following the death of his older brother. In December 1988, David, 25, was flying home on Pan Am Flight 103. A terrorist's bomb detonated onboard, killing all 259 passengers and the crew. The author, then a college sophomore, shares how he initially deflected the monstrous pain of his loss through denial, gradually working toward acceptance of the tragedy in all its attendant sorrows, and ultimately requiring nearly 17 years' reflection before he felt ready to compose this story. David is depicted as a vibrant, impassioned, artistic soul, an aspiring writer who left behind voluminous notebooks, correspondence, and intense ruminations permeated with tones of despair over whether he would fail to achieve his literary destiny. The author feels an obligation to assume responsibility for David's body of work, to organize and somehow wrest from it a timeless essence of his brother, to validate his truncated life by bringing the unfinished oeuvre to fruition. The healing process for Dornstein, as he alternately approaches and retreats from this self-assigned task, is laid out with dogged thoroughness. His journey in moving beyond an intractable knot of bereavement is depicted with blunt yet graceful sensitivity. Black-and-white photos are included. This is an ambitious read for teens, but rewarding because of its courage and authenticity.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375707697
• ISBN-13: 978-0375707698
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #662,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The process., October 4, 2006

By 

C. Bedell "bioluv98" (Bakersfield, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story (Hardcover)

It's been a few months since my first reading of this book. Since that time, I've picked up the book for a second and third read. After reading the book, the first time through, I came away with much the same complaints that other reviewers have noted: the book lost it's path, somewhere in the middle, and didn't capture the reader as it did it the first few chapters.

The second and third read allowed me to see this book for what it really was. If you buy this book to seek out details about David (Ken's brother who was killed by terrorists in the Lockerbie crash) or the Lockerbie crash, you will be mildly satiated. This book delivers nothing technical that couldn't be gathered from a careful reading of crash data or other forensic studies of the incident. However, if you want to "take a journey" with someone who has lost a loved one in a highly publicized (and scrutinized) event: THIS is the book for you. Somewhere during the second reading, I realized that this was not a book about David or the crash. It was not about the forensics. The forensics were a convenient back drop for the real story: how a man lost his hero. Ken lost his big brother and hero. With this book, he gives you a personal and tragic glimpse into what it means to be the survivor. You often wonder if the boy who fell out of the sky was actually Ken, and NOT his brother, because you watch the author fall (and fall hard).

Great book. Thanks for allowing us to observe your journey!

44 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fitting tribute, March 31, 2006

By 

Wendy Schapiro (Needham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story (Hardcover)

David was a classmate of mine at Brown, someone I wish I'd gotten to know better. As good a writer as he was (and he was brilliant), I think Ken is an even better writer. And I think that somewhere, David is thrilled to know that. The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky is a beautiful, evocative and excrutiatingly painful read; I can't recommend it highly enough.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From his brother's shadow..., April 13, 2006

By 

James Hiller (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story (Hardcover)

... into the light of grief is a powerful thing. For years, Ken Dornstein was eclipsed by his brother David and the promise of what he yearned to become: the next great American writer. Picking the path of most resistance, David struggled, starved, and gave his life to Bohemia, believing it would feed his creative soul. When David boarded Pam Am Flight 103 on his way back from a respite in Israel, he was every bit the confused, lost soul much of his short, adult life seemed to propagate. Twenty years later, Ken finally deals with his grief, by bringing it out of his brother's immense shadow, into the light of literature, in the haunting book "The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story".

David Dorstein's facts play out normally. College graduate from Brown. Two relationships. A trip to Israel. Boarding a flight. The end. Ken illimunates the times between these facts with such painful clarity and honesty, you feel as if maybe Ken is telling you too much about his brother; possibly it's too revealing. David definitely struggled with his craft, unsure of what to write, plaguing self-doubt that was painfully honest. His life quickly became a mess after college. shown both through his physical presence and his actions.

Ken, younger by a few years, was left to puzzle this out, being a distant witness to some of his. Chiming in whenever his memory allows, Ken brings his somewhat calming perspective to David's chaos. Without these pieces, this book may have wandered into a memoir without much purpose. It's not much fun reading about how someone's life falls apart, who dies before the pieces assemble, but Ken attempts to do that with his own narration.

Ken starts out the book from the airplane crash, and it's the first chapter that is most riveting. Bringing the horror of the bombing back alive again, when our memories are clouded by the more recent 9/11 attacks, we are reminded that all wasn't always rosy before then. Ken goes to Lockerbie some eight years after the bombing to start to face his brother's demise, to make sense of the event himself. He discovers things about the accident he didn't know before. He asks questions that we readers would want to know, and then feel equally as frustrated when he doesn't receive the answers.

The much maligned genre "memoir" has been the hot topic of conversation as of late, due to the fanciful ministrations of authors wanting to embellish their previous pasts. Dornstein's book has sealed that schism between authors and the public with an honest, oft confusing recounting of his brother's life. And he has the documentation, some thirty notebooks, his own interviews and research, to back up his story.

When Ken finds out that his brother died, he fails to mourn, and hides his grief. Hidden grief is devastating, and effects people in hundreds of untold ways. This book attempts to bring the grief of his lost brother to light; exposing it to the sun. By the end, we sense a reconcilitation between the brothers, a reconcilitation as much that can happen, and a gentle peace of calming. David visits the supposed Garden of Eden a few days before his death; Ken visits it mentally by the end of his own book.