Customer Reviews

No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm a 46-year-old former high school teacher with no ties to Colorado or Columbine. I'm not a Columbine junkie--haven't read any other books on the subject and didn't know any more about it than any other American who watches and reads the news.

I read this book in three sittings in less than 24 hours. It's a compelling story written in plain, raw prose that makes no pretense to literary merit. I'm perfectly willing to believe that this isn't "the last word" on the subject, that it looks at things from only one perspective, and may even be somewhat self-serving.

But so what? What we need to reach understanding is direct, honest accounts from _different_ perspectives, and that's what I found here. Obviously, the author (who was involved in, and scarred by, the event) has been trying to work out his culpability, his feelings, and tell his story--genuinely searching for explanations and meaning--and this book is the fruit of his effort. The person he describes himself to have been will be familiar to most teachers, a part angry, part goofy punk who is both rebellious and thoughtful and bright.

He describes the toxic atmosphere of the school. Large high schools can be awful places--he compares it socially to a prison yard, something I have no trouble believing. The main interest of this book to readers, however, is Brooks's gradual discovery of what might be called the realities of adult politics--the inept, self-justifying Sheriff, the injustices perpetuated by a shocked community attempting to assign blame, the understandable desire of the authorities to make it all go away, the efforts of many interest groups to appropriate the event for their own purposes, and, eventually, the kids' rejection by hardened politicians who see it only as a small facet of a larger issue they've already made up their minds about. This is the disillusion we all face entering adulthood, but made brutally sudden and shocking for the author by the murders. He seems to have done a good job of handling it all in the aftermath--although the book describes a teenager, it's written from the perspective of an adult. In fact I hope Brown becomes a politician someday...it's clear that his values have been formed in the crucible of this experience.

I picked up this book on impulse, and it's a very quick read, but I'm glad I read it. I may even seek out other books on the subject now.

This book is a must read, but I expect that most people in the Littleton community will be so threatened by it, that not only will they not read it, but they will make it worth their while to condemn it. I implore the Littleton community to read this book with an open mind and an open heart.

I live in the Littleton community and have for several years. My children have graduated from school and have moved on with their lives. For those of you in the community who think that Brooks Brown is out of line, perhaps he has touched a nerve in you that you would prefer to go untapped. If you find yourself furious with Brown, it would behoove you to pull back and try to gain some insight as to why you are reacting this way. What you find may surprise you. After all, anger stems from fear.

What I am about to say is shocking, but it is fact.
A year after Columbine a 16 year old in the Littleton community
received a death threat while at school. The threat was from a
classmate. The classmate called the 16 year old's home. The
parent's were told that their 16 year old would die that very
day. The kid's car would blow up ( it was parked on school
grounds) and anyone within a 500 yard radius would be killed.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Dept. was called. The kid con-
fessed and was booked with a Class 6 felony.

There was no bomb. However, the lack of concern on the part of
the police was disturbing. They refused to search the boy's
home, even though the boy was known to brag about knowing how
to make pipe bombs. The Jeffco authorities were also informed
that the kid had brought a knife to school several times. Two
months later, the 16 year old received another threat. Again th
Jefferson County Police were disturbingly bored by it all.

Shocking, isn't it? By the way, the kid was put in the
Diversion Program and transferred to another Jeffco school.
The police could have prevented the killings at Columbine and a
year later they were no more interested in preventing another
one from happening. This I don't understand.

There are "no easy answers" as to why our culture in America is
so violent. One problem that does contribute is that adults simply do not listen to the children. We adutlts think we know
better because we are older. It's not too late to start listening
and we can begin by reading this book with an open mind and an
open heart. We owe at least that much to those children who died
that day at Columbine. We owe it to the children who survived
but were left with physical and or emotional scars. We owe it to
our children to protect them. Let's start by being willing to hear the truth, painful though it may be.

I applaud Brooks Brown for having the courage to speak up. I
applaud him for his efforts in seeking the truth. It's time for
the adults to follow his lead. Don't shy away from the truth. The
truth is the only path to genuine healing for this community.

What this book offers is a unique perspective that you will not get from the media or other parents who wrote books about their deceased children. Some are mad that Brooks Brown didn't offer a concrete solution to the shootings, therefore his motives for this book must be completely self-serving. I think that these one-star reviews are undeserved. The charges that Brooks wrote this book for the money are ridiculous, because it is almost impossible to make money from a book, unless you are as big as Stephen King. You will read that Brown believes that it would be wrong to place blame on one thing for what happened (such as music, video games or gun control, the "easy" answers), so he offers several events that combined led up to the tragedy: The police for ignoring the warning signs a year before the shootings, the staff at Columbine for ignoring the bullying, and the parents (Eric's especially) for not opening their eyes. There is also some hard-to-find information, such as what Eric's Doom levels were like, the stuff that was on his website, discussions of the basement tapes and what day-to-day interaction with the killers was like. This makes Brown's book different from all the others.

It is clear that Brown wants as much accurate information as possible to be available, as well as to defend himself against the false charges lobbed at him from the police department who knew that they had dropped the ball in preventing the attack. Yes, a lot of the book is about Brown's life, but it all ties into what led up to the shootings. I did not read anything that was extraneous or uninteresting. In fact, this book seems to have the most credibility of anything I've read about Columbine. There are a few books in existence that try to turn the victims into martyrs for their faith, when religion had nothing to do with the shootings. No Easy Answers is much more believable, because like life, the answer is not always wrapped up neatly with a little bow. Highly recommended.

I just finished reading this book due to my interest in the Columbine shootings and what Brooks Brown had to say in his own words. I was deeply moved by his story and what he has put up with all of these years. Most reviews are written on a positive note, but I can't help but point out the negative reviews. Sure, you want answers, you want beliefs that reflect your own. Well, this book is about what this young man went through. Just a teenager about to graduate from high school-befriended two lost souls who manipulated and deceived everyone around them. How would you tell your story? It's about your experiences, your feelings and your struggles. I don't see it so much self-serving, as self-healing and therapeutic. Who are you to judge this person who had his whole world turned upside down, who was blamed for being a suspect for so long and by so many in his community; Who was forbidden to return to school along with other associates of the gunmen, just because of who they were. This society has a lot of soul searching and listening to do. Perhaps if more people had listened to Eric and Dylan, they wouldn't have felt the need to get their message across in such a selfish and cowardly manner. To me, this book wasn't supposed to be about praising the law enforcement and Washington D.C. for their efforts to find answers and to prevent something like this from happening again. What has changed in our schools since that April day in 1999? Not much from what I can see. And just recently, a college kid who worshiped Eric and Dylan, took 32 innocent lives along with his own. Perhaps if we read more accounts by Brooks Brown, these angry teens would begin to understand that they are not alone and that they have people they can talk to; whether it be on-line, such as on forums that Brooks mentions at the end of his book, or with other people their age that might go speak at their schools. 'No Easy Answers' is just that-there aren't going to be solutions to this ever growing problem in our society, but there can be people who will listen, empathize, and make known that change starts little by little. I believe that Brooks Brown has accomplished change-in his community and in the minds of many people out there. I for one, loved his book and will read it again, as a reminder of the hell he went through that day. No one deserves what any of those victims and families went through, but if they want to write a book to let people know what they dealt with so that it will help them heal, then I condone it 100% Freedom of speech is one of the greatest gifts in this country after all. Best of luck to Brooks in all he does and I hope that he continues to write more books to help those lost souls out there.

If you are at all interested in what happened before and after the Columbine tragedy, this is the book to read. This isn't a cold clinical analysis or profile of the killers, this book is filled with stories about the boys told by someone who actually knew them. Disturbing as some may be, it is important for us to see the whole picture. This personal perspective is what is lacking in so many of the other Columbine books. Not to mention what an easy read it is. I couldn't put it down!

I thought that this book was well written and that the author really knows what he is saying in the book. No one knew Eric and Dylan more than Brooks and while it may be disturbing to some people, I think that if anyone who wants to know what happened at Columbine and what people like Eric, Dylan and the author went through there(before, during and after the shootings), then I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

After reading just a portion of this book, I was breathing a sigh of relief that the other side, the side that has been consistently attacked and/or ignored has been published. The shootings and the bombings that occurred on that day were devastating to all of us who live in the community. What has been just as devastating is(1)the assertion of students and others that there were warnings and they were ignored REPEATEDLY and(2)the denial of the behaviors of those in a position of trust that they received warnings and that they were ignored.This book points out all that occurred from a student's perspective:a student who experienced the intensity of the trauma resulting from Dylan's and Eric's behavior: a student who has experienced the continued trauma of being attacked for knowing Dylan and Eric and repeatedly saying that the authoities were told about Eric. After all, didn't Eric initially plan on Mr. Brown's house as the first stop on that day? It is important that people know the rest of the story. It is important that Mr. Brown be allowed to write about the events as he experienced them WITHOUT being bullied and receiving diatribes from people only involved on the periphery. Afterall, isn't it this intolerance and the need to visciously attack anything/anyone who was different that was the catalyst for all of this? Read the book, learn from the eyes of a then, young man, who experienced a horrific event. He is just is saying "Here is more of the story"; the story that hasn't been allowed to be told.He writes with a style that creates a setting for the reader to feel the intensity and the frustration of a nasty and ongoing(in high schools, communities, anywhere people lack the ability to tolerate and NEED to dominate)problem. In writing this book, Mr. Brown gives us an opportunity to examine what we do and how we respond when we are presented with situations that interferes with a belief we hold.I have recommended it to many who have asked me"What was it like?" It tells the story better than I could do.

Brooks Brown's & Rob Merritt's writing is smooth reading. I appreciated the sidebar information with things like Regina Huerter's report to the Governor's Columbine Review Commission on Dec. 1, 2000. This type of information was critical to validating the truth of the experiences Brooks Brown was subjected to as well as the truth of his perceptions. Perhaps the most profound thing in one of the sidebars (printed in the book as italics) was from Huerter's report, "Huerter noted 'a strong perception from nearly everyone I spoke with that there was no reason to say anything about the bullying - no one was going to do anything.' "

And more importantly in Huerter's report was the following: "I was told by adults working in the district that they were afraid to speak up about school issues, including school culture and bullying behavior, because they feared losing their jobs..."

This book zeros in and gives a no-holds-barred account of what Brooks Brown witnessed and it is supported at the highest levels through honest, impartial investigation by the Governor's Commission. It also discusses the less-than-honest investigation by the sheriff who was in office at the time of the shootings as well as many other interesting facets of the entire Columbine puzzle.

This is absolutely a MUST READ book!

This book changed my views on everything that happened with Columbine. It made me think. Brooks (with Merritt's help) did an excellent job telling his story. To me, it has more credibility that any other stories I've heard. He was their friend, knew the families, knew what went on with them in school. It didn't shock me at all when he described the bullies in school because a lot of that happened in my high school. Jocks were given special treatment. Freaks (as they called the alternative people) were the "troublemakers". And parents and teachers looked the other way.

I was sickened by the incompetant police work. I had no idea that's how it happened. Brooks' efforts to get the truth out were admirable.

This book should be read by everyone. Parents of teens, teens, and especially all the people who blame video games for school shootings. Brooks Brown has an opinion that should be heard. This book should have gotten a lot more recognition and publicity.

I picked up "No Easy Answers" after having read Dave Cullen's wonderful "Columbine," which sparked an interest to find out more about the attack and the killers themselves. Brown provides unique insight into the personalities of Harris and Klebold, as he was friends with both and spent considerable time around them, even in the months and days before the attack. This book provides a lot of evidence that the police department was lying to the victim's families and suppressing evidence. Cullen's book mentions this as well, but since Brown's family was directly involved in these situations, it has more immediacy in this book.

Brown places basically all of the blame for the attacks on the bullying Harris and Klebold suffered through in high school (though he does not excuse what they did). Although I'm sure that bullying had something (maybe even a lot) to do with fueling their rage, I don't agree that it was the ONLY thing. It is just one piece in a puzzle that we most likely will never know the solution to. Despite this, "No Easy Answers" is a really good book; I plowed through it in two sessions within 24 hours. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about the Columbine tragedy.