Customer Reviews

Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I usually don't write book reviews unless I get paid for it. So why this exception? For two reasons:

First and foremost, I want you to read "PAN AM 103". The authors are the parents of Theodora ("Theo") Cohen, a then twenty-year old performing arts student that was on board the airplane that exploded over the little Scottish town Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. 270 people were killed. The Cohens try to put into words the agony they have been experiencing from the moment they first learned about the crash up until this minute. They describe how various victims groups, "the grief industry", pills and psychobabble, and the justice system frustrated them, and demonstrate how nobody in the travel industry or in four US administrations "gives a damn what happened to [their] daughter" whenever the possibility of large profits appears on the horizon. Nobody having read this book will forget the face Susan and Daniel Cohen have put on the PAN AM 103 tragedy, Theo's face.

The second reason is to comment on some of the themes of other reviews.

"It is a pointless rant with no technical, operational, or analytical detail."
That is how you make yourself look like the sharp analytical mind you wish you would be, if you only could understand context and contents of a book.

"Hatred, vengeance, and bitterness are emotions that are more poisonous than cyanide. And the Cohens certainly prove that."
Of course, there will always be people who put on a smile after their head has been dipped into a toilet bowl - a North-American tradition. There are times, however, when the only thing that is left is being true to oneself, no more need to conceal emotions, to work out compromises.

First of all, let me say that I feel for the Cohens. This was a very bitter tradegy for them.
I had a hard time getting through this book, and evenually returned it to the bookstore. The reason is that the Cohens are very bitter toward everyone who has tried to help them.
They are bitter at Pan Am, the Reagan, Bush, and subsequent Clinton administrations, the town of Lockerbie, and other families that suffered similar losses. I guess maybe they will be bitter all their life, but for people to read all this bitterness is perhaps a bit much. Some of these people are as much a victim of the bomb as their daughter was, but yet life goes on.
Pan Am was a victim of the bomb and went out of business as an indirect result of it. The Cohens rejoice when the airline goes out of business. Thousands of people lose their job, and they rejoice. Why?
Other families disagree with their methods. They accuse them of money grubbing. Sad!
The town of Lockerbie doesn't choose to honor the loss as the Cohens want, and they become more bitter.
When I die, I hope my loved ones move on with their lives. I hope the Cohens can get over their bitterness, but I doubt this.
If the reader wants to do some selective reading, read bits and pieces of this book. It will inform them of the tragedy of terrorism.

I have read many books about Lockerbie and the tragedy and as a British Citizen I can recall exactly what I was doing when the news came over the tv that Pan Am 103 had crashed.

Lockerbie at the time had the smallest police force in the whole of the United Kingdom. Scottish police and volunteers and armed forces readily abandoned their families over Christmas in order to assist in the devastation that fell on the small town of Lockerbie that night. Many police officers had nervous breakdowns due to the gruesome tasks that they had to perform . Scottish housewifes abandoned their families and Christmas celebrations as a mark of respect and willingly washed the soiled clothes of the deceased so that relatives could be spared further anguish when collecting the remaining personal effects. The whole town came to a standstill and Lockerbie too lost innocent residents when the plane fell. How dare Susan Cohen disregard what happened to those townsfolk whose children woke up in the morning to see dead bodies laying in their street and strewn across the neighbouring fields ? Nothing will ever replace Theo and as an only child her loss must be devastating to her parents. I am sure the book was written in bitterness and frustration due to the immense sense of loss and anger at the preventable unecessary murder. I too felt compassion for the grieving Cohens as they expressed their anger in the first half of the book. But like other readers I felt the Cohens let themselves down by insulting anyone and everyone who did not comply with their wishes or appeared to be inferior. It is a shame that the book will be remembered for its bitter snarling attack on the town that offered their daughter as much dignity as was possible. Their book shows very little respect for the law and for the humanity that other people showed in a country that was also a victim to the tragedy. As tiny as Britain maybe and as tragic a case this was Theo and Lockerbie deserve a little more dignity than the book allows. Read with an open mind and then read Rosemary Mild's book who too lost an only child - her daughter Miriam and note the difference between the two. One is a wonderful tribute the other a bitter angry attack , one is written with dignity and sensitivity and one is written with total disregard very little respect. How very sad that all that energy and obvious talent for writing couldn't have been put to a better use.

When I initially began reading this book I felt compassion for the Cohens. It is the same compassion that I feel for the many other victims of this bombing. It is the same compassion that I feel for all who fall victims to tragedy. But about halfway through my sense of compassion for these parents began to wane. Their daughter was obviously a fine, beautiful young woman and they have every right to grieve for the rest of their lives. But there is such a thing as dignity. The Cohens use this book as an opportunity to vent a series of spiteful and mean spirited attacks. Fine. Some of their targets deserve it. But what is truly appalling (and what lost them my sympathy) is their attitude toward the town of Lockerbie and toward some of the families of the other victims of this disaster.

Hatred, vengeance, and bitterness are emotions that are more poisonous than cyanide. And the Cohens certainly prove that.

This is a book to avoid.

The Cohens spew their wrath on anybody and everybody. Hey, I'm as compassionate as the next guy, but this book is down right mean-spirited. Worse part is when the Cohens turn into Ugly Americans and portray the Scots as unsophisticated rubes (yes, Susan Cohen uses the word 'unsophisticated' when describing the people of Lockerbie).

The Cohens jump for joy when PanAm goes bankrupt without so much as passing acknowedgement to the ordinary working men and women who lost thier jobs. All the Cohens cared about in that moment was some sense of vengence for the loss of their daughter....somebody must pay, even if it was the janitors, mechanics and ticket agents of PanAm.

Same hold true for their bashing of both Bush and Clinton. It's like the Cohens don't even want to acknowledge the larger global-political environment that the USA has to operate in, all they care about is their daughter. Some of the things they were proposing would have been harmful to the the American people. Did the Cohens care?

I had the same expereince as another reviewer in that I lost compassion for the Cohens about 1/2 way through this book. In fact, by the end I actually felt disdain for these two. The Cohens come off as shallow and empty. The result of which is a nasty book.

This book details the struggle two parents faced when dealing with the aftermath of their daughter's death in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.
The disaster undestandably embittered the Cohens, and their anger translates well onto the pages -- too well. For the most part, the Cohens' writing is laced with stinging contempt at anyone who disagreed with their way of thinking. They are justifiably angry at the lack of proportional help from the Bush, Reagan and Clinton Administrations in seeking justice for the victims; but too often the Cohens deride and attack other victims' families, as well.
Also unsatisfactory is the Cohens' glossing over the incident of a commercial airline being downed by the US as a possible motive. There is no sympathy for those victims, and the Cohens write as if their daughter was the sole victim of the tragedy.
The book does have its strong moments, however, and there are times when the anger that the writers convey works. Also good is the debunking of the "noble victim" myth -- the kind where one would assume that somone becomes a "better person" after a tragedy like this -- The Cohens vehemently oppose this persona and eschew it, in favor of a more strident, outspoken guise, which is more difficult to take -- and rightly so.

Some very heartfelt moments in this book that make for an emotional telling of two parents lives following the bombing of PanAm 103.

But in the end, that's all this book becomes....one grieving moment after another. It dawns on you after a while that even 12 years later these people have not worked thru the pain of their daughter's death. The result is that this book devolves into a never-ending emotional mish-mash. Surprisingly, by the end of the book I had lost most empathy for the Cohens and, as harsh as this sounds, found them quite pathetic.

I also found it downright rude their back-biting of other families who did not share their passion for wallowing in the loss of a loved-one.

A sad book.

.

At first, I was very sympathetic with the Cohens for their loss. But, their bitterness and self-absorbedness blows me away. What they and their cohorts did to the children of Lockerbie was terrible. And, to degrade the people of Lockerbie? Hello! I am an emergency responder and know what those people must have gone through. And, you degrade them? Maybe you're not so hot, either. Too arrogant, self-absorbed, and bitter for my taste.

The Cohens apparently believe that they are the only people since the dawn of time to have lost a loved one. And, all they want to do by writing this book is to hurt innocent people. If they want people to acknowledge their daughter's memory -- why not write a book like the mother of another Pan Am 103 victim did -- Miriam's Gift by Rosemary Mild.

The emotions poured out in this book are openly honest, clear, concise and heartrending. It is the aftermath of the tragedy of Pan Am 103's from parents' perspective, parents who lost their most precious and only child in a totally preventable air disaster. Unless a reader has experienced a sudden, unexpected, horrific loss as the Cohen's have, it is impossible to put oneself in the shoes of the authors. It is journey that never ends and there is no "closure" as many is the medical profession term "getting on with life" following such a tragic loss. Yes, life does go on for most people, but you are never the same person you were before that loss. As I read the book, I felt the parallel to my own life having lost a twenty-four year old, wonderful son in a totally preventable air disaster in the last five years.