Cycling Through Columbine

I believe this is an important and powerful book. The opening moments are terrific...The book is by turns powerful, funny, poignant, harrowing, and heartfelt. We meet a narrator who is processing through movement, community, and, upon one of the biggest and most dramatic "ruptures" of his adult life; one that shifted not only his identity, but the identity of the community, and the country, as well. This is a fantastic premise for a book...one written in a propulsive, tightly controlled narrative.

I am deeply moved by the connection JRW Case felt with one particular victim and his lacking a sense of belonging....For the storyteller, of course, the perspective is unique because he was in direct contact with the events and personally invested. But the book tells an American story--of war, expansion, guns, "freedom," and people building new lives from the ashes of old ones. We are ALL invited by the strength of the narrative to reckon with this. The aftermath of Columbine is the aftermath for ALL of us. -Emily Rapp Black, author of Poster Child: A Memoir