Parkland: Birth of a Movement – Dave Cullen

If you’ve read Dave Cullen’s exhaustive and devastating “Columbine” then you might be inclined to skip this one, but within the first few pages of “Parkland,” Cullen lets us know this is a different novel.

As someone that has dedicated a significant portion of his life to covering mass shootings, he frankly describes how it has taken a toll on his health and psyche. So much so he “swore I would never go back.”

Then, like so many of us that have become alternately desensitized and resigned by gun violence, he saw David Hogg — a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) student less than 12 hours after the shooting that left 17 of his classmates and teachers dead — go on national news and call us out.

As Cullen says, “the uprising had begun.”

Today, now four years removed from the MSD shooting — often referred to as Parkland because that is the town in Florida where the school is located — that “uprising” might gain less attention but how it came to be is remarkable and inspiring.

Whereas in “Columbine” Cullen attempted to answer why and how the shooting occurred, “Parkland” is the story of how a group of teenagers, sick of hearing decades of empty promises from politicians, decided to act.

One thing that struck me most about this novel — outside of Cullen’s accessible and balanced approach — is how quickly he put it together.

Published less than year after the event, this is a moment in time look at how the MSD students rallied to push the narrative around gun violence and establish the MFOL, or March For Our Lives (now Fight For Our Lives), movement.

Acting as an embedded journalist, Cullen spent countless hours trailing and interviewing several of the MFOL teenagers. From the first meetings in a parents’ living room to political debates and a tour across the country, he was there for every early highlight, misstep and break down.

After months on the media cycle, it was easy to forget that MFOL movement was spearhead by individuals in their late teens, and Cullen brings that reality to life, juxtaposing the typical high school realities (prom, college, dating, etc.) with the adult realities of lobbying, fundraising and mourning.

This was also the book’s biggest detriment as Cullen often spent too much time on recapping activities and interest that felt far removed from the movement and focused more on how the Parkland community was healing. That’s not to say it wasn’t appreciated, but it also wasn’t the primary focus.

It also was a chronicle of how the youthful can-do spirit of the kids was slowly eroded and that many were becoming disenfranchised by how little control the people have over our politicians. A somber reality in a mostly hopeful journey.

Above all, I appreciated how Cullen emphasized how the news coverage heavily favored the mostly affluent and white MSD kids, but the scope of MFOL was to end gun violence, not just in schools but everywhere. ChicagoStrong and other urban, teen-led organizations advocating for sensible gun laws had a significant role in the early movement.

The sections about this partnership — specifically how the MSD kids began to understand their privilege and the responsibility that comes with that, and the ChicagoStrong kids finally having he resources to make meaningful change — were my favorite.

MFOL may not have achieved everything they wanted by the 2018 primaries or 2020 election, but they showed a powerful blueprint for how grassroots efforts and collaboration can influence and motivate change.

I did this as a hybrid read/listen, but probably read about 75 percent of it. Robert Fass did a fine but unremarkable job as narrator. What I found toggling between the two formats is that he didn’t quite capture the personality of the MSD and ChicagoStrong kids in the same way as Cullen wrote them. I’d recommending reading versus listening.

Rating (story): 4/5 stars

Rating (narration): 3/5 stars

Formats: Hybrid read/listen: eBook (personal library); audiobook (library loan)

Dates read: January 16 – February 3, 2022

Multi-tasking: Okay if that’s your preferred method for nonfiction, but I got more out of reading it.