Last Day on Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter (The Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction Ser.) - Softcover

A carefully crafted account of a descent into fatal madness.

Vann’s story, originally commissioned by Esquire magazine and winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, is complicated, but he tells it with grace and clarity. Kazmierczak’s inner life was bleak, to put it mildly. The word 'bleak,' though, has to be qualified. Vann’s look at Kazmierczak is unflinching and careful; he presents exceedingly well-organized research on the shooter, a fleshed-out play-by-play of his life from young adulthood up until the attack, replete with quotes from e-mails, papers, and chat messages that trace his slow descent from a troubled young man with promise into one quietly spiraling out of control.

I hated reading Last Day on Earth, but I kept coming back to it. Each chapter was taut, mysterious and compelling. And when I did stop reading―I devoured it in three sittings―I was haunted by Steve, a mass murderer, and his slow, steady transformation from Dean's Award winner to shooter. What makes this book especially appealing is the parallel narrative―the writer living a screwed up childhood, who, like Steve, finds himself in the possession of many guns and the urge to use them and potentially do harm. What the writer discovers is that the line between self destruction and survival and success is frighteningly easy to cross. Last Day on Earth is written with a cold staccato passion―with intensive attention to intimacy of detail. It is riveting reading.

Transfixing and unflinching . . . full of finely realized moments . . . Comparison with Cormac McCarthy is fully justified.

Vann looks into the dark and isolated heart of the American soul.

Takes us someplace darker, older, more powerful than the daylit world.

Vann’s people are hurtling irretrievably toward a dark outcome, and while putting the book down might save you from it, you can’t stop reading, just as you can’t unlearn its truths.

Last Day on Earth is an intriguing read not only because it attempts to show some insight into a shooter’s mind, but also because the author, David Vann, looks to his own childhood as a parallel experience. . . . Foregoing the fear-mongering and sensationalizing of most media outlets, Vann really does paint a sympathetic portrait of this shooter.