A review by debz57a52
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf

3.5

As someone who grew up in the Cleveland area and went to college down the street from Kent State - and with a parent who graduated from Kent just before these horrible events happened - I have lived with knowledge of the Kent State shootings for a long time.  I've been reading more and more about that period of American history, and I realized after a while that I just wasn't grasping it.  I don't think that's a problem with my reading comprehension; I think it's a problem with all the secrets and intensity that the American government was dealing with, not to mention the steel grip of the ruling party and its contempt for any other perspective on how to govern.  DB drills down in this historical story to look at what specific people were doing leading up to, during, and after the Kent State shooting, which makes the event so much more personal for the reader.  I have never found DB's artistic style uplifting - frankly, it's always given me the creeps - but it is so appropriate for the subjects he takes on.  I didn't like this book for its artistic style, but for its clarity, its ethos, and the research DB did to present something that is accurate.