The Sky Has Fallen

This is a book by a very special person I used to know. We didn't stop knowing each other out of any sort of calamity, simply the careless passage of time that sometimes causes estrangement. I think we fell out of touch in about '98, right after his first book was published. It was a history of insurance fraud, Accidentally on Purpose.

This time and this thing, this thing he's written about, took not only one, but two elder siblings of students who were our year in college. Both siblings, David Dornstein and Andrea Rosenthal, were also alums. Both went down on Pan Am 103.

I met Ken's older brother, David, only once. It was at a football game, on a perfect fall day in New England. Afterwards, David, Ken, Adam (I've written of him before), Stephen (and that one, too), and I walked back to the dorm. It was a good distance, the stadium, but the walk paraded you through all those changing trees, spilling their hearts out onto the streets.

David was something - witty, beautiful, a bit contentious, flirtatious, and spirited. He gave me my first nickname in college, something Adam and Stephen called me for years forward, "a girl of the wind." I confess to a crush. How could a girl not when the boy is charming and gorgeous and confident he knows something you don't? A boy who gives you a moniker like that in half a day.

I want to write something here about Ken Dornstein, all of it good, but I know what a private and modest person he is, a real gentleman. So I will keep that to myself.

There is a 4:20 min. long introductory video you can watch if you click on the title of this post - takes you to the website for the book - it's quite moving. Go get the book, you won't be disappointed.