"More Terrible Than Death" is a gripping work that maps the dramatic new relationship between the United States and Colombia in human terms, using portraits of the Colombians and Americans involved, the author's experiences in Colombia as a writer and human rights investigator and an insider's analysis of the political realities that shape the expanding war on drugs and the growing U.S. military presence there. Looking at the war from the ground up, interviewing and profiling human rights activists, guerrillas, and paramilitaries to explain how it has changed their lives, Robin Kirk gives depth and meaning to the headlines that leave unexplained the intimate dimension of the U.S./Colombian relationship.
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"Kirk's book features dramatic, often funny, and sometimes terrifying tales of her travels as a human rights researcher in Colombia.. She does a remarkable job of synthesizing Colombian history for a U.S. audience... Well-written and wide-ranging, [MTTD] offer[s] something to novice readers and Latin American experts alike."
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THERE IS A CURIOUS QUIET THAT TAKES HOLD COLOMBIAN TOWNS. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THERE IS A CURIOUS QUIET THAT TAKES HOLD COLOMBIAN TOWNS. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Bert Ruiz
Format:Hardcover
Anyone who is truly interested in understanding the dark complexities of the civil war in Colombia must read this book. To that end, "More terrible than death: Massacres, Drugs, and America's War in Colombia," is an absolute masterpiece.
Author Robin Kirk is brutally honest and quite frankly...very lucky to be alive to tell this story. Upon completing this book the reader will conclude that Kirk is a sincere and thoughtful student of the human condition in Colombia. Kirk is also a front line witness of a secret and savage dirty war. To this end, she is able to draft a brilliant synopsis of the violent actors in Colombia. Kirk is special. She refuses to lose her cool despite being surrounded by death. Her polished prose calms. Kirk's words do not jump off the pages and shout at you...instead they cling to you and then sink to the bottom of your soul. The end result is a deep disgust of the Colombian government for not protecting defenseless civilians outside the big cities.
Without a doubt, the leaders of Colombia...particularly in the military will consider this book a hard slap to the face. Kirk cleverly documents Colombia's long history of conducting a ruthless dirty war against the poor. The author uses a series of flashbacks and flashforwards to liven the pace of events. Moreover, Kirk displays an extraordinary talent for writing.
The bottom line of this book is that the political leaders of Colombia must sanitize its armed forces of paramilitary death squads. Kirk is not a doomsday author. She does her homework and uses her intimate knowledge of life in Colombia to unfold a stirring narrative.
This book is a surefire national bestseller that will redden the faces of Colombian leaders and boil the blood of American taxpayers. Because as Kirk brilliantly tells it...millions of dollars in American military aid...continues to flow to blatant human rights abusers in the Colombian armed forces.
Bert Ruiz
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Jeremy Ray
Format:Hardcover
For those of us who can face learning a little more than the fragmentary snapshots in the news, this book offers a good deal of information about what is happening every day in Colombia. Colombia is one of the key countries in the world today - the hinge around which Latin American development, narcotrafficking and civil war with massive US support revolve. This book gives a brilliant in depth picture of life in that country. A brave and frightening book.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"I felt immense solitude. I was cut off not only from the world I normally inhabit but especially and more precisely from any sense of physical limits. The trip had crossed and far outdistanced any limit I had previously set for myself in Colombia. I felt as if I could have exploded or flown. I could have curled up like a sow bug and rolled among the wet leaves."
"More Terrible than Jeffrey Archer" would have been a better title for the lurid prose in this egocentric account of the history of violence in Colombia. As early as page 12, the author gives the title of a poem as "You will not be saved." instead of "Don't save yourself." and the reader's fears that academic rigour has been sacrificed for endless self-referential flights of literary fancy come true in the mealy-mouthed morass of Me, Myself and I which follows.
More Terrible Than Self-Love has little to say about Colombia. There simply isn't room since the author has so much to say about herself. My final shred of desire to read it all regardless, was destroyed when a character in Colombia's civil strife was described as "shorter than me."!! Not 'shorter than the average Colombian', not 'shorter than 5' 7"' but "shorter than me". Subjective doesn't come close to describing the vanity and idiocy of that statement. If only Robin Kirk had remained rolling among the leaves instead of writing this drivel...
"With the force of his gaze, he saw himself converting the bullet's mortal path into a foundry, melting lead into liquid and then into air, leaving only the faint metallic tang that permeates Colombia's towns."
"More Terrible than Jeffrey Archer" would have been a better title for the lurid prose in this egocentric account of the history of violence in Colombia. As early as page 12, the author gives the title of a poem as "You will not be saved." instead of "Don't save yourself." and the reader's fears that academic rigour has been sacrificed for endless self-referential flights of literary fancy come true in the mealy-mouthed morass of Me, Myself and I which follows.
More Terrible Than Self-Love has little to say about Colombia. There simply isn't room since the author has so much to say about herself. My final shred of desire to read it all regardless, was destroyed when a character in Colombia's civil strife was described as "shorter than me."!! Not 'shorter than the average Colombian', not 'shorter than 5' 7"' but "shorter than me". Subjective doesn't come close to describing the vanity and idiocy of that statement. If only Robin Kirk had remained rolling among the leaves instead of writing this drivel...
"With the force of his gaze, he saw himself converting the bullet's mortal path into a foundry, melting lead into liquid and then into air, leaving only the faint metallic tang that permeates Colombia's towns."
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