Rating: 
Summary: As Good As ROOR. Both Are Great Reads!
Review: Although both books,"this" one and "ROOR" (Running Out Of Road, by Robert Appleton)are equally insightful, Mr. Kirk's book is a drug facts book, and ROOR utilizes these facts in a true crime story. Both are GREAT READS!
Rating:
Summary: As Good As ROOR. Both Are Great Reads!
Review: Although both books,"this" one and "ROOR" (Running Out Of Road, by Robert Appleton)are equally insightful, Mr. Kirk's book is a drug facts book, and ROOR utilizes these facts in a true crime story. Both are GREAT READS!
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good info but poor editing
Review: As already stated this book provides some good info on the people and actions that have troubled Colombia. Kirk prefaces her work by stating her biases and her position so when these biases show, especially with a slight lean towards the leftist cause (or more accurately seeming to oppose the right-wing paramilitaries moreso than the equally lost and violent leftists), the reader easily excuses this. I was more dismayed by the editing. Kirk frequently begins a story with a character that leads into another character without seeming to wrap up what she began to write about. I often felt a lost train of thought; either from the author or from my having to bounce from subject to subject. Additionally some of the writing was unclear. There were at least a few sentences that were grammatically incorrect, lacking clarity, or run-ons. I felt the material was very good but the delivery was average. There should have been better editing.
Rating: 
Summary: Horribly Touching
Review: Kirk does a very good job of documenting the last 50 years of Colombian history, unfortunately tainted by drugs, violence, and a generalized lack of respect for human life. Since Colombia is "el pais del olvido", reading this can be very disturbing.
It feels strange to read the past few years' newscasts thrown together into a single volume. It makes you realize what a horrible situation Colombia and colombians have gone through.
She sometimes goes into too much gruesome detail on masacres and killings, but the overall picture is clear.
It's a good thing that she lets you know right away that she supports leftist ideas. Had she not done this since the beginning, her being so biased might become boring in the middle of the book.
She sometimes loses track of a story and jumps right into another one, only to leave it and jump back, which is sometimes difficult to cope with, but overall he book is prety good.
I guess if you're not colombian, as I am, and are interested in Colombia, this book provides an accurate description of he past 50 years of our "macondian" country. However,if you want to learn about Colombia, Garcia Marquez is much more fun......
The only point she totally misses, is mentioning the age of the combatants......15 in average!
Rating:
Summary: "Don't doubt. To give up is more terrible than death."
Review: More than anything else I've read on the subject, Robin Kirk's "More Terrible Than Death" brings a degree of clarity and focus to the complicated, multi-layered hornet's nest of terrorism, endemic violence, drugs and corruption that are the scourge of the proud nation of Colombia. It's interesting to note that in spite of documenting a wide range of horrific events, Kirk focuses on a glimmer of hope. The book's title is perversely positive. It comes from one of her Colombian human rights associates, who says to her (as she questions whether her efforts may be doing more harm than good) "Don't doubt. To give up is more terrible than death." The story within the story is Kirk's exemplary bravery in compiling the tales that make up this story. This is no armchair analysis.
Rating:
Summary: "Don't doubt. To give up is more terrible than death."
Review: More than anything else I've read on the subject, Robin Kirk's "More Terrible Than Death" brings a degree of clarity and focus to the complicated, multi-layered hornet's nest of terrorism, endemic violence, drugs and corruption that are the scourge of the proud nation of Colombia. It's interesting to note that in spite of documenting a wide range of horrific events, Kirk focuses on a glimmer of hope. The book's title is perversely positive. It comes from one of her Colombian human rights associates, who says to her (as she questions whether her efforts may be doing more harm than good) "Don't doubt. To give up is more terrible than death." The story within the story is Kirk's exemplary bravery in compiling the tales that make up this story. This is no armchair analysis.
Rating:
Summary: An impressive book
Review: Normally, I don't have too much time for human rights workers like the author. I recognize that they perform a perhaps vital service for society. Yet when I hear one try to equate something horrific like a massacre in Colombia to the very limited number of legal executions in the United States, I mentally tune them out. Thankfully, Ms. Kirk does not engage in this type of moral equivalency game. She focuses on the situation in Colombia and the horrific violence that has wracked that country for over fifty years. By doing so, she adds to the shamefully small amount of English-language literature about drug trafficking and its interlinkage with marxist guerrillas and right-wing death squads in Colombia. Given the fact that Colombia each year produces and exports hundreds of metric tons of cocaine and heroin to the United States and the fact that those drugs have caused thousands of murders here and elsewhere over the last twenty years, you'd think that Colombia would also be a charter member of the axis of evil. I don't mean the government in Bogota, but the people who are directly and indirectly involved in the drug trade there. Yet for some reason it is not. Anyway, I think the book gives a very good run-down about the major players in the Colombian tragedy: the FARC, the ELN, the AUC, the army etc. Kirk writes well and at times even beautifully (however, one or two attempts at poetic description fall flat). I do think that she is a little too sympathetic to the leader of the FARC. In my opinion, he may have been a good guy once, but that was many a massacre and drug deal ago. Finally, I think that Kirk states something very true about Colombia and the United States in the beginning of her book. Yes, Colombia's wars would probably still rage at some level without drug money flowing into the coffers of the combatants. Yet the billions of dollars some of the United States' population insist on spending on illegal drugs has supercharged the civil strife in Colombia. To paraphrase Kirk, our pleasures pull Colombia under.
Rating:
Summary: Powerfully frightening at times
Review: This book attempts to contextualize and catalog Colombia's violent society that has existed for many decades. Within the pages are incredible stories of commoners horrifyingly murdered, monstrous leaders fueled by drugs and futile U.S. policies. Kirk does an excellent job of giving ordinary priests, butchers and townsfolk a human face and when some of them are killed, you feel the pain and frustration. The historical context that Kirk provides is extremely informative and her analysis of the Gaitan assassination and subsequent U.S. response sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Also powerful are Kirk's descriptions of the guerilla and paramilitary leaders, especially Castano. While their actions are unspeakably monstrous, their arguments in support of their actions are terrifyingly cogent. While you will not condone their actions, you may find yourself nodding in agreement only to realize that he is talking about murdering innocent people. There were some drawbacks to the book. While Ms. Kirk states at the end of the book that this was not meant to be comprehensive, her omission of significant facts does limit the effectiveness of her message. For example, from another book, I learned that Colombian drug lords feared extradition to the United States more than just about anything else. I do not recall anywhere in this book where this fact is clearly stated. Simply stating this would have been invaluable since one huge reason that Escobar and others intensified violence was as a response to the Colombian government's reinstatement of extradition. The book could have used some better transitions and tighter editing but the nightmarish stories of the common person is more than enough to overlook those minor points.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book Overall
Review: This book attempts to contextualize and catalog Colombia�s violent society that has existed for many decades. Within the pages are incredible stories of commoners horrifyingly murdered, monstrous leaders fueled by drugs and futile U.S. policies. Kirk does an excellent job of giving ordinary priests, butchers and townsfolk a human face and when some of them are killed, you feel the pain and frustration. The historical context that Kirk provides is extremely informative and her analysis of the Gaitan assassination and subsequent U.S. response sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Also powerful are Kirk�s descriptions of the guerilla and paramilitary leaders, especially Castano. While their actions are unspeakably monstrous, their arguments in support of their actions are terrifyingly cogent. While you will not condone their actions, you may find yourself nodding in agreement only to realize that he is talking about murdering innocent people. There were some drawbacks to the book. While Ms. Kirk states at the end of the book that this was not meant to be comprehensive, her omission of significant facts does limit the effectiveness of her message. For example, from another book, I learned that Colombian drug lords feared extradition to the United States more than just about anything else. I do not recall anywhere in this book where this fact is clearly stated. Simply stating this would have been invaluable since one huge reason that Escobar and others intensified violence was as a response to the Colombian government�s reinstatement of extradition. The book could have used some better transitions and tighter editing but the nightmarish stories of the common person is more than enough to overlook those minor points.
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