My Colombian Death

infobox Book |
name = My Colombian Death
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Picador ed. cover
author = Matthew Thompson
cover_artist = Design by Committee
country = Australia
language = English
series =
genre = New Journalism
publisher = Picador
release_date = 2008
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 336 pp
isbn = 978-0-330-42392-2
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"My Colombian Death" [ [http://www.mycolombiandeath.com] mycolombiandeath.com, the book's official website] is a nonfiction adventure book about the "allure of risk" [ [ [http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2007/06/writers_choice__3.html] See Thompson's contribution to Norman Geras' Normblog.] ] by US-born Australian adventure writer and journalist Matthew Thompson.

The book (published in Australia and New Zealand in 2008 by Pan Macmillan/Picador [ [http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/picador/display_title.asp?ISBN=9780330423922&Author=Thompson,%20Matt] Picador Australia's page for the book.] ) covers Thompson's 2006 experiences in Colombia, when he roamed the country spending time at carnivals and with gang members and cocaine dealers, ran with bulls, met Salvatore Mancuso, the then-head of the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a US-designated terrorist organisation [ [http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82738.htm] US State Department list of terrorist organisations.] , made friends in the bohemian circles of Medellin and drank the legendary shamanic hallucinogen, yage AKA Ayahuasca.

"My Colombian Death" also explores the frustration that led Thompson to throw in his job as a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald [http://www.smh.com.au] and take leave of his young family for the dangers of Colombia.

"Life as it's been dished up will never present the range and depth of experience necessary for me to know myself, to test my nerve, my courage, my desires and my limits. I crave a world where tension is wired through all aspects of life, the drama shaping everything from what people murmur to their lovers to how they brave the streets." [My Colombian Death, Picador, 2008, p5.]

Through his unceasing pursuit of risk Thompson finds what he is looking for, but in the case of the shamanic yage ceremony which simulates death, it becomes too much for him to bear:

"The villain in Colombia, the one to watch out for, was me. I'm the king of deception, and now that it's dawning, no matter how hard I will myself up, to get up and live and live in the truth, there's no traction, it's too fucking late. Every cell in my body is coming to total, terminal stillness. Panic detonates into endlessly expanding terror." [See excerpt published online by Time Out Sydney [http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/books/extract-from-my-columbian-death.aspx] ]

The Immersion journalism of "My Colombian Death" is a professional departure for Matthew Thompson, who had previously written more conventional newspaper and magazine journalism, yet is a winner of the University Medal in English literature at the University of Newcastle [ [http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:Tf5b561f45IJ:www.newcastle.edu.au/service/publications/annualreports/2002/files/UoN_AR2002.pdf+%22matthew+thompson%22+%22university+medal%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6] See University of Newcastle records] .

Thompson says he had grown frustrated with the "corporate caution" [ [http://www.vibewire.net/Members/jacquid/my-articles/interview-life-and-death-in-the-mad-country/] Vibewire interview.] of newspaper journalism after the SMH declined to run his reportage from the war in the southern Philippines.

After the 2002 Bali bombings by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Thompson had been investigating the war against JI, the Abu Sayyaf and related Islamic insurgents in the islands of the southern Philippines where JI had conducted training. ["Mullahs, Guns and Money", "Investigate" Australia, March 2005. ] ["On Terror's Frontline", "Investigate" Australia, July 2005. ]

References

External links

* [http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/picador/display_title.asp?ISBN=9780330423922&Author=Thompson,%20Matt "My Colombian Death" at Picador]
* [http://www.mycolombiandeath.com Official website]