After-Death Room

by Michael McColly

At the 13th International AIDS conference in Durban, Michael McColly, a journalist and yoga teacher living with AIDS, found himself confronted with the deeper issues and ethical dimensions of the epidemic. Seeing firsthand the destruction the disease was inflicting on South Africa and hearing the stories of activists from China to Nairobi challenged McColly to place his own problems within a global framework, forcing him to contemplate the lives of HIV positive people without access to treatment, health care, and a supportive community. Through interviews with Buddhist monks in a remote Thai monastery, male sex workers in India, African-American preachers in Chicago, and Senegalese mullahs, McColly comes to a fuller understanding of how cultural attitudes toward death and dying, sexuality and gender, and morality and spirituality affect the life chances of people living with HIV/AIDS. Part spiritual journey, part political transformation, Parables of the Body humanizes the often faceless struggles of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide and at home.

Genres: Nonfiction

262 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2006

Reviews

[Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and deeply internal book about a man who crosses oceans to try to figure out himself. Weaving together vignettes from his own life, transporting the reader across time as he flies between continents, McColly's greatest commentary is on his own guilt, shame, and fear as he confronts his own privilege. I was tempted, at times, to label him as a "poor little rich boy" [rich not necessarily in money, but in access to health care and the time necessary to care for his body:] but the book documents his own awakening to this privilege as he explores the impact of HIV among marginalized people throughout the globe. Admirably, McColly exposes his deep senses of guilt and shame when he is confronted (by activists, by poor folks trying to survive, and by his growing world awareness) with his own wordlessness in the face of suffering. This is a great book to explore privilege from another angle that isn't quite as triggering as white privilege and male privilege can be. Often depressing, but also filled with wonder, this account looks directly at pain and tries to make sense of it in a world where it doesn't make sense.

[Magdalen Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I had gotten into my grad program at Northwestern, I had tried to get into one of Michael's undergrad classes. Even though I didn't have the prerequisites for the class, I had already visited his website and knew I needed to work with him, mostly because of this statement of one of his goals for his work: "To highlight the many effective programs I have witnessed around the world and the creative and courageous people behind them who are defying the popular image of the AIDS pandemic by showing that it need not be a devastating plague but rather an empowering agency of change for individuals and communities."

The After-Death Room also won the 2007 Lamba Literary Award for Spiritual Writing.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story of an American man's journey into the developing world to write and complete HIV/Aids activism through his use of teaching Yoga and the mind body connection. The author does a nice job of discussing the cultural differences in a meaningful way, that doesn't feel watered down or benign. At times he slips a little into weight guilt, but for the most part avoids this trap, and instead talks about the similarity and the important differences that exist within the different contexts.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

McColly relates his experiences living and traveling in Asia and Africa, meeting and working with other HIV+ men and women. Mike compassionately tells stories that need to be heard.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honest, activist, travel memoir about AIDS. I highly recommend it.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

a memoir, a travel journal, acts of spiritual activism and global understanding