I, Che Guevara [Hardcover]

The plot outline follows along these lines: Fidel Castro decides that it is time for him to retire, but wants to get something out of his retirement for the people of Cuba. He believes that this can be accomplished is by taking some action that will get "Tio Sam's" sanctions removed along with their acceptance of certain other caveats to be set by him. He, in turn is willing to make some promises of his own. The caveats are that the U.S., in addition to removing the sanctions, exchange ambassadors, and provide computers for all Cuban students. The promises are for truly free elections for the first time in Cuban history. These elections will be open to monitoring by outsiders such as Jimmy Carter's minions.

The U.S. accepts his offer, removes the sanctions, and gives Cuba official recognition by setting up an Embassy.

As might be expected, the old line power structure sets up a political party aimed at keeping the themselves in power. The Miami exiles, paired with Casino interests who want to make Cuba into the kind of gambling haven it was before Castro, form a second party. The stakes are big, and these two parties run campaigns that take the worst of U.S. campaigning, and run high powered negative campaigns.

As things are getting under way, an asthmatic old man starts entering small mountain villages and, over cups of coffee engages the villagers in conversations in which he tells them that, if they wanted to, they could become the backbone of a new kind of government. This government could be a sort of bottom-up rather than top down government in which each small town would be essentially self governing and self supporting. (The old Town Meeting type of government) There could be low interest loans with long payout periods so the farmers could own their own land, etc. There also would need to be a small centralized government that needn't so much rule as to provide assistance where needed. It seems that in his 32 years of exile, this charismatic old man had been reading works by Plato, and the U.S.'s own T. Jefferson, as he called him.

Over a few months, there is a groundswell of support for the old man's ideas. Eventually people begin to realize that he is Che Guevara, and that he didn't die in Bolivia. He never tells anyone he is Che, but goes by the name of Ernesto Blanco. And he makes it plain that he wants no power or position of leadership for himself, but just wants to help the people help themselves.

Eventually this groundswell of support becomes so great that both of the major parties, fearing this movement more than they feared one another, hire assassins to stop him before it is too late.

Now for Victoria. She starts out as a TV anchorwoman on a last chance assignment to Cuba. Either she breaks a big story or her career is over. When we first meet her, she is a shallow person with no convictions and no idealism, only thinking of herself and her career. After several weeks in the mountains with Che and his small core group, she succumbs to the influence of Che's humble, pure personality and his idealism and exchanges her shallow self-centered perspective for a more honest one.

To summarize the action of the book as described in more detail above: Two political parties determined to win at any costs; A movement backing a people oriented concept introduced by Che; A nearly has been reporter who evolves from shallow reporter to insightful idealist; Two assassins determined to stop Che before he does too much damage; And three other key members of Che's inner circle who help him out in dozens of small, but important, ways. The suspense is provided by the uncertainty of the outcome of this most important election, and by the possibilities of success or failure of the assassination attempts.

It doesn't say so in __I, CHE GUEVARA__, but in other places the pseudonomynous author has been identified as ex-Senator Gary Hart. Hart has made the heart of his novel, not the action, but Che's ideas and idealism. Every few pages, Hart interrupts the flow of the action with one of Che's interior monologues in which he reveals his ideas, and how and why he grew from the type of revolutionary he once was to someone espousing a revolution of ideas. These passages, I believe, are the real reason Hart wrote the book.

While I question whether, in real life, there could be such a massive growth of support in such a short time for these new (old) ideas, or if they even could gain such support in the small peasant communities where Che gained his first few adherents, I admire the idealism and the concepts of Jeffersonian/Platonian Democracy he was espousing.

One other observarion before I quit. This book was published in 1998, long before our current political season. In it, a college professor in Montana (I think it is Montana) latches on to Che's ideas for a people-power government, and declares for the Senate. Putting to work Che's principles of government by and for individuals, he sets up a web site in which he asks for supporters and donees for his campaign based on these principles. He limits individual donations to $20.00 or less, and he gets several hundred thousand supporters who donate an average of almost $18.00 each. Is it possible that this is where a recent internet based campaign got its idea for a political campaign along almost exactly these same lines? It's certainly possible.

The author shows a paradoxical writing in his work as he reveals traces of a non dictator in Fidel as opposed to the image of the tyrant he seeks to portray. Although the author's reference to the 'considerable anger' [of party members upon hearing about his decision to step down] that went 'unexpressed' (p.39) suggests fear in the party and therefore a dictatorship by Castro, the existence of a party by itself contradicts his implication. It draws our attention to the uncharacteristic nature of Cuba's dictatorship, if we call it so. The traditional trend of dictatorship, which includes disposing of the party, seems to be missing in this particular dictatorship. Hitler's Nazi party was only a medium through which he administered massive espionage and control over the people. Stalin communist party was the framework of the ladder he used to climb into power with and got cleaned up in the purges only a decade after his rise to power, whereas Mussolini's was a weapon that was used to create a picture of that so can an individual who retains a party for half a century, sits in a meeting where the same party discusses 'the future of Cuba in a way that didn't include him' (p.41) be really called a dictator? Hence I believe Blackthorn shows a strong weakness in painting a picture of a dictator that Fidel is supposed to be if his book is to have any weight in world politics.

Another flaw in the author's work is in his treatment of the communist party where he shows bias. By 'telling' us through the mouth of one of the party members about how the party was 'getting everybody to vote for it' (p.39) the author tries draw a picture of the state of the communist party in Cuba. However I found it hard to picture politicians sitting around in party meetings and openly 'laugh' about how they manipulate the public to get votes. I felt author's narration was biased in his own favor to create an atmosphere of simple mindedness that could not handle democracy, therefore strengthening his plot. These are people who managed to stay in power for close to 5 decades and according to historian Alan Bullock's theory power is only retained for so long by people with well structured intentions or intentionalists and not these simple minded individuals who gather in an office to disagree on party names and not ideologies. Furthermore as the theory goes when you carry a lie for so long you would forget that it is indeed a lie and hence I see the reality being one where these politicians no longer acknowledge their deceit after so long a time. So I find Blackthorn's use of chapter 7 to be a 'cheap' way of uncovering the truth about Castro's party.

Romanticism is another idea that I recognized in the book. The myth of Che that the Cuban people hold as of the only man who could save them is a demonstration of the romantic thinking that precedes the concept of hero's and heroic actions. Hence when Che makes an observation on the Cuban people and how they are 'longing for a hero'... 'they pray for someone to save them' we recognize elements of romanticism in the society. Ironically enough this observation by the author can also be made on the author. The fact that he had to resurrect a dead hero to help him his theme highlights his romanticism. As he chose to communicate his message through a dead man we realize that, most of the time, it is the messenger that matters and not the message. This is also exhibited in the way that the communist party in chapter 7 dwells on the name of the party for the reality is, due to romanticism, society idolizes the concept of heroes and institutions and the kind more than what they are really about.

Hatred for church is another concept that I recognized in the book and is another source of discussion in class. Powerful rival to the state, Che's expressed hatred of church (p.14) has a clear resemblance to that of 20th century dictators like Stalin and Lenin who openly disowned the Orthodox church and tried to replace it with their cult of personality, Hitler who moved the bible from the altar in the church and replace it with Mein Kampf and Mussolini who entered a concordat with the church to keep it out of his business. Hence in reading about Che's attitude towards the church we read about the forming of another dictator if ever he had wanted to assume formal power.

Gary Hart, alias John Blackthorn, makes a significant contribution to the world for his book is not merely an assessment of history but is a promoter of reflective thinking to any reader. It invites us to examine our stand in the world of the 'visionary' versus the 'practical', for if you are not a revolutionary you are a practical person. While reading his book I was able to examine my inner self and found that I am one who is often satisfied by the state of things, rarely advocating change and generally at the height of contentment. Gary Hart makes me an enemy of the Revolution, a reader who admires his book immensely but fails to identify herself with the Che's of the world. Yet!