Customer Reviews

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was a revolutionary. He was born in Argentina but never called the country home after his college years, studying medicine. Through his travels during his college years, he became aware of the povery and inequality in South America. This inspired him to fight for the equality he felt Marxism would bring. Che is known for his effect on the communist revolution in Cuba. He also fought in falied revolutions in Congo and Bolivia. It is safe to say that he is a man who impacted the world even if you do not agree with his political views. He is the man who invented guerrilla warfare.

John Lee Anderson's book is the definitive book on Che Guevara. At times, it is almost too detailed with its nearly 800 page length. In reality, a book being too detailed is a compliment. The pictures he chose to include in the text are outstanding. Many of the pictures have been in CIA possession for years, and unseen to the public.

While not directly a goal of the book, I enjoyed the insight this book gives into the relationship between Che and Fidel Castro. Anderson lets the reader draw conclusions rather than telling the reader what to think. While Castro believed in communism, Guevara was held policies more closely to the writing of Karl Marx. Che was willing to criticize policy if he felt it was not "Marxist enough". Unlike Castro, Che was willing to criticize the Soviet Union leaders for not living in the true equality that communism is intended to be.

Despite Cuba's rivalry with the United States, I found it odd that more was not mentioned about the Cuba Missle Crisis. Guevara detested the United States, so it seems he would have had more to say in the matter. If he did have more to say, little is mentioned in the book.

Because of its length, readers need some spare time to take in this whole book. The thoroughness of the product makes reading this book a rewarding experience.

Anderson's biography of Che Guevara was passionately researched. Within the pages of this large book are the most detailed accounts of Che Guevara's life. The book begins with a history of Che's upbringing and forces you to realize how much this man was truly like any other man. Anderson finds importance in the travels Che makes as a young man across South America. Journeys which eventually became 'The Motorcycle Diaries'. Detail is given to the periods of life that influenced his radicalization.

This was a man who felt deeply for the exploitation of his people. He dreamed of a tomorrow where man did not trample on one another through competition and greed. Che Guevara sacrificed his life for what he believed in. There is no death more honorable. In reading Jon Lee Anderson's biography of this enormous figure, you will fell sympathy for his cause, respect for his determination, and awe for his accomplishments on the battlefield and in his study.

With a figure this inspirational and controversial, it's amazing that no authoritative biography appeared on Che Guevara until Anderson completed this one three decades after his death. Anderson has really delivered an impressive and strongly researched bio into this interesting character. We learn that Che had a comfortable middle-class upbringing in Argentina and even earned a medical degree, but ended up fighting for the world's downtrodden. He also had severe asthma but still managed to become a rugged jungle revolutionary. After traveling around Latin America he ended up in Cuba as Castro's right-hand man during the revolution. This episode in Che's career contributes to the main problem of this book however. More than half of the book is dedicated to the years just before and after Castro's seizure of power in 1959. Che certainly had a large part to play here, but his life story is lost in Anderson's coverage of Cuban events and politics during those years. Thus for a while the book is no longer a biography but a political history that is only somewhat related to the main subject. Apparently in his research on Che, Anderson unearthed so much information on the Cuban revolution that he wanted to use all of it, and accidentally wrote a second book on Cuban history and placed it in the middle of this one. This is still useful if you're interested in that topic, but as a result this book becomes far more rambling, long-winded, and unfocused than it should be.

On the other hand, in the rest of the book Anderson definitely succeeds in showing all sides of Che's personality, both good and bad. Like the best of biographers, Anderson doesn't judge his subject and lets the facts speak for themselves. And what we have is a highly contradictory character. Che was admirably committed to his beliefs, but this commitment was so strong that his beliefs became unyielding and dogmatic. He was an exceptional leader of men but a horrendous politician, so he earned fanatical devotion from his followers but alienated everyone else. He personified the fatal flaw of all Communists by professing a love for the vague mass called "The People," but when it came to individual persons he persecuted (and sometimes executed) anyone who didn't follow his beliefs to the letter. While he was certainly a key player in the Cuban revolution, and Castro couldn't have done the job without him, Che accomplished little after that as he tried to inspire revolutions around the world. He couldn't accept the fact that his pie-in-the-sky dream of uniting all the world's oppressed peoples couldn't possibly work in reality, both for logistical reasons and because of the differences in people's political beliefs. But Che certainly had plenty of charisma and devotion, and that is still a pretty good reason for him to be inspirational to this day. However, his legions of admirers may want to read this book and learn more about what he really did - and didn't - accomplish.

The first major biography of "El Che" comes three decades after his death. It is well worth the 30 year wait. At times it can be a grueling read (750+ pages, what do you expect?), but it is evident that Anderson worked long and hard on this book. Very well-researched, and, as another reviewer stated, makes you question the authenticity of some of the documents. Honestly, how can anyone be so well-connected? It has no pro- or anti-Che tilt, which is good. A great biographer lets the facts speak for themselves, and that is what Anderson does. All in all, this is a well-researched, well-written, well-footnoted biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I gave it an extra star because it is the only decent biography of Che to date.

At a little over 700 pages, this is an investment in time, but you won't regret one second of it. This is the quintessential reference book on Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Actual quotes from his amazing journals that he kept throughout his life, help explain this complex individual as he develops his political idealogy while exploring Latin America. I grew up terrified of Communist Cuba and not knowing why. I still don't condone communism, but I finally understand it a little better. It was interesting looking at the revolution through Che's eyes. Jon Lee Anderson did an amazing job of researching his subject. I'm in awe of the work he put into this project. I couldn't wait to get home from work and begin reading again. There was almost a sadness when I completed it. The sadness being that the CIA, whose presense in Latin America he despised, made the decision of whether he would live or die. By the time you get to the last part, YOU'RE pretty sick of the CIA, too. I cannot recommend this biography enough. Very well done, Mr. Anderson...

This is a first class biography by a world class journalist. Jon Lee Anderson's biography of Che Guevara is unparalleled in its scholarship and accessibility. Anderson uses his investigative skills as a journalist to uncover new information about the life and times of this loved and hated revolutionary. Anderson does so by living and traveling throughout Cuba and Latin America, as well as the former Soviet Union and the U.S., to interview key figures who knew Guevara first hand.

The book is well written and reads much like a bestselling novel. At almost 800 pages, this is not a light read. But it is well worth the time. Among other things, Anderson takes the reader behind the scenes at Guevara's childhood homes in Argentina and on his famous motorcycle trips throughout South America.

Later, the book transports readers into Che's apartment in Mexico, where he meets Fidel Castro for the first time. Anderson provides his readers with front row seats to the revolutionary battles that took place at and around the Sierra Maestra in 1950's Cuba. Readers are then led to follow Che into his role as a minister in Cuba's new revolutionary government. Then, after describing how Che made a feckless foray into the Congo to assist a revolutionary uprising there, Anderson follows Che into his final battle in Bolivia.

Throughout the biography, Anderson provides readers with detailed and documented access to key events (and books) that influenced Che's thinking and growth as a Marxist revolutionary. Moreover, the author does a good job of citing the original writings of Che and others near him. This makes readers (at least this one) almost feel as if they are firsthand witnesses to history.

Unlike many books on Che, Anderson's is thoroughly objective. The author paints a picture of Che that is both factual and well-rounded, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the man and his actions. If the book has a weakness, it might be that many of its quotes are not clearly documented with footnotes. This could prove problematical for students who want to pursue their own research on Guevara. But for the majority of readers, this is a problem that is easily overlooked. I am glad that I read this book and cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in its subject.

Of the four lengthy bios of Che released during an 18 month period Anderson is the best, bar none. Che, from just after the sucessful Cuban revolution until the mid 70's was the most famous person on the planet, much to the dismay (or belief) of many norteamericanos. Anderson gives a facinating and factually exhaustive narritive of Che's childhood, his education through medical school, his eye opening adventure from south to north on his Norton motorcycle, his visit with Peruvian miners and the political effect upon him as he witnessed the overthrow of the president of Guatamala (by the CIA at the behest of the United Fruit Company.) Anderson fills in much for the not-so-informed ready about Che's meeting with Fidel Castro and his embarking on the overloaded boat towards Cuba and his destiny. What began, one might even wonder, as almost a lark--new M.D., non-Cuban, a comfortable life assured back in Argentina--"signing on" as medic with a crew of poorly trained fighters lead by a lawyer.
Anderson, a regular writer for "The New Yorker" magazine, gives the reader a lesson in the successful display of a non-fiction author's goal: produce a text crammed with information, backed up by a huge supply of foot notes and end notes that snatches up the reader like a fat grocery store novel. A work three inches thick that has the reader, upon approaching the end, wishing the damn thing was 300 pages longer.
Although most norteamericanos, steeped in the Cold War anti-commuism of the time, would cringe at the thought, Che was, by name and that famous photo, the most recognizable person walking the planet. (The boondocks of China would hardly be able to produce many souls who would raise an eyebrow at the mention of names like Eisenhower, Dulles or deGaulle.) After his work in Cuba Anderson does a fine job of detailing Che's revolutionary work in East Africa, thence to Bolivia where he--broke, nearly starving, his figher's number down to a handful--was wounded, captured and murdered at the direction of a CIA case officer.
Che's naivate, his selflessness, his mistakes--appointed director of the Cuban national bank for God's sake--his confidence in the rightness of his mission, his refusal to fatten up his pocketbook with the (plentiful) spoils available following a capitalist government's demise are exhaustivly and entertainingly presented.
Anderson's mountain of material, his skill at its presentation in a lean yet complete way, makes this the best biography of a political/historical figure I have had the pleasure to read in the last fifty years.

Well I was very impressed at the amout of work that Jon Anderson put into this book. It accounts for so much in Che's life. I never knew so much about the man until I read this book. Che was a very strong willed man and had his mind set on many things. Anderson makes that very clear. It is a excellent account of a very not so well known man..

Jon Lee Anderson does one of the most amazing jobs in portraying the figure of el "che" in a reality, and his struggles in wanting to end exploitation. i would highly recommned this book to every person on this earth, for someone that has no clue of el "che" to even a historian. this book also helps for people to comprehend of what is a true communist,instead of hearing the word and looking down on it. Ches struggle in ending u.s exploitation has not died, although is alive more than ever. one could see through biographies of el "Che" that revolutions around the world have not succedded due to the U.S cia billion dollars of investmets on counterinsurgency EACH YEAR, WE MUST ALL UNITE AROUND THE WORLD AND ESPECIALY IN THE U.S TO SPEAK OF THE TRUTH AND FOR A TRUE PEOPLES REPUBLIC WHERE INJUSTICES AND EXPLOITATION ENDS. As fidel Castro once said, "it does not matter, democrat or republicaN, they are all THE SAME enemies of a free world"

HASTA EL DIA DE LA REVOLUCION!

Well written and easy reading..Jon Lee Anderson certainly did his homework. Though Mr Anderson tried very hard to write this biography without a leftist slant, his sympathies come through loud and clear. While Che, a revered figure in history, and a cultural icon (why???) he appears to be quite the hypocrite. True Blue Blood from an aristocratic family with higher education he went from one latin american country to the next in search of a cause. Never committing himself until his back was against the wall amid his peers, and his own idolization of Castro. Traveling up and down the continent of South American, grubbing food and money and lodging, never bathing or changing his clothes I feel Che was a lazy lazy person, who became ignited on whims and selfish desires.. He was not loyal to his girlfriend, nor his wife. He did not 'stick his neck out' for anyone until he met Castro.
I dont understand the appeal of his politics nor this figure in history. Makes me wonder if the sections of his "sexually explicit diary" that were not given to the author, shows the subject was actually mad from syphyllis. (this is a thought not a fact)
Bottom line: Excellent and facinating biography with great history (and if you think this is not available in american history youre wrong) Worth reading, but does not explain why this guy is an icon-especially among americans.
VIA CAPITALISM READ AN AYN RAND BOOK!!