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Summary: you must read this book
Review: A great piece of historical fiction about one of the greatest men of our time and his impact on not just Cuba, but all of South American, Africa, China and the rest of the world. Anderson profiles Che's life as a man, a son, a father, and a leader. He beautifully details his relationships with many third world nations (although specific to Cuba) and how the ideas sparked by Che continue to change the world the we live in today. Not to be missed...you must read this book.
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Summary: Ernesto Che Guevara 's life
Review: hi there i need some picture about Ernesto Che Guevara 's life and i need to know every thing about him
i need a book talking about all his life
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Summary: VIVA EL CHE!
Review: If you want a book on politics, you got it. If you want a book on a great man, a hero, who cared about people, and there well- being, you got it. If you want such a good read that it feels like you're reading a novel, of adventure, of romance, of war, of mystery, etc., you got it. Basically, if you want a perfect biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, and you wanted to know 99% of everything about him, buy this book!VIVA EL CHE
VIVA EL PUEBLO
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Summary: The Truth hurts
Review: This is not a book for the general public but for leftists.
And it isn't about HISTORY but about Communist mythologie.
Contains several omissions: .It forgets to informate the readers about what Che Gue Vara did
when he and his guerrileros went to Bolivia to "Liberate" the Bolivian peasants: they assassinated about 50 people ( peasant and soldiers in ambushes ) BEFORE he himself was captured and executed.
The Bolivians felt strange about this "Liberation" and not even one (!) joined his "red terror" band ( they actually told the Bolivian army the precise local where the che's band was ).
In other words, CHE GUE VARA TASTED HIS OWN POISON but the author (and some reviewers) made him a martyr and think America is the real guiltie....
it hurts the intelligence of a rational person .it says very little about Che's cruelty and crimes: in Las Cabanas prison he ordered the execution of hundreds of people( some of them former brothers in arms which refused communism and stayed democratic ).SOME OF THEM WERE SHOT BY HIM, to give the example...
CHE incentivated their followers during those executions: « DON'T WAISTE TIME WITH THE CAUSES, THIS IS A REVOLUTION, DON'T USE LEGAL METHODS OF THE BURGUEOSOIS, THE PROVE IS SECONDARY.
ITÂ'S NECESSARY TO ACT BY CONVICTION!»
We bet they did.
And the Mass Killings of the "enemies of the people" in Santa Clara Prison (some years later )is practically omissed by the author.
etc etc i could go on AD INFINITUM.. Omited too is the TROPICAL GULAG, the concentration camps and prisons system( or "REEDUCATION" CAMPS like CHE used to called them),where have been imprisioned since 1959 until today about 100 000 political prisioners.
Read how they were and still are beaten and forced to drink they own urine in AGAINST ALL HOPE of Valladares in Amazon.com
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Summary: An Important, but Rambling, Political Bio
Review: 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.
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Summary: Good biography both in the tale it tells and the context
Review: This is an interesting book. It is on one hand a biography of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto (Che) Guereva yet it also tells the story of the political conflicts in Latin America in the 50?s and 60?s. Che (it means he you in Spanish) grew up in Argentina the son of parents from the old landowning aristocracy. Che?s diagnosis of asthma as a two year old meant that the parents had to move to a remote area in which his disease was more manageable. This meant that his father was unemployed for a long period of time and as a result the family had financial problems. Che trained as a doctor and after graduation he travelled extensively through Latin America on a moped. These travels radicalised him as he learnt of the difficulty of the lives of the poor throughout the region. It would seem that he became a Marxist because of US policy towards Guatemala. In the 1950?s Guatemala had a mildly progressive government which was aiming to introduce some populist measures such as land reform. The United States Government during Eisenhower?s Presidency financed a rebel movement to take over the government?. After some brief fighting the American backed troops set up a conservative junta in the country. Che was in the Guatemala at the time and from then on he seems to have considered himself a communist. He met Castro in Mexico and joined up with the group that had been formed to set up a Guerrilla war on the Island. Che was recruited for his medical training and it was thought he could treat those who were wounded in the struggle. Castro?s expedition was almost wiped out with only 20 men surviving the landing. They headed off into mountain country and started what was to become a successful struggle. The books longest section deals with the Cuban civil war. Che turned out to be not only a heroic soldier but a talented one. He was able to discipline his men, organise attacks on the Cuban army which were generally successful and resulted in light casualties for his men. He also established craft shops to make clothing and shoes for the rebels. His main talent however seemed to be in establishing discipline and rooting out people with little enthusiasm for the struggle. It was Che?s seizure of an important city which led to the collapse of the Bastia regime. Che however did not fit in once the fighting stopped. He was an aesthetic who insisted on living on his salary and he would not take for himself any of the trappings of success. He initially was involved in the arrest and shooting of enemies of the new regime. It seemed however that his heart lay mainly with the thrill of revolution. Cuba started to try to export revolution to other countries in Latin America. These movements in the Dominican Republic and Argentina failed. Russia was trying to come to some understanding with America and did not want to alarm them by more revolutions in the Americas. Tiring of his life in Cuba Che went off to fight again in Africa an area not so sensitive to US interests. This time he was to fail. The book describes in some detail the problems Che had in trying to motivate the Conglose rebels and it is almost comic. He then met his end in Bolivia. During the seventies he lived on mainly because of a photo taken of him at a funeral which was used to make a best selling poster. His physical appearance attracted the young and they saw in it a potent symbol of youthful rebellion. His reality was far more complex and he was much more than a youthful rebel. This book is interesting as it tells us a good deal about a complex figure but it also gives us an insight into the politics of the time and why figures such as Che and Castro were created.
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Summary: An Exclusive Book
Review: Jon Lee Anderson has managed to unlock secrets. Consequently, this book offers an unprecedented look at Che Guevara, the youth in Alta Gracia, Argentina and the evolution of the revolutionary in Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, the former Belgian Congo and ultimately in Bolivia. This three part book is fascinating. Anderson's study of Che documents the rise and fall of a man who dedicated his life to the red flame. The lens is objective and the prose engaging. This book is a classic.
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Summary: Absorbing, informative,infuriating and ultimately heartbreak
Review: This meticulously researched and dashingly written book does justice to a fascinating subject. Nothing is harder to be objective and discerning about than a martyred myth who is a hero to some and a menace to others. Although Che was undoubtedly an idealogue to the bitter end he was also complex and so much more than the handsome face on the t-shirt, the beautiful slaughtered angel to Fidel's proletarian compadre who had the burden of having to live out the dream in the dim face of reality. Instead he came to his dogmatic outrage( whatever one can hold against Che he was a believer) by observation rather than indoctrination. People who snicker at his gusto for class warfare forget how dour the situation for the dispossessed was only 50 years ago in Latin America. Just like Marx encountered in England in the 19th century Che fuelled his passion on circumstances of such flagrant abuse we can no longer imagine and thus are easily moved to dismiss him as just another gun wielding nutcase with a martyr complex. I strongly disagree with some of the tactics employed in his battles but it is extreme figures such as Che who kick open the stonewalling smugness of the few who live on professional exploitation and absorb whole continents in their mania for micro-management. I'm deeply uncomfortable with hero worship of any kind and see Che as a flawed and driven man who let his drive for betterment through revolt be transformed into a death crazy nihilism but unlike so many daredevils with a messiah complex I have never really doubted the sincerity of his disgust with injustice.
Mr Anderson doesn't continue the mythmaking nor does he really debunk it, he it gives us an intimate glimpse into an extraordinary life, tar, feathers, purity, madness and all.
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Summary: why collegiate idealism is best grown out of during college
Review: i thought this was a very objective, balanced and well researched biography. i've given this to a rabidly right-wing cuban friend of mine. i'm dying to see what he thinks. after reading the book i came to see che as an immature egomaniac with artificially enhanced (asthma) will power and drive. politically, he seems very much a product of the u.s. banana republic policies coupled with youthful idealism. if only we'd been a little less heavy handed in guatemala, but i guess we're almost always a little heavy handed.
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Summary: Everything you need to know about Che
Review: This book is on par with Malcolm X's Autobiography in the realm of importance, honesty and impact. Anderson has obviously done an exhausting amount of research for all of our benefits. This book is comprehensive without ever being boring (a huge compliment for a book of this size). You get the feeling that this is not simply a Che disciple but a man with a genuine respect for all that he did and all that he was. This book effected my life and if you were at all curious about the man behind so many t-shirts you should do yourself a favor and sit down with this and don't be surprised when you are motivated to action. Peace,
BTW
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