Rating: 
Summary: VERY Interesting and informative book about Che!:)
Review: Anderson's book gives a very detailed and informative account of Che's life. Provides in-depth information from a variety of sources that truly brings Che back to life!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Biography (On Anyone) I Have Read Yet
Review: When I first saw the size of this book, I was very intimitdated, but this turned out to be a book that i truly could not put down. Every page seemed to have something new to learn about Che.
Rating:
Summary: All the biographical facts you can ever want
Review: I agree with the Reader from Orlando...a massive, well-researched book, but I was not left with a feeling of what Guevara was like as a person. Lots of stuff about his early life, showing how he basically bummed around Latin America looking for something to latch on to, and I felt like I knew a little about Ernesto. But then, all of a sudden, Fidel, Mexico, the Granma, and BOOM! CHE the Guerilla Leader is there, with little explanation of how a flaky, doggerel-writing itinerant with the nickname "Skunk" became the awesome CHE. All that aside, this is an incredibly interesting book about a person that anyone can admire, no matter what their politics. Good work, Mr. Anderson!
Rating: 
Summary: Why is Che a hero? He liberated no one!!!
Review: I cannot say this book is a mediocre or a poor book even though I did not enjoy it much. Anderson certainly deserves credit for good writing, and impartiality. In fact, I started reading this book with a relatively high level of admiration for Che. I am a progressive thinker, and a strong supporter of alternative media, which is where I had gained most of my knowledge of Che Guevara. The funny thing is that as I read this book, my opinion of Che was lowered to the point that I did not even want to read on. I cannot understand why people admire Che to such an extent. Don't misunderstand me, I understand and sympathize with Latin America pains due to the imperialist domination of giant corporate interests. I am aware of the ugly crimes of the CIA and their despicable crimes against humanity. I resent America's interference in the domestic affairs of third world nations. For those things, I sympathize with Che in his anger against the United States. What I don't understand is why this man showed such brut force and anger on his "own people." He was horribly cruel and cold hearted. He had no emotions when he killed people. Worst of all, he was ultimately the catalyst of breaking nations and people away from one superpower and handing them over to another (USSR). Why is it that people think it is progressive to criticize U.S. imperial ambitions, but Soviet, French or British crimes are irrelevant? Let me make this very clear, Che has never been the source of liberation for even one single human being in this world. This is an irrefutable fact. He just facilitated a change of hand to the Soviets. Weather that was his intention or not, cannot be looked at as separate from the fact that in his naivete he introduced Stalinism into Cuba. One has to ask what was Che's main objective? Hurting the United States? If yes, then he succeeded and congratulations to him and all his supporters. In that sense he is a hero. But if his struggle was to liberate Latin America, he was a miserable failure. He unknowingly murdered his people on behalf of the Soviet Union. Go ahead and worship him if you want to! He is no icon of mine. Soviets too have had their fair share of imperialism.
Rating:
Summary: A very long book
Review: I just started reading this book and already I understand Che. Anderson goes into very deep detail. All in all a very thick book.
Rating:
Summary: CHE,THE MAN WHO WON THE HEART OF THE WORLD.
Review: I know Cuba very well, I have been a lot of times there talking with the cuban people about CHE,I feel the CHE like a cuban but I learn the CHE feelings reading this book.My eyes were open every day eating the life of Guevara and all the situations of Cuba revolution, I "was with him" living into the paper of this great compilation. You must be there also and say HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: While I recommend this book to anyone interested in Che and the Revolution, I think there are some key pieces missing. Two things really bothered me. First, there was never any explanation of what the word "Che" means! I thought for sure within 500 pages that I would learn the meaning of Ernesto's nickname. But more importantly, Anderson goes into excruciating detail of the young Che's life, but it reads like a distant biography, perhaps because of Anderson's background as a reporter. In the first three quarters of the book, Anderson does not venture any type of analysis on why Che really became a Communist. He simply reports the details. Interesting details, but the reader is left to analyze the meaning. There is discussion of the people and peasants he met, and the Honduran tragedy he witnessed, but Anderson doesn't give us a good understanding of why those events drove Che to become such a rabid Communist. Also, there is no explanation of how Che learned to be a guerilla fighter, or how he learned how to lead an army. All of a sudden one day Che is in command of troops and winning battles. It isn't until the very last chapters that Anderson stops being a reporter and gives us a bit of background and analysis to try and understand the true Che. So, I recommend the book, but the reader will have to delve deeper into the Che mystique to really understand the man.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK ON CHE YET!
Review: ANDERSONS BIOGRAPHY ON THE FAMOUS REVOLUTIONARY LEADER HOLDS ITSELF IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN. HIS IN DEPTH SEARCH GOES BEYOND THA BARRIERS GETTING A HOLD OF SUCH SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE LIKE CHE;S WIDOW AND RETIRED GENERAL MARIO VARGAS. ANDERSONS BOOK IS AN EXTRORDINARY PIECE OF LITERATURE ALLLOWING ONE TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYTH AND LEGEND CHE GUEVARA!
Rating:
Summary: informative, dense, intriguing, long
Review: Long but well-written book. Good outline of Che's life and death. Not much psychoanalysis, but some revolutionary strategy (in Cuba, Congo, Bolivia). Particularly useful is the immense detail provided by first hand interviews and writings by him and people who knew him. Hasta la victoria siempre. Need more knowledge about why revolution succeeded in Cuba but nowhere else. How will it succeed now?
Rating:
Summary: The difinitive Che !!
Review: Good research, good coverage of events. (the journalist in Anderson is all over the 800+ pages) What struck me about Anderson's account of the detailed life of Che is that no matter how neutral you are to Che's ideals and beliefs you can't say much that's bad about an idealist who left behind him the chance to be a well-off MD, possibly well-connected with the Argentine elite to lead a life of a dedicated revolutionist and die in the jungles fighting for a cause most of us now consider dead. But then again, many other idealists were killed by us humans: from Socrates to Jesus, to Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Good history to read, and reflect upon!
|
