Back on the Road (Otra Vez): A Journey Through Latin America

A diary that is rambling but compelling to read. Hard to put down. Shows transformation of Motorcycle Diaries Earnesto (Che) Guavera into soon to be Commandante Che of Cuban Revolution--the endearing kitten who grows up to be the feral and rather large cat in the living room. It starts out as a story of a young man with itchy feet who cannot tolerate boredom (ADHD comes to mind). Soon, however, he becomes embroiled in an intense politcal struggle which begins in Guatemala. The outcome of the Guatemala struggle develops Che's adult vision of a united Latin America, free of United Fruit and "Yanqui" domination, which continues for the rest of Ernesto (Che) Guevara's brief life. This book shows a part of United States and Central American history of which few North Americans are aware. I know I wasn't.

I found Back on the Road at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris. I had not know about this book and it is a splendid companion to his Motorcyle Diaries, in fact reading both books let's you look into Che's mind and what made him a Revolutionary. His style of writing appeals to me, he writes about what he sees, how he feels, and best of all, his friends and lady friends, he seems to have been catnip to women, but, he writes in a style that does not talk down to either sex and this makes him easily the best revolutionary writer of his time. Che is very popular in Europe and not just with the younger generation. Buying this book will open your eyes to what Che was really like.

Having just read "Motorcycle Diaries" and loving it, I was eager to read this book. The problems with it are two-fold. It was edited by his widow and not by Guevara himself as the first book was. In the preface it is noted that she extracted parts of the original text. The second fault is that it is a journal but it is written with very few dates. There are no breaks between daily entries so as you read along from paragraph to paragraph several days worth of entries are present. It makes the text hard to follow. His writing is still interesting but also several times he writes that nothing new is happening. It seems that his "heart" is not in this journal. There is some very interesting information included though ranging from the disaffected tone about which he writes to his mother about his first marriage to his firsthand observation of the overthrow of the Guatemalan government. The highlights of the book are the letters he wrote home to family and friends. It is a short book and definetly worth a read but don't have the expectation that it will be as good as "Motorcycle Diaries".