Che: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of a Revolutionary

The fog of time and the strength of anti-anti-Communism have obscured the real Che. Who was he? He was an Argentinian revolutionary who served as Castro's primary thug. He was especially infamous for presiding over summary executions at La Cabaña, the fortress that was his abattoir. He liked to administer the coup de grâce, the bullet to the back of the neck. And he loved to parade people past El Paredón, the reddened wall against which so many innocents were killed. Furthermore, he established the labor-camp system in which countless citizens--dissidents, democrats, artists, homosexuals--would suffer and die. This is the Cuban gulag. A Cuban-American writer, Humberto Fontova, described Guevara as "a combination of Beria and Himmler." Anthony Daniels once quipped, "The difference between [Guevara] and Pol Pot was that [the former] never studied in Paris." - Jay Nordlinger

This is an excellent book about Che Guevara. The articles have been well chosen from expert contributors such as Jon Lee Anderson, Eduardo Galeano, Alma Guillermoprieto and Guevara himself. The chronological order brings forth the evolution of this remarkable man whose life and sacrifices for his ideal of a just world still haunts our minds. From his "motorcycle diary" days a la Kerouac in the 50's to his death in Bolivia in 1967, yes, we must admit, Che definitile lives.

This book brings together the key writings of someone who is better known by one photograph than everything else about them. Hart has made a careful and thoughtful compendium of the writings that most reveal Ernesto Guevara's thinking, one that changed over the years but always held to its guiding principle: "the real revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love." Both a good starter or introductory book, and one that can serve as a general reference.