Product Description

These travel diaries capture the essence and exuberance of the young legend, Che Guevara. In January 1952, Che set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America on an ancient Norton motorcycle. He encounters an extraordinary range of people-from native Indians to copper miners, lepers and tourists-experiencing hardships and adventures that informed much of his later life.

This expanded, new edition from Ocean Press, published with exclusive access to the Che Guevara Archives held in Havana, includes a preface by Che's daughter, Aleida Guevara. It also features previously unpublished photos (taken by Che on his travels), as well as new, unpublished parts of the diaries, poems and letters.

"A Latin James Dean or Jack Kerouac."-Washington Post

"For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. By the end of the journey, a politicized Che Guevara has emerged to predict his own revolutionary future."-Time

The publication of this new, expanded edition of The Motorcycle Diaries coincides with the release of Robert Redford's new film based on the Diaries. This film and another forthcoming from Steven Soderbergh in Fall 2003 will provoke even greater "Che-mania" and increase sales of all Ocean's titles on Che Guevara.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21252 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 175 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A freewheeling account of an extended youthful road trip undertaken in the early '50s by the future poster boy of Communist insurrection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“Das Kapital meets Easy Rider.” (Times)

“A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac.” (Washington Post)

“…Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, ‘I’ turned into ‘we’.” (Eduardo Galeano)

“An extraordinary first-person account. … It redoubles his image and lends a touch of humanity with enough rough edges to invite controversy.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

“For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. (Time)

“There is pathos in these pages — the pathos of Che himself, ever thoughtful, ever willing to sacrifice all, burning with guilt over his own privileges and never letting his sufferings impede him.” (New Yorker)

“This candid journal, part self-discovery, part fieldwork, glimmers with portents of the future revolutionary.” (Publishers’ Weekly)

“A revolutionary bestseller… It’s true, Marxists just wanna have fun.” (Guardian)

“What distinguishes these diaries… is that they reveal a human side to El Che which historians have successfully managed to suppress.” (Financial Times)

“This book should do much to humanize the image of a man who found his apotheosis as a late ‘60s cultural icon. It is also, incidentally, a remarkably good travel book about South America.” (The Scotsman) -- Review

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

Customer Reviews

a long journey.....
Very good book to read to learn what goes on in the head on Che. He shares his emotions and passion for life and everything that comes along with it. This book is based more on his personal opinions, likes and dislikes. You would get the opportunity to get in his head and read his thoughts. A little too complicated to read. Its not like reading a chapter after a chapter in a book. Each memoir is his personal diary entry and not based on a day to day basis. Also contains black and white pictures taken either by him or his traveling along friend.

What i did not like about this book was the fact that the pages jumped around. One minute i was reading on pg33 and next minute i was on pg54 or so. It was really annoying because i had to constantly skip around and look for the pages and was always lost.

A couple of dull guys have very little fun and adventure on their road trip
I read the book pretty much ignoring the Che of later years and hoping to find the adventure of a young, passionate man free on the roads. I also hoped to get a glimpse at the human underneath the Che image.

As it turns out, Ernesto and Alberto were fairly forgettable guys who apparently had no particular fun on their great adventure. Maybe it is because the writing is very flat. Che was a colorless writer, noting the most banal and unexciting details that a better writer would leave out. He had no talent for descriptive, so places and people remain vague. And there is not an ounce of humor in the guy.

Had Che not gone onto notoriety as a revolutionary, this book would never have been published.

Even as an insight into the man, his fans will find nothing terribly revealing here, especially not what radicalized him. His enemies won't find much in particular worth hating. There is almost no political significance here, just as there is no particular adventure. What made him tick? How did he think and what did he feel? Guevara was not a good enough writer to get that on the page.

All in all, Che comes across as a bit of a cold fish. I expected something livelier and more adventurous.

Interesting character but writing is bland
I understand that he was an important historical figure but his adolescent writings are pretty uninteresting.
I much preferred the movie over the book.