Che Guevara

Starred review from November 30, 2009
The incredible life of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is documented in this thorough, compulsively engaging 1997 biography and inspiration for Steven Soderbergh's 2008 biopic. Beginning with Che's childhood in Argentina, Andersen covers every possible aspect of his subject's life—from Che's first encounter with Fidel and Raul Castro in Mexico City through the Cuban revolution to his failed attempt at reform in the African Congo—leaving no event, personal or political, unanalyzed. Armando Duran gives a brilliant performance that captures Che in all his contradictions. Duran displays his inherent acting ability in this reading that does full justice to the prose and never fails to captivate despite the near 37-hour length. A Grove Press hardcover.

March 3, 1997
At 25 (in 1953), Ernesto Guevara de la Serna received his medical degree in Argentina. A conventional career lay ahead if he wanted it. At 39, captured in a quixotic, doomed guerrilla operation in the Bolivian outback unenthusiastically financed by Havana, "Che" was shot to death as he lay trussed on the floor of a village schoolhouse. In the years between, he had metamorphosed from doctor to tramp to revolutionary, discovering his cause and his anti-yanqui resolve in the poverty of Guatemala and as one of the 18 survivors of Fidel Castro's incursion into Cuba. Reckless in promoting his Mao-esque brand of Marxism, he tried to make the Cuban model work in postcolonial Africa and elsewhere in Latin America, expecting that a small but dedicated band of operatives could enlist a burgeoning army of the exploited and overturn oppressive regimes. Anderson (coauthor of Guerrillas), a thorough researcher but a plodding writer, shows that Che found few converts to his religion of fanatical, selfless revolution. Bored with ministerial office in Castro's Cuba, he tried to transplant that country's success. He had a hard time accepting that courageous communist ideologues were rare and that exploited troops tended to melt away when victories didn't come easily. Through letters, speeches, unpublished diaries and numerous interviews, including one with Che's widow, sometimes in overwhelming detail and at daunting length, Anderson establishes as fact suppositions that the CIA's pursuit of Guevara was relentless and probably unnecessary. This huge biography will add to his iconic status. Illustrations not seen by PW.