Motorcycle Diaries
by Ernesto Guevara
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ernesto GuevaraEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-02-16
ISBN: 0007182228
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Book Reviews of Motorcycle Diaries
Book Review: Complex and passionate tale of adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
From December of 1951 to mid 1952, Ernesto Guevara embarked on a motorcycle tour of South America with his friend Alberto Granado. The two boys, Ernesto only 23 years old, originally intended to travel to North America but their journey ended in Caracas. This book, eloquently written by Ernesto, tells of his personal experiences and thoughts while making his way north.
Much more than a mere travel diary, The Motorcycle Diaraies offers a glimpse into the young mind of a white medical student coming to grips with the destruction and dehumanization his ancestors had inflicted upon a technologically inferior but (perhaps) morally superior Indian race. The boy the reader meets at the beginning of the story is not the same as the young man he develops into by the end. In a fascinating epilogue that recounts a profound conversation Ernesto had with a mysterious man, we realize that even this early on in the life of the future Comandante Che were planted the seeds of revolution.
I would suggest to anyone interested in reading this book to cast aside any preconceived attitudes toward Che, from admiration to hatred, and only travel with Ernesto and Alberto as an invisible companion. With this approach, the book is a wonderfully fun read, at times humorous and at times profound and thoughtful. A youthful passion underlies the prose, in much the same way as Salinger's The Catcher in The Rye, although Ernesto is no Holden Caulfield. I only caught a couple of typos, and the clarity of imagery in the text allowed to me finish the book in one three hour sitting (it's only 134 pgs). Cintio Vitier's introduction is a bit long winded and superfluous in my opinion. The preface by Aleida Guevara is a much better introduction to the book. An interesting addition to this publication is the inclusion of a speech given to Cuban medical students by Che in 1960 - published here in the appendix.
Summary of Motorcycle Diaries
An expanded and freshly translated edition of the cult bestseller, for a new generation of Che Guevara fans. In January 1952, two young men from Buenos Aires set out to explore South America on 'La Poderosa', the Powerful One: a 500cc Norton. One of them was the twenty-three-year-old Che Guevara. Written eight years before the Cuban Revolution, these are Che's diaries -- full of disasters and discoveries, high drama, low comedy and laddish improvisations. During his travels through Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, Che's main concerns are where the next drink is coming from, where the next bed is to be found and who might be around to share it. Che becomes a stowaway, a fireman and a football coach; he sometimes falls in love and frequently falls off the motorbike. Within a decade the whole world would know his name. His trip might have been an adventure of a lifetime -- had his lifetime not turned into a much greater adventure.; Features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year old Ernesto on his journey across the continent.; and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspetive on her father -- the man and the icon.Travel Books
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