The Motorcycle Diaries

It is inevitable that anyone who reads this book would have vivid images of Che Guevra intruding into his or her mind. Who doesn't remember the stunning photo image of Guevra, said to be the most copied image in the world? Then the image of Guevra fighting through the marshes to capture Cuba, and then when Castro and the others set about rebuilding the country, taking his gun again to fight his lonely battles for liberation in other countries. And the last flashing image, a tired, defeated Guevra tied down in a shack in the jungles of Bolivia, shouting his famous last words to the drunk captain sent to shoot him and who lost his nerve in his presence, "Shoot, you fool, you are only shooting a man!"

But it is not Guevra as a revolutionary show more who wrote this book. Instead, it is a young Guevra, a loveable, fun guy who sets out to discover his homeland, losing his motorcycle into page 30 but continuing his travels, bluffing, scamming, working, stowing away, and doing whatever it takes to go on his way. He and his friend come across as two delightful guys with their humor, pranks and various adventures. We see the young Guevra without any false ego or pride, curious and sympathetic to his fellow men, moved by their sufferings, amused at the vanity of others who should have been more sympathetic, and yet always preserving his own humility and ability to laugh at himself.

It is said that when you love a book, you want to be friends with the author. After reading this book you are sure to want Che to have been your friend, to have taken you along for the ride... show less

“ This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic. It is a glimpse of two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.

Nine months. On the motorbike La Poderosa II - The Mighty One, with Alberto Granado. Until it breaks down, and then “…just two hitchhikers with backpacks, and with all the grime of the road stuck to our overalls, shadows of our former aristocratic selves.” Subsisting mostly on bread, cheese, and mate. Two hungry doctors, on the road!

Learning more about leprosy. Ernesto’s asthma. That river dolphin story! Those poor peaches under the window! Begging for money, food and lodging. It's a good travel story, and I learned a great deal, flipping back to the map show more many a time to orient myself as to their whereabouts. The pictures in the middle are pretty dang good too! The book made me want to follow their journey, and see what they saw. I'm sure plenty has changed, but the plight of the people, especially the indigenous people, is almost assuredly the same. Easy to see why a revolutionary was born!

"The future belongs to the people, and gradually, or in one strike, they will take power. here and in every country. The terrible thing is the people need to be educated, and this they cannot do before taking power, only after." show less

This book taken at face value does not amount to much. It is the status of the mythical figure behind the text that gives the book its appeal. On the pages of these notes we observe the transformation of a bored middle class kid looking for an adventure into a person ready to sacrifice himself in a fight for dignity of those least fortunate. It is not surprising that the strongest passages in the book are devoted to the descriptions of terrible living and working conditions at the Chuquicamata mines, the constant humiliation of the indigenous people of Peru, the suffering of patients in leprosy colonies. The notes do not have significant literary value but you get a glimpse of a real person behind that iconic image - "the most famous show more photograph in the world". show less

I liked the travelogue parts much more than the revolutionary class consciousness parts, and there were less of those than one might expect.

Che comes off as a bit of a jerk. He scams rides, food, drinks, skips out on hotel bills, and generally behaves like a frat boy on a road trip. I was surprised by that and has expected more communism and hagiography and less humanity. I was also surprised by Che’s interest in leprosy. I knew he was a medical student, but hadn’t known he worked with leper’s or that they were of particular interest to him.

It did make me want to take a long motorcycle trip.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES: NOTES ON A LATIN AMERICAN JOURNEY, by Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Guevara's journal of his "off to see the world" trip with his older pal, Alberto Granado, was fairly interesting, if not compelling, reading. I have only the usual vague knowledge of Guevara, Castro's important compadre in overthrowing the Batista regime in Cuba's 1959 revolution. Several years ago I read Chuck Pfarrer's excellent novel, KILLING CHE (2008), a fictional look at Che's final months in the jungles of Bolivia, where his life ended under shrouded circumstances, after his capture by government troops in 1967.

This book is vastly different. It's in Guevara's own words, the words of a very young man (he turned 24 in these pages, in 1952) "off to show more see the world" with a pal, Alberto Granado. His friend was already a doctor who specialized in leprosy, but Che was taking a break from his last years of med school to make this trip. He had not yet become the "revolutionary." He was just a young guy off on an adventure. And they had plenty, enduring multiple wipeouts and mechanical problems on the rough roads of South America. Granado's old Norton cycle, reduced to a badly broken machine held together with odd bits of wire, tires and inner tubes with multiple improvised patches, was finally abandoned before the trip was half over. The pair's status as "motorized bums" then entered a new stage as "bums without wheels." They were also plagued by various illnesses, mosquitoes and road injuries, and Guevara himself suffered numerous attacks of asthma, a chronic condition that stayed with him throughout his life.

They made numerous stops in cities, towns and villages as their trip took them from Argentina through Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and beyond. They visited a leper colony along the way, as well as tiny villages with primitive native inhabitants where clothing was sometimes optional, a feature our young narrator appreciated. In one visit to a tribe of "Yaguas, the Indians of the red straw," he commented, "The women had abandoned traditional costume for ordinary clothes, so you couldn't admire their jugs." And later, during their stay in Caracas, he makes this comment about blacks and white Portuguese workers -

"Discrimination and poverty unite them in the daily fight for survival, but their different ways of approaching life separate them completely: the black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving ..."

Not exactly politically correct, but these are the observations of a still-young man, not the legendary revolutionary that Guevara would later become. THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is a pretty detailed look at the early opinions of the young Guevara who is often moved by the social inequities and abject poverty he sees on his journey. The book also contains a detailed introduction by Cintio Vitier placing the narrative in historical context, as well as timelines of both the journey and Guevara's life. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Latin America, its history and revolutions. Oh, and P.S. - I learned that "Che" is simply an Argentinian interjection that can mean simply "hey," or is a conversational 'filler' word. It was a nickname given him by his Cuban compatriots because of the way he used the word constantly in his conversation, an oddity to the Cubans. In our own language, it might manifest itself as the ubiquitous "like" or maybe, "dude." And no, it's not in this book. I had to look it up. show less

God damn LibraryThing just swallowed my last review so have to start over again...

This is a cool book. I've always been reluctant to jump on the whole Che Guevara as a "anti-establishment poster-boy" bandwagon (does anyone else see the irony in Che merchandise?). Read this book though - it explains the man behind the icon. This was written when he was still a kid really (in a way it's a rite of passage diary) and describes a road trip through the american continent starting in Argentina then up the Andes through Chile and Peru to North America (miami). I like this because it's very human. You can see the evolution of Guevara's politics in his observations (he is very articulate about the way indigenous americans are treated by the latin show more americans and the social divide between them). Think George Orwell's best non-fiction (Down and Out..., Homage to Catalonia etc.) - this tells the experiences that shaped Guevara's thinking. It's actually really well written as well. In addition to being a medical doctor, commander of guerillas and international politician, Guevara had a bit of knack with the written word. It's funny too. It's not often that a book makes me laugh out loud but an anecdote about a stay with some Germans, an open first floor window, a bout of the squits and an unfortunately placed tray of drying peaches had me (I read this on a plane - if you ever want to make Easy Jet cabin crew nervous try sitting on your own at the back and laughing. Maybe that's why I got stopped at customs, or am I being paranoid...hmmm).

Anyway - highly recomend this and I'll be looking for Guevara's notes from the Cuban revolution. 5 stars! show less

Che Guevera's appeal to young people come from his dreamy temperament, revolutionary ideals, impulsive actions, and longing for a better world. This book captures all those things--as it shows a young man embarking on a poorly planned Latin American trip. The best parts recall him interacting with locals. It shows how his encounters with poverty, the ill, and indigenous culture influenced who he'd become. Likewise, the weakest sections show him as an immature dude full of scatological humor, lustful thoughts, and bizarre commentary on people of African descent. Still, it's hard to fault an autobiographical book for documenting the person at the time, and not who they would mature to become.