Bolivian Diary - Softcover

Guevara, Che

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844138291 ISBN 13: 9781844138296

Publisher: Pimlico, 2004

Synopsis

This book tells of the last doomed eleven months of the most courageous and dedicated revolutionary of the 20th century. First published in Cuba in 1968 in a free edition of 250,000 copies, it has since become a classic. In November 1966 Che Guevara, hero of the Cuban Revolution, arrives in Bolivia to lead a guerrilla detachment fighting that country's military dictatorship. At the beginning of the diary the war games of the guerrillas seem no more real than those of Boy Scouts at play. But then real deaths begin, in flooded rivers or in ambush. The guerrilla fighters win their first battles and outwit the vastly superior army forces sent against them; but, in the end, Che Guevara and his dwindling group are surrounded and crushed. In its terse and simple prose, the Bolivian Diary gives a unique account of the guerrilla's lonely fight against armies, mountains, jungles, hunger, disease and death. And the reader's knowledge of Guevara's fate makes the book even more moving a record of the guerrillas' day-to-day suffering and bravery.

About this title

Review:

Looking back on the life of his revolutionary comrade Che Guevara in his introduction to the Bolivian Diary, Fidel Castro claims that "rarely, if ever, in history has one man's image, name and example spread so rapidly and so completely". Ernesto Guevara de la Sema is the ultimate revolutionary, an icon who spawned a million T-shirts, and whose death in 1967 whilst fermenting revolution in Bolivia enshrined him as a martyr of the radical Left. In his short life Che Guevara led military revolutions in Mexico, the Congo and, most famously, Cuba, before heading to Bolivia in 1966 to establish a guerrilla movement in an attempt to overthrow the Bolivian military dictatorship.

His Bolivian Diary, first published in Cuba in 1968, is the remarkable and ultimately tragic first-hand account of Che's formation of a tiny band of revolutionaries, his attempt to proselytise the local peasants, his skirmishes with the Bolivian army, and his final shootout and cold-blooded execution at the hands of the military in October 1967. Stripped of the romantic idealism usually associated with Che, the diary is a sobering account of the drudgery, fear and monotony of guerrilla warfare. Much of the diary is taken up with the preoccupations of basic survival in the primitive conditions of the Bolivian mountains, whilst playing a tense and often ineffective game of hit and run with the Bolivian army. There are some wonderful moments, such as Che breaking off from military preparations to remember that, "I must write some letters to Sartre and Bertrand Russell..." or commandeering a jeep and running it on the urine of his guerrillas. Ultimately this is a tough, uncompromising portrait of a ruthlessly disciplined and single-minded man, relishing a conflict which "gives us the opportunity to turn ourselves into revolutionaries, the highest state of the human species". --Jerry Brotton

Review:

Praise for the films, ‘Che Part 1’ and ‘Che Part 2’:

‘Brilliant.’ The Times

‘A grand Hollywood war movie. Del Toro gives a stunning performance as Che Guevara. ****’ Empire

‘Soderbergh’s best film. A masterpiece. ****’ Total Film

'”Che” is brilliant...incandescent – a piece of full-on, you-are-there realism...[A] perfect dream movie, which is also politically vibrant and searing.' Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere

'”Che” is a piece of entertainment that delivers excitement, pathos and pure film-making passion...The end result is masterful – expressive, innovative, striking, exciting.’ www.cinematical.com

Praise for ‘The Bolivian Diary’:

'Guevara was a figure of epic proportions. These diaries, stark and moving, will be his most enduring monument.’ Observer

'Vivid and compelling.' Economist

Praise for ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’:

‘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...one senses El Che’s belief that determination and conviction can be enough to change one's self and others...a joy to read from start to finish.’ Financial Times

‘Political incorrectness galore...this book should do much to humanise the image of a man who found his apotheosis as a late Sixties cultural icon. It is also, incidentally, a remarkably good travel book about South America.’ Scotsman

About this edition

• Publisher: Pimlico
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1844138291
• ISBN 13: 9781844138296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272