[.ca] Chasing Che (ISBN 1841192910)

From Amazon.com:
A motorcycle trip in 1952 marked a turning point for Ernesto Guevara Lynch de la Serna, a medical student returning from a journey into poverty and oppression with a vision of guerilla-style change and a new name, Che Guevara. Going on to help overthrow the Cuban government, align himself with Castro, and become elevated to martyred hero status when he was executed in Bolivia in 1967, Guevara's likeness is now commercialized and captured on T-shirts, castanets, and watches. New York writer Patrick Symmes embarks on motorcycle tracing Guevara's route through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Cuba, seeking insight into what Guevara experienced and what his political movement wrought. Meeting with those who knew the young Che--among them a lover, a leper, and his motorcycle traveling cohort--proves interesting enough, though rarely insightful since some were children at the time, some are confused, and others refuse to talk openly. More revealing are Symmes's travels on his bike, nicknamed La Cucaracha. He winds through both Buenos Aires' high society and Peruvian poverty, finding a fragmented country where revolutions have brought mountain peasants fleeing to shanty towns, and where blind idealism coexists with blatant denouncement of the violent tactics used by Cuban Communists, even by Che's most respected soldiers. Beautifully written, the stories that unfold here reflect the complex contradiction that endures in Latin America three long decades after Ernesto "Che" Guevara's death. --Melissa Rossi

With Symmes chasing Che and finding?:
I do not know what I expected when I bought this book, but reading g it proved well worth my time and money. It is a travel book more in the spirit of Stienbeck's Travels With Charlie than it is with In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. It is a ramble, through southern South America, along the journey made by Che before he was "Che" and through the mind of Patrick Symmes. All three are interesting places to go. I guess my one surprise was the amount of trouble that he had with his BMW motorcycle. A friend of mine had one several years ago, the same model if not the same year, and it was almost indestructible. It had to be with my friend as the owner. So that was a disappointment. The insights into the historical person Che became later are there, sort of sprinkled through the book as is a good look at the youth. He is not an adulator and he neither hides nor dwells on the dark side of being a committed revolutionary. Of course, Che was not yet committed at least when he started this journey. A warrior doctor along with the idea of a warrior priest has always seemed to be an oxymoron to me. The creation of exactly that which you have trained, at great cost, to fight must require conviction of a special kind. That Che was committed there can be no doubt - but why to this life course remains elusive for me. He was sensitive man, and a killer. A doctor and a soldier. A revolutionary and a mystic. Like Thomas Jefferson's utterly inexplicable slave holdings, these realities are also the reasons he still fascinates me. I like the book. I think I would like the author and I recommend it as an interesting look at a difficult man and a romantic journey that I and perhaps you would have liked to have joined, and may still enjoy in spirit.

One good journey deserves another...:
Almost 50 years after Che's Motorcycle Diaries, Symmes recreates the journey on a BMW-R80. Covering over 10,000 miles of open road and experiencing several mechanical breakdowns as well as roadside disasters, Symmes masterfully inspires the traveler within us to break away and move on. Near the conclusion of his trip he makes an assertion, "This moment of life, alone at dusk in the rain at twelve thousand feet with nothing, is still enough...I could live through the rain and the darkness and the bad roads and everything I owned disappearing into the bottom of a cloud. But I could not live without this trip, without some movement. In a life of restless longing, the only hope lies somewhere ahead."

Not just for Che addicts:
I picked up this book after spending some time in Peru, not knowing much about Che except his iconic image on t-shirts of disconnected youths. I think I read the book from cover to cover without putting it down, almost literally. This book is one of the most exciting stories I've read in a long time, and perhaps one of the best narrative histories I've read. What made it such a great read was that it wasn't about the revolution, the image, or the icon that has since been created. It was about a couple of lost youth travelling around trying to find themselves. Knowing this made me appreciate Che even more, and to explore more about this dynamic individual who has become such an integral part of a globalised culture.

Fabulous!:
This a great read. Engagingly written and entertaining. Che fans and motorcycling fans alike will also love "Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba," a fascinating and sometimes hilarious, sometimes hair-raising story of a 7,000-mile journey and justifiably the winner of both the 2002 "Travel Book of the Year" and the North American Travel Journalist Association's Awards of Excellence "Grand Prize."

A new deal - really several books in one!:
It is rare to find anything written about Che that is so unpretentious. Patrick captures two eras and several countries in this book, evoking an appreciation of South America in the '50s and today. What's cool about this book is that Patrick points out a lot of the contradictions in Che's life but doesn't pretend to know all the answers. Like many of us, Patrick finds himself liking Che...in spite of Guevara. The book also finds a very clean balance between being a sales-pitch tour guide and a tear-jerker poverty index. I found Patrick's commentary surrounding Che's diary and other published works about him to be very insightful. Lastly, the dry wit and hip tone of the writing is what makes this such a great read.