Chasing Che : A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend

Rating:
Summary: Not just for gusanos
Review: Patrick Symmes dedicates his book: "for gusanos everywhere". According to Castro, a gusano (worm) is someone who disagrees with his version of the revolution. This journey of 10,000 miles, through Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, retraces, in part, the path of Ernesto (Che) Guevera on a motorcycle trip he took in 1952 which was influential in shaping his convictions and the rest of his life. Along the way, Symmes meets people who knew Che, visits places where he stayed and ends his journey in the spot, in Bolivia, where Guevera met his end. The book begins and ends in Cuba where the spark was ignited to uncover the man inside the legend. Symmes meets a man who asks him to "tell people how it really is".
By the time he returns to Cuba, a year after his journey, for Che's funeral, Symmes has come to see Gueverra as a man with all convictions and contradictions of any great man.
This is a wonderful travel book, filled with history, biography, adventure as well as a dollop of humor. The writing is first rate. I hope Symmes is working on another book.

Rating:
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS BOOK
Review: Patrick Symmes killed me with his book CHASING CHE, squashing me somewhere between Che and the peasant who generously offered him a pineapple, gratis. I don't need Guevera, or Che, translated to me by someone who recognizes kindness primarily as a survival mechanism. CHASING CHE was good enough to get me to read up to page 147, but I could read no further, as Symmes found it necessary to deconstruct the act of pineapple giving into its more selfish parts. He killed this good thing very dead, and I realized then that his point of view lacked humanity. I lost interest in him, and his bike, and his saddlebags, and his intellect, and his killer ax. It is a shame, really, because by page 147 I was almost ready to let him skewer Ernesto himself, as anyone who has ever read MOTORCYCLE DIARIES knows he justly deserves. Symmes has the heart of a predator, and I am sure he has many trophies. I would not count The Legend Of Che among them, however. Che got away.

Rating:
Summary: Travel, History and much more
Review: Patrick Symmes retraces the 1952 motorcycle journey of Che Guevara. At first, I thought it was just going to be a travel story, but found it to be an excellent mix of history and travel. Patrick is very honest and shows the reader both sides of the story. I anxiously await Patrick Symmes next work.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise - three books in one
Review: Patrick Symmes' "Chasing Che" documents his 1996 journey through South America, traveling over 10,000 miles solo on a BMW motorcycle, hewing approxmiately to the path of journey taken by the then 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, aka 'Che', and his travel partner Alberto Granado. Symmes' work is now getting a well deserved bump due to Walter Salles' recent release of the 'The Motorcycle Diaries.'

I really enjoyed this work and consider it to be three different books, all intertwined in one compelling narrative:

- There's Symmes' attempts to reconcile the diaries of both Guevara and Granado to what he sees on his trip. He's done a lot of good research here. Many times, he'd roll into a small town, suss it out, and tell a proprietor "Che stayed here." Invariably, this revelation would bowl the guy over. Then, they'd set out together to prove the point, usually successfully.

- There's the story of Symmes' journey itself. This is the surprise - his tale is almost equally compelling...undertaking a 10,000 mile solo journey using his developing Spanish, Symmes deals with injury, depravation, arduous Andes crossings, flat tires in the middle of nowhere, and vast streches of nothingness in the Chilean desert. His fortitude is extremely impressive, as are his journalistic instincts, which get him the right interview time after time. This is true right to the very end, where an epilogue finds in the living room of Alberto Granado in Havana, sipping (no, slugging down) rum and questioning the old man about the discrepancies between the travelers' diaries. "Who saved the kitten?" asks Symmes. Wonderful stuff.

- The third component is what sets this book apart from the average travelogue: Symmes is journalist first, traveler second. What that means is that in each country he goes through, we get an outstanding discourse on the current (1996) issues and recent history of that land. So, for example, we get heady passages about Allende, Pinochet, and Orlando Letelier in Chile. And the Shining Path, Montesinos and Fujimori while in Peru. In Bolivia, you read about the dynamics of that society, including a very insightful piece on just why Guevara failed there. All in all, very impressive work.

The one major thing that needs to be pointed out: contrary to what you may think about a book of this nature, this in no Che-worshipping hagiography. To the contrary, Symmes spares no detail in covering what he considers to be Guevara's flailings and failings in Bolivia. The Che of Bolivia comes across in Symmes hand as inept and, most notably, damned by an extreme case of hubris. To paraphrase a joke Symmes tells, Guevara's dream ended in Bolivia not of heroic action, but because of "suicide caused by jumping off one's own ego." It's an unsparing book.

Rating:
Summary: 4 and 1/2 stars
Review: Patrick Symmes' journal of his retracing El Che's journey. As both a motorcyclist and someone who enjoys travel I found it to be very interesting to read and can highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: politics, history, and adventure
Review: The author of this book takes us on a fascinating tour of South American politics, society, history, and geography. Through his eyes we learn about the politics and travels of Che Guevara, as well as the mechanics of an air-cooled BMW boxer engine, as he follows the travels of Che on his motorcycle. I was drawn to the book because of the adventure travel aspect, but soon became just as interested in the author's observations of South America.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: The author travels across south america, tracking all places and people associated with che guevara on his youthful journey, taking on some of che's personality characteristics, including some dubious ones, like pretending to be someone more famous. But he is admirable for being willing to put up with the dust and grime of the journey.

As a woman I found him a mixed bag, despite the worshipful reviews I read elsewhere, who despite his own admitted(?) ego (that too is a bit like che) is willing to call an older woman who refuses to reveal her age "vain" and thinks nothing of spying under the beds of female prison inmates, who though part of the bloodthirsty shining path movement, are nevertheless at that moment, in jail, and might have their privacy respected.

Rating:
Summary: One question still reamins!
Review: The mystery of who saved the kitten from the fire may have revealed in Havanna. But I want to know what happened to Kooky?

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: 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."

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding history, entertainment, journalism.
Review: This book is a rare mix of street savvy, educated sophistication and journalism. Very entertaining. I read the entire book in one sitting during a four hour plane cancellation at Dulles International! Highly recommended!