The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey around South America - Ernesto ('Che') Guevara

The account of two Argentinian travellers exploring South America on a disaster prone motorbike is, I believe, interesting in itself, even if you don't know anything about Che Guevara. If this is the case, I'd suggest you either go and find out, or read this book first and see what you think of him before looking at the rest of the review, because I'm interested to know what sort of impression people get from it before they find out anything else about him. I haven't figured out where this review is going yet (as with the last three...) so please excuse me.

Guevara, a 23 year old medical student, leaves Buenos Aires on their motorcycle, 'La Poderosa II', in January of 1952 with his friend Alberto Granado, and returns home in September of that year minus both friend and bike. They pass through Chile, where the people are incredibly friendly, and Peru, where they get through a lot of sightseeing; then Colombia, and Venezuela. In this edition, at least, letters from Che Guevara to his parents are interspersed with his diary entries. I get the impression that these have been altered for publication, and of course it's inevitable that the translation isn't as direct as the original, but the entries are very readable - they're written with a sense of humour, and apparent honesty; Guevara doesn't hold back in telling of how they used their positions as 'doctors' to cadge meals or few nights' accomodation at the local hospitals, getting drunk and having to escape an enraged husband, their 'anniversary routine' - I hope you'll appreciate this so I'm putting it in:

"1. One of us says something in a loud voice immediately identifying us as Argentine, something with a che in it and other typical expressions and pronunciation. The victim asks where we're from and we strike up a conversation.

2. We begin our tale of woe but don't make too much of it, all the while staring into the distance.

3. Then I butt in and ask what the date is. Someone says it and Alberto sighs and says: 'What a coincidence, it was exactly a year ago.' The victim asks what was a year ago, and we reply that was when we started out on our trip.

4. Alberto, who is much more brazen than me, then heaves a tremendous sigh and says, 'Shame we're in such dire straits, we won't be able to celebrate' (he says this as a kind of aside to me). The victim immediately offers to pay, we pretend to refuse for a while saying we can't possibly pay him back, etc., then we finally accept.

5. After the first drink, I adamantly refuse another and Alberto makes fun of me. Our host gets annoyed and insists, I keep refusing but won't say why. The victim keeps asking until I confess, rather shamefacedly, that in Argentina it's the custom to eat when we drink. Just how much we eat depends on what we think we can get away with, but the technique never fails."

- Ernesto Che Guevara, 1995. The Motorcycle Diaries. 'Our hopes are dashed', p115-116. Verso: London.

Please excuse the rather long quotation and the referencing :P This is only one of the many things they come up with - a Kiwi OE seems so dull by comparison. An excellent thing about Che Guevara's writing is how ordinarily he treats his adventures (I'm not sure if this is what he actually thought - perhaps this is completely normal behaviour for South American guys in the 1950s - or if it's just a feature of his writing style); he doesn't try to excuse their actions, and writes very casually about recurrent asthma attacks, or about swimming across the Amazon to visit a leper colony.

You may have seen the film of The Motorcycle Diaries - it's good, although in some ways I think the book does more justice to the characters, being a first hand account. However, the movie does emphasise a lot of the material that Che Guevara downplays, for example the way they deal with the patients in the leper colony (normally, compared the way they're treated by the doctors and nuns), and works well in combination with the book.

Che Guevara's developing political and social views also come across to an extent - in his birthday speech at the leper colony, where he talks about a united South American identity, or when he writes of meeting a Communist couple in Chile '..what had burgeoned in him [the husband] was nothing more than the natural desire for a better life...' and the treatment of workers at a Chilean copper mine. He tells his mother about staying in a hospital in Colombia - '...by which I mean a chair to spend the night in. We aren't all that broke, but explorers of our stature would rather die than pay for the bourgeois comfort of a hostel.' Comments like these might not be entirely noticeable, though, unless you know more about his later life.

Well, I apologise profusely for the quality of the review, and all I can say now is that I strongly recommend you read this book (and watch the film), because they're humorous/entertaining, and thought-provoking; if you don't know much about South America they're also informative, and give an insight into the development of (I think) the world's most influential socialist revolutionary.