From Publishers Weekly
Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara became Fidel Castro's chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution, Cuba's minister for industry and later a guerrilla in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed in 1967. This high-spirited travel diary of Guevara's eight-month motorcycle journey across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela as a 23-year-old medical student in 1951-52 mixes lyrical observation, youthful adventure and anti-imperialist political analysis. With a doctor friend as traveling companion, Guevara stows away on a cargo ship, explores Inca ruins, volunteers as a fireman, visits a leper colony and displays solidarity with miners and farm workers. Guevara's snide passing remarks targeting blacks, homosexuals and Jews reveal an unpleasant side of the countercultural icon. On balance, this candid journal, part self-discovery, part fieldwork, glimmers with portents of the future revolutionary. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Midwest Book Review
Full of high drama and comedy, The Motorcycle Diaries is the story of a remarkable road journey in the words of a 23-year-old medical student known as "Che". There are fights, parties, and serious drinking. There are also moving examples of Guevara's idealism and solidarity with the oppressed, in this vivid record of what for others would have been the adventure of a lifetime. No biographical study or understanding of Che Guevara is complete without the reading of his diaries recording his thoughts as he journeyed around South America.


Review
“Das Kapital meets Easy Rider.” (Times) “A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac.” (Washington Post) “…Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, ‘I’ turned into ‘we’.” (Eduardo Galeano) “An extraordinary first-person account. … It redoubles his image and lends a touch of humanity with enough rough edges to invite controversy.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review) “For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. (Time) “There is pathos in these pages — the pathos of Che himself, ever thoughtful, ever willing to sacrifice all, burning with guilt over his own privileges and never letting his sufferings impede him.” (New Yorker) “This candid journal, part self-discovery, part fieldwork, glimmers with portents of the future revolutionary.” (Publishers’ Weekly) “A revolutionary bestseller… 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.” (Financial Times) “This book should do much to humanize the image of a man who found his apotheosis as a late ‘60s cultural icon. It is also, incidentally, a remarkably good travel book about South America.” (The Scotsman)


Book Description

Special movie tie-in edition of Che Guevara's youthful travel diaries to coincide with the Fall release of Redford & Salles's film of the book. Says director Walter Salles: "If the film reaches a younger audience, I hope it will inspire people to read The Motorcycle Diaries, to have the impression that change can occur."

"As his journey progresses, Guevara's voice seems to deepen, to darken, colored by what he witnesses in his travels. He is still poetic, but now he comments on what he sees, though still poetically, with a new awareness of the social and political ramifications of what's going on around him."-January Magazine

"The Motorcycle Diaries could easily go on to become the first Spanish language nominee for Best Picture."-Roger Friedman, Fox News


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

FROM OUR EDITORS

In 1952, on the back of a British motorcycle, medical student Ernesto "Che" Guevara took off on a hastily improvised tour of South America. Before a third of his trip was over, Guevara's sputtering 1939 Norton had to be abandoned, but his scribbled, mud-splattered journal became the basis of the posthumously published Motorcycle Diaries, which in turn was the basis of the Walter Salles film of the same name. This movie tie-in edition offers a rare glimpse into the life of a young man about to leap into history.

FROM THE PUBLISHER