Customer Reviews

Chasing Che

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I must admit that, until now, the only thing that I knew about Che Guevara was that he was a Latin American revolutionary and that there were posters of him everywhere in the 1970s. I do love travel books, however - especially if the writer takes a personal journey to retrace a part of history. And so, this book, subtitled "A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend" has been intriguing me from bookstore shelves for some time. I finally purchased it and it took me all summer to read, not because it's a long book. Indeed, it's a small paperback that is only 302 pages long. I've not been in a reading mood lately but I kept this book my tote bag and read it a few pages at a time whenever I had an idle moment. I finally finished it as summer waned into Labor Day weekend. And I must say I've enjoyed its companionship.

In 1952, Che Guevara, then a young Argentinean doctor, took a motorcycle trip with a companion named Alberto Granado throughout South American. When the journey was over eight months later, Che had transformed into a revolutionary. He later became a hero in the Cuban revolution and was murdered in Bolivia in 1967. Che's own book, "The Motorcycle Diaries" has become a classic and I understand it will soon become a film.

I think Che's story is fascinating. However, I, personally, identified more with the writer, who carried the diaries of both Guevara and Granado with him on his own trip and took notes constantly. I absorbed his sense of adventure as he traveled the same roads as the legendary Che. Good thing Patrick Symmes, who is an American, speaks Spanish. He needed it throughout his trip, especially during the many times his own motorcycle, a BMW R80/GS, broke down. Mostly, he was all by himself, going into small towns and asking townspeople about Che or traveling for hours and hours and hours and hours without seeing a human being. I felt I was right there with him all the time as he journeyed from Argentina through Chile, Peru and Bolivia. I leaned about these places through the eyes of this lone man on a motorcycle. I felt the heat and the cold and the thin mountain air. I felt his hunger and thirst and need for a place to rest. I felt his fright as dogs chased him and his discomfort during a bout of food poisoning. I learned about history. And I watched him have to use his ingenuity over and over again to either fix his motorcycle or get a gem of background information and insight about Che from some of the people he encountered.

I'm a senior citizen who has lived in New York City all my life. I've never even been on a motorcycle and my world is paved with sidewalks. This book is probably the closest I'll ever be to motorcycle riding in undeveloped areas of South America. But I could be there vicariously whenever I opened this little book. I loved every minute of this reading experience. And I highly recommend it to armchair travelers everywhere.

I was drawn to this book more because of a well established attraction to South America than a particular interest in Che Guevara. This book was particularly satisfying because it spoke to my interests, expanded my understanding of Guevera, and described a rivetting adventure.

Mr. Symmes is impressive from a variety of perspectives. You are struck by his spirit, endurance and "guts" striving to replicate the Guevara's gritty adventure of the '50's. Curiosity to see whether Symmes and his BMW bike "Kookie" will complete the marathon alone keeps you reading. However, besides admiring his daring and iconoclasm, you find that Symmes is a solid scholar and a fine wordsmith.

The book provides an accurate and informative description of the depradations of the recent military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, and points out the irony of how, long after he was dead, Guevara contributed to their emergence. Symmes also provides a moving description of the centuries old fate of the Latin American poor in Peru and Bolivia as well. While "up close" experience has made his perspective justifiably left of center he effectively makes his case by sticking to the unvarnished facts. He refrains from offering any half baked neo-Marxist aphorisms, and provides balance by noting the arrogance, chauvanism, pointless brutality, and ultimate hubris of Guevara, as well as the Machiavellian meglomania of Castro. The book's thesis is that Guevara the symbol and myth have ultimately have had far more global impact than any of the achievements of Guevara the man.

This book is educational, moving, and thought provoking whether you are left or right on the political spectrum. If you know little about Latin America or Che, you will learn quite a bit about this often ignored part of the world.

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.

He's an icon and, like most icons, the legend of his life has overtaken the facts. In Bolivia, the site of his execution has become a tourist mecca. In college dorm rooms, his image (defiant gaze, beret adorned with a red star) remains a perennial favorite among wannabe revolutionaries,pop star Madonna has even copied his image. Sartre called him "the most complete human being of our age." Journalist Daniel Wolf, in a recent issue of England's Spectator magazine, labeled him "one of the most oversold figures of the past half century." Thirty-seven years after he was executed in Bolivia, Che Guevara lives - and then some. The man who helped Fidel Castro spearhead the Cuban revolution remains a potent and divisive figure, even though most North Americans today know him only as an image, an abstract radical.

Almost 50 years after Che's trip, author Patrick Symmes sets out on his 12 year old BMW to explore the legend and recreate the journey Che made (started...) on his '39 Norton.

The book is true to its title. The author is 'chasing Che', the REAL Che, rather than simply out for adventure on two wheels. Yet Patrick and his blue and orange R80G/S certainly have their share of 'moments', traveling 10,000km in four months through the demanding landscapes of the Americas.

He survives mad dogs, bad fuel, puncture and plug problems, bandits and the various 'authorities'. Wading through the Che 'industry' of T-shirts, fridge magnets, mud-flaps(?), beer, skis, et al, Patrick's connection with local people sheds light on the man behind the myth. This is where the story becomes engrossing. There's a memorable encounter with Che's original riding companion Alberto Granado and a rather large quantity of a certain beverage.

Did you know Alberto also kept a diary of the trip? He was already a committed marxist and his raw day-to-day account contrasts starkly with Che's more poetic and polished 'Notas de Viaje' (Notes of a trip). That the two men differ over several incidents makes for an intriguing read.

Patrick invokes the spirit of the original journey well, you feel you're right there with Che, searching for....what? Inspiration, adventure, a solution to the world's problems? You also feel close to the poverty, the social and government dysfunction, and the warm friendly welcome of the people along the road.

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.

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.

Wow! I knew very little about Che before reading this book. I learned so much about not only him, but about Latin America today. I loved the fact that Mr. Symmes visits the same people and places that Che did. He interviews people about Che and talks about how Che got the name "Che." I love his sense of adventure...he captures the imagery of Bolivia, Peru and Chile vividly for his readers and enlightens us with interesting facts and descriptions. His spirit of adventure makes me want to travel to South America and to read more about Che. I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE! It is truly a phenomenal, inspiring and intellectual journey of the mind, body, and spirit.

If you are searching for yet another book praising Che and the Revolution, find something else. However, if you wish to find one human's extraordinary story of learning of himself and of his hero, El Che, this is the book to get. Patrick Symmes has a deft fluency with written word, and the book will constantly make you laugh, or at the very least, smirk. You'll gain great insight into the author and the figure of Che. As he was and is. We should all be so lucky as to have a journey such as Patricio's.

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.

I will readily admit when I first picked up this book, I was expecting it to be about Che Guevara. However, it is much more than a Che Biography; it is the story of a man's motorcycle trek across the Americas. Patrick Symmes' initial motivation was to duplicate Guevara's famed 1952 motorcycle trip but along the way he experienced his own journey of life. In short, the book is a tale of self-discovery much like Guevara's trip was one of self-discovery for the future guerrilla leader. With that writen, I highly recommend this book. Mr Symmes is an insightful observer who effectiveley captures his travels along the hard, long road in quest of the Guevara spirit. Along the way, he learns much about himself and his own "never give up" spirit.