Self Portrait Che Guevara [Paperback]

Ernesto Che Guevara (Author), Victor Casaus (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2008

A PHOTOGRAPHIC AND LITERARY MEMOIR

At last, Che in his own words, beyond the icon! Discover the personal side of the legendary Che Guevara in this photographic and literary memoir that includes unpublished short stories, letters and poems written to his family, as well as photos from the Guevara family album, showing a surprisingly sensitive and artistic side to a man often seen as a hard-line revolutionary.

Unique among the many books about Che Guevara, this self-portrait reveals his remarkable candor, irony, dry wit, and, above all, his passion.

Edited by prominent Latin American poet and intellectual Victor Casaus, with the assistance of Che’s children and widow (Aleida March).

"Che was the most complete human being of our age."—Jean-Paul Sartre

"This beautiful, enlightening volume humanizes Che." —RAIN TAXI

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Che Guevara was the legendary Latin American guerrilla fighter who joined the Cuban revolutionary movement that toppled the Batista dictatorship. He played a leading role in the early years of the Cuban Revolution and made an extraordinary and original contribution to Marxist theory. He died at the hands of CIA assassins in Bolivia in 1967.

Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Ocean Press (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1876175826
• ISBN-13: 978-1876175825
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Guevara, Che

More About the Author

Ernesto Che Guevara was born in Argentina in 1928. After fighting alongside Fidel Castro in the three-year guerilla war in Cuba, he became Minister for Industry following the victory of the Cuban revolution. In 1966 he established a guerilla base in Bolivia. He was captured and killed in 1967.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Book of Memoirs, March 20, 2005

By 

Ileana Canetti "Professor" (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self Portrait Che Guevara (Paperback)

If you are tired of the same books on Che Guevara, this is the different book. Formed by texts and images based upon Che's own life it follows mainly the same path of its biographers but in such a beautiful way it made his own daughter Aleyda (who rarely saw him) exclaim: "the photos in this book are so magnificent you feel a desire for kissing him, embracing him and keep talking to him" (she means with his own personal texts based in his own testimony).

The selection, prepared on the first hand with the remembrance of a lost love (by his widow) and on the other, by the professional eye of Victor Casaus (a Cuban cinematographer who had been many times a judge on international film competitions) you can follow Dr. Guevara from his childhood, young age, his travels, the Sierra Maestra up to his last days in Bolivia.

Sorry, no Christ figure photo (in the words of its own editor). Keep in mind this is a pro-Cuban Government book so you instead will find Fidel, but judge by yourself. My only last opinion is that if this people can produce such a book in a system so full of censorship, I do wonder what they can achieve in liberty!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece, June 21, 2009

By 

Jared McClain "the opinion that counts" (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self Portrait Che Guevara (Paperback)

This book combines a great in depth look to a man who means something different to many different people. It really allows you inside the head of Ernesto Guevara, the man, not just the revolutionary. The pictures in the book are beautifully done and in large clear print. I searched through many Che books before settling on this one and have to say I am pleased with myself for choosing the book in the end.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite what I had expected, August 1, 2007

By 

Maizy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Self Portrait Che Guevara (Paperback)

I purchased Self Portrait because it sounded like a good biography/autobiography of Che Guevara. What the book actually is is a coffee table book, with small excerpts from Che's diaries and letters and commentary by the editor, Victor Casaus. It seems in some parts of the book that Casaus is more the author and that his words fill the pages more than Guevara's. This book has great photos of Guevara and it decorates my coffee table quite nicely, but if you are looking for a good history of Guevara, look elsewhere.