| Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara |  | Author: Jorge G. Castaneda
Publisher: Vintage
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Rating:  31 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Vintage Books Ed
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0679759409
Dewey Decimal Number: 980.035092
EAN: 9780679759409
Publication Date: October 27, 1998
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
 A great disappointment. March 25, 2010
That Was Cool. (Phoenix, Arizona, USA)
Since the facts of Che Guevara life are documented in other biographies, the relevant question for a new biography is whether it provides new clarity into the life of the subject. As can be seen from the 2 stars I give this book my judgment is no, this authors biography of Che does not add clarity to the life of Che. On the contrary, this biography perpetuates myth and disinformation about Che and in a particularly dangerous way.
This biography is particularly troubling to me because in initially impresses as a rather scholarly and objective effort with many footnotes and explanations at the bottom of pages. The substantial and pervasive bias of the author is reveled not by what easily and previously documented facts are provided . . . that is, nothing new . . . but the insidious slanting and mythologizing that is the result of completely unsubstantiated judgments by the author, and the absence of attention to details that scream for inclusion like his residing over the execution of from 500 to 1,000 prisoners many of which are clearly murders. The most the author can get himself to say is "Justifiable as these executions may have seemed at the time, they were carried out without respect for due process." In other words murder.
The facts that are easy to come by provide an unfaltering view of Che: a man with some charisma and will, but with limited intellectual ability who, if it were not for his lucky associating (or unlucky depending on your perspective I guess) with Castro in Mexico, he would have been an obscure nothing in history like most of us. Che is caught up in a revolution that is foreign to him, yet deeply attracted to it because of his love of the exotic life of the adventurer.
In one of the authors rare bursts of honesty, he acknowledges that the full story of Che's life cannot be told because the archives in Cuba have not and probably will not be made available to researchers, and that Communist hero or villains have to be all good or all bad and " . . . . there is no room for ordinary human beings who go on to become extraordinary figures owing to the confluence of their talents and their historical context." p. 27
The remarkably human side of Che is relieved by his extreme narcissism which is quoted in the book, "I know how I love your and how much I love you, but I cannot sacrifice my inner freedom for you; it means sacrificing myself, and I am the most important thing in the world, as I have already told you." p. 39 Can there be any more a narcissistic statement than this one?
Now on guard, I started to scan the text of this biography for other character flaws in this otherwise heroic and idolized figure . . . Che Guevara. It didn't take long in appearing on page 42 where the author confirms Che's lifelong tendency to hyperbole "I realize now that something in me has flowered some time ago: a hatred of civilization." A hatred of civilization? Okay.
Then our biographer starts to add to the myth of Che by making the following comment, "[Che unknowingly becomes a man] in search of a tragedy. p. 43 In other words, he becomes a tragic figure. Perhaps tragic, but even more astonishingly ignorant of the political and social climate and realities that surround him that even the most rudimentary attention to his everyday environment would have reveled. For example, during his brief stay in Bolivia, the place of his death several years later, if he would have cared to notice or learn he would have realized that Bolivia is exceptionally different than most of Latin American countries in the relationship between the country, people and the Bolivian army. If he would have noticed, he might have avoided the death he was to deservedly receive there while fomenting a revolution that had virtually no support.
The author then provides support to the supposition that Che had very little military aptitude except on the most basic level of leading by example which qualified him at the absolute most for command of squad size units of perhaps 10 meant, certainly no more than company size. The author explains that when Che is left with the responsibility of larger units and the responsibility of carrying out public policy on domestic issues, he fails miserably, and only manages because Castro keeps him close to himself so that his most extreme mistakes can be moderated. It must be added that later the author adds the observations of others involved in the military actions of the times, but maidenly does nothing to resolve the contradiction he creates.
The extreme intellectualization used by Che in justifying his actions leads him to blandly resigning himself to murder in the cause of the revolution thereby relieving himself of the opportunity to be at least an honest murderer. The author seems to go along with this type of reasoning holding that it is reasonable to execute counter-revolutionaries because it is expedient. The honesty is further violated because the author never has the courage to call murder a murder.
Increasingly annoying is the authors predilection to compare Che to biblical figures first the apostle Peter and latter to Christ himself. For example, "To Ramos Lamour he confesses his guilt, like the apostle Peter . . . " p 111, and later in the book near the end compares Che seeking death like Christ sought death at Calvary. As a Christian I find these comparisons appalling and evil. Certainly, Che was no Peter, and certainly no Christ figure other than he seems to have sought death as a martyr.
The authors exceptional bias toward Che is relieved continuously by the words the author uses to describe him such as decent, noble and brilliant despite obvious contradictions, the most obvious being that Che was a murderer. Evidently, the limit to the capacity of Che for murder was only limited when he was moved to a different position of command. The conclusion one can make is that if there were 10,000,000 at the prison, Che would have continued on executing people making him one of the greatest mass murderers of all time.
Finally, the lasting impression I took from this book was that the author admitted Che's faults when it was absolutely essential and obvious, yet when necessary to look deep and be honest the author failed miserably. A perfect example of this is the opportunity to more fully explore Che's complicity in the above murders which could have been easily done. There are many, many people and organizations that easily could have been contacted for interviews to give personal accounts of Che's personal and intimate involvement in torture and murder. Instead, the author give short shift to the worst possible offences ascribed to Che. The author could have made a diligent effort to exonerate the personality he made obvious efforts to ennoble. Yet he did not. The whole episode concerning his involvement in the La Cabana was covered in less than a page of the book. A very poor effort indeed.
This undermines the rest of the authors effort and honest reporting of Che's life. I don't expect a revolutionary to be a saint so don't pretend he is one. For a revolution to succeed summary executions, that is murder, is probably needed to assure the success and continuation of the revolution. Just don't don't call murder a " . . . lack of due process."
 Absolute Horse manure! Che was a thug and a pathological murderer! March 14, 2010
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Folks, I've got news for you the real Che was nothing more than a loser, a coward, a pathological murderer and an incompetent military commander.
I am aghast that the favorable reviews here are from people who have formulated their opinion about this assassin solely based on the movies and books of Che's leftist sympathizers and Castro propagandists.
It's like a person saying that he now has a clearer understanding of what a "wonderful guy" Joseph Mengele (the angel of death of nazi concentration camps) really was based solely on his interviews with Adolph Hitler and his minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels while completely discrediting the testimony of his millions of victims! Preposterous!
To get an idea of what Che was really like you must read the unbiased accounts of people that were his victims in Humberto Fontova's excellent book: "Exposing the real Che Guevara and the useful idiots who idolize him."
To wit: Che admitted to his soldiers that "he wasn't a doctor but knew something about medicine." (The University of Medicine in Buenos Aires has no record of him every studying medicine there). He also admitted that "he didn't know anything about military tactics." Soldiers noted that in a firefight, Che ran away like a scared rabbit. When he oversaw thousands of firing squad executions in La Cabana prison (from his custom built private perch) of innocent men, women and children (some as young as 14 years old) he would sign the execution papers with the comment "it is not necessary to prove a person guilty only that it is necessary to execute him." His admirers say that he was an ascetic yet in Cuba he appropriated for himself the most luxurious mansion he could get his hands on. Incapable of using a map and compass he always got lost in the jungle! And finally, when two Bolivian Army soldiers came upon him, Che,(abandoning his men)ran toward them, threw up his arms and pleaded "Don't shoot! I surrender! I am Che! I am worth more to you alive than dead!"
Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him
 How to know Che? December 8, 2009
Christian Dubord (Candiac, Canada)
Excellent! You learn everything about his life and see, the way he saw little single things about people in the way of a perfect word.
You can use it for a biography or ether history at school.
Wonderful Book - Companero: Che Guevara November 21, 2009
I like that this book goes into great detail about the life of Che. If you're interested in learning about Che then this is the book for you!
very good place to start August 19, 2009
B. Burch (Boulder, CO)
After seeing Motorcycle Diaries and Che (w/ Benicio Del Toro) and having very polarized opinions of Che offered to me, I decided to search for an unbiased account of Che's life. This book stands as a great example of that, going into great detail about Che's life, aspirations, motivations, and impact on the world around him. (It also fills in large gaps that the above films do not address and at the same time validates their accuracy and well-deserved praise.) Regardless of your opinion of Che, you stand to learn something from this book. Castaneda points out Che's strengths as well as his flaws, and praises achievements but admits mistakes. This is by no means a fast read, but is very informative. If you are looking for pure entertainment you may want to look elsewhere, but this serves as a very solid Che reference. I came away from Compañero with a fairly strong understanding of Che and am better able to form my own opinion now.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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