Che
A Revolutionary Life
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
“A remarkable accomplishment, one that belongs next to such works of graphical history as the March series and Shigeru Mizuki's Showa books. By foregrounding the tension between myth and truth, Che illuminates the present state of our politics as well as the past.” —NPR
The graphic adaptation of the groundbreaking and definitive biography of Che Guevara
Che Guevara's legend is unmatched in the modern world. Since his assassination in 1967 at the age of thirty-nine, the Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally recognized icon, as revered as he is controversial. As a Marxist ideologue who sought to end global inequality by bringing down the American capitalist empire through armed guerrilla warfare, Che has few rivals in the Cold War era as an apostle of revolutionary change. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández present the man behind the myth, creating a complex and human portrait of this passionate idealist.
Adapted from Jon Lee Anderson's definitive masterwork, Che vividly transports us from young Ernesto's medical school days as a sensitive asthmatic to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from his place of power alongside Castro, to his disastrous sojourn in the Congo, and his violent end in Bolivia. Through renowned Mexican artist José Hernández's drawings we feel the bullets wing past the head of the young rebel in Cuba, we smell the thick smoke of his and Castro's cigars, and scrutinize his proud face as he's called "Comandante" for the first time. With astonishing precision, color, and drama, Anderson and Hernández's Che makes us a witness to the revolutionary life and times of Che Guevara.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A cinematic approach chips away at the myths and misunderstandings that still surround the life of Che Guevara, the famed doctor turned revolutionary, in this in-depth graphic novel adaptation of Anderson's exhaustive biography. Che is fleshed out as a young man whose frustration with U.S. interference throughout the Western hemisphere aligns him with anti-imperialist causes, at first in Guatemala and Mexico, famously in the Sierra Maestra mountains of Cuba, fruitlessly in a campaign in the Congo, and then tragically in Bolivia, where he was assassinated. Adding warmth to the exhaustive research drawn from letters, newspapers and official documents are Che's writings to his mother whose own life was upended by her son's actions. Hernandez's art tries to match Che's iconic steadfastness and the weight of the story with photographic realism, but the overall effect is stiff. Yet the scope of the work meets the author's aim to inspire renewed reflection on Che's revolutionary ideas, and as when Che denounces the "meddling of a foreign power" in a radio interview holds renewed relevance as well.)