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CHASING CHE

Name: CHASING CHE
Author: Patrick Symmes
ISBN: 0-375-70265-2

A MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE GUEVARA LEGEND

by Patrick Symmes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 2000

An able, thoroughly readable work of literary travel and political commentary. (First serial to Talk magazine; author tour)

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An affecting tale of a madcap motorcycle trip across South America in the tracks of a long-dead revolutionary.

Freelance journalist Symmes took a risk when he hatched his 10,000-mile road trip through Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia – not just the risk of danger, but also the risk of following a tired story in the wake of the 1997 publication of Jon Lee Anderson’s magisterial biography Che Guevara and Guevara’s own Motorcycle Diaries. Had Symmes stuck to the mere facts of Guevara’s epic 1952 adventure, in which the callow urban sophisticate became a dedicated Marxist, he would not have added much to the story save his account of the 1997 exhumation of Guevara’s scattered remains 30 years after his execution at the hands of American and Bolivian soldiers. But Symmes does much more than retrace Che’s fateful trip. An inquisitive reporter and sympathetic guide, Symmes talks to everyone he encounters, it seems, to piece together a common citizen’s view of the three countries’ troubled history, marked by military dictatorship, political murder, torture, and poverty. Among Symmes’s calls is a tragicomic visit to a Bolivian prison full of captured Shining Path guerrillas, Maoist ideologues who disdain Guevara “because he compromised with the retrograde forces of class domination, whatever that meant”; another hallmark is his attempt to “be like Che” by cadging a drink off a much more adept skinflint than he is. Symmes is smart and funny, given to a kind of innocent goofiness that serves him well as a gringo traveler in sometimes hostile territory. His avoidance of hyperbole gives the reader reason to trust his first book, which is stuffed at every turn full of adventure and misadventure. And in the bargain, Symmes imparts a good deal about Che Guevara, the Cuban revolution, motorcycles, and Andean potholes.

An able, thoroughly readable work of literary travel and political commentary. (First serial to Talk magazine; author tour)

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70265-2

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Vintage

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.