Reminiscence of Cuban revolutionary war by Eenesto Che Guevara

Title: Reminiscence of Cuban revolutionary war
Author: Eenesto Che Guevara
Publisher: Harper Collins UK Original
Pages:314
Genre:Memoir
Price:Rs 295
ISBN:9780007322312
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Personal

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Summary:
Che's scriptae of the Cuban revolutionary war as he lived it...From few dedicated soldier to become the Rebel army that overthrew Batista's regime..International icon and a pioneer of guerrilla warfare , it is first hand account of the troop..
Review:
I started to take notice of Che Guevara for his face used to pop out from many of my friend's T-shirt..I found the style interesting his eyes penetrating and dark hence I developed a liking for this man not knowing about his contribution to the Cuban history..Then I was fascinated about him through history teacher then finally started to read this when I was in college...
To start with I loved this book...I also loved Rambo series as a kid, I was wondering that a hero who was doing his job for the money offered to him and people went gag over it..And as you read you'll realize there were true men who actually went beyond heroism for a great cause they believed in and for common men...The book has two parts., Part 1 consists of group of men in the process of forming an organised Rebel army that threw the dictatorship of Batista...Che Guevara known as Che was an Argentinean still fought for Cubans and towards the end of the book he refers himself as a Cuban and this is the main point that sets him apart as an international icon...Che a physician had to choose between his devotion to medicine and duty as a revolutionary soldier right in the beginning ..He quotes

"There, at my feet was a backpack full of medicine and box of ammunition." 

We all know what he chose!!!Many times he faces death sometimes wounded at times with no weapon , still he is able to think calm to think about death as a situation in hand that he wanted to face it dignified..Once he thinks about a story about Old Jack dying in Alaskan ice.. Now that really takes real grit to think about something like that rather than freaking out...He names every comrade who fought with him and the ones that he doesn't recollect are given in bracket, that shows a true leader who acknowledges every en devour of his fellow men no matter who small the contribution might me..There are also names of comrades or local villagers who betrayed the Rebel for money and military rank in the government lead troop..Those traitors are also given a decent death one that to my mind is Eutimo who is buried with a cross on his grave and his children being taken care of by the schools run by them...I was amused the way Fidel fakes as a high ranked soldier to one of the drunken foreman taking over the troop and refilling their stock of ammunition and weapons..The book is overloaded with hand granite, dynamites, Thompson machine guns..Che doesn't feel any inhibitions in portraying the rebel troops bravery devoid of any heroic adjectives..The troop risked their lives at many instances like this when all their hand granite and stick dynamites failed to denonate they never hesitated to set the whole place to fire...

Fidel is a role model and morale booster of the troop his order was to provide all possible medical aide to wounded prisoner who belonged to the enemy group..Che believes this is one of the important reasons in the victory of the Rebel troop..Most often the troop is left with less weapon than men still sheer bravery must have kept them going.. Even when the troops morale sinks Fidel would pour in fresh energy with his motivating speech..The way the troop with soldiers of many facets who could recruit soldiers,communicate effectively with the peasants building a strong rebel army by two years..I was completely admiring for the clear thoughts Fidel had for his troop according to him there were three crimes that were punished by death namely insubordination, desertion and defeatism...Many assassination plots are described just a matter of fact notes..One of it Che gives credit to him by the following..

"The whole night , the fate of the Cuban revolution depended , in large measure, on the twists and turns of a man';s mind, on a balance of courage and fear and perhaps on conscience on a traitor's lust for power and wealth"(page35)

As I found my pace of reading ebbing away due to many facts names and dates the chapter battle of 
E.L Hombrito gathered up the lost pace..By the end of part 1 there are many photographs of Che and Fidel Castro along with their Rebel army with few signature style photographs of Che,..His love for puppies is well clicked in a photograph were he is photographed with a puppy in his arms..Every word of the chapter "A sin of the revolution" is a must read..For anyone who is not interested into reading about the whole book this single chapter will get the fair feel of the whole book....His writing is simple inspite of being a pool of many facts dates and places I wasn't put off at any point.....It might be even because of my admiration for Che..I found it a compelling read, yet I wouldn't recommend it all , only to serious readers who love to read about a icon and about an era that gave birth to a revolution and go down as a turning point in Latin American countries...To read about Che before becoming a revolutionary check on The motorcycle diaries, for review click here....