Read The World - Bolivia - The Bolivian Diary

Book: The Bolivian Diary
Author: Ernesto Che Guevara
Pages: 320
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO

This is my 125th read for the year

This is Che Guevara's last diary before he was captured and executed for his guerilla activities in Bolivia.  This book was complied from the notebooks that were found in his backpack after his capture.

This book was okay.  It is actually a pretty boring diary of them marching through Bolivia - starving and being sick and then finally being captured.  The diary covers about a year of their trek through the country.  I actually got a lot more out of the beginning and end recaps of the story as well as the "month in review" section of each chapter than I did from the actual journal entries.  

I know he is seen as a hero, but he did not really come off that way in this book.  IT is full of blunders through the countyside, constantly on the move and always on the brink of starvation.  I kept waiting for the book to take shape and a real battle to be revealed, but it never happened.

When looking for books around Bolivia, almost all recommended reading was about Che Guevara.  This is the only one that took place exclusively in Bolivia (his more famous "Motorcycle Diaries covers several countries), so that is why I chose it.  But I may keep looking for another Bolivian book in the future.

Stars: 3