Review
Travel author Rolf Potts, in a review of Exposing the Real Che Guevara for World Hum, noted that "taken in selective doses", the book puts "some well-placed holes in Che’s presumed humanism and military competence." However, Potts said that what "is meant to be a polemic against Guevara’s t-shirt-certified mythology" actually ends up showing "how Che’s reputation benefits from the myopic fury and misguided political influence of those who hate him the most." Potts said that the book's "slightly schizophrenic tone" meanders off into subject matter that has little to do with the book’s premise, that the book seems "less an indictment of Guevara than the New York Times or John F. Kennedy. Ultimately, Potts states, the book is "less about Che Guevara than the King Lear-style resentments of the Cuban-Americans who hate him — and the effectiveness of its argument suffers as a result."
Commentator and former Research Director of the Adam Smith Institute Alex Singleton reviewed Exposing the Real Che Guevara for the Social Affairs Unit. He said that "Fontova's book aims to challenge the mythology surrounding Guevara. At the very least, it will provide useful factual ammunition for conservatives and libertarians." Singleton differed with Fontova's view on libertarian opponents of America's Cuban embargo, saying that, "The embargo has been completely ineffective but created an excuse for Cuba's poor economic performance." Nevertheless, Singleton concluded that the book was an important one, having earlier in the review expressed the hope that it would "encourage scholars to reanalyse the conventional wisdom."
Journalist and Buenos Aires bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires Michael Casey reviewed Exposing the Real Che Guevara in his 2009 book Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image. Casey described it as "an art form of mixing frustration with ridicule." Casey said that Fontova's prose was a marriage of Ann Coulter with the Gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson, and that Fontova "basically yells at his readers, mixing a sarcastic wit with a touch of self-deprecation until it is overwhelmed by disdain for his opponents." Lastly, Casey observed that Fontova often "lathers himself into a rage" when it comes to the issue of Che Guevara, noting that his barrage of hyperbole leads him to describe Guevara as an "assassin", "sadist", "bumbler", "fool", and "whimpering-sniveling-blubbering coward" who is "revered by millions of imbeciles." Other descriptions by Fontova of Guevara, cited by Casey, were "shallow", "boorish", "epically stupid", "a fraud", a "murdering swine", an "intellectual vacuum", and an "insufferable Argentine jackass."
Read more about this topic: Humberto Fontova
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