Jon Lee Anderson - Literary Reception

Literary Reception

Despite its widespread acclaim as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and many reprints, in her 1997 critique of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, U.S. author Jane Franklin claims "...Anderson never quite communicates an understanding of why Guevara remains such a powerful presence. Relying too much on secondary sources for his knowledge of Cuban history, he fails to grasp the nature of the revolution for which Guevara, Fidel Castro and so many others were willing to die." Conversely, author Peter Canby states, "...Anderson does a masterly job in evoking Che's complex character, in separating the man from the myth and in describing the critical role Che played in one of the darkest periods of the cold war. Ultimately, however, the strength of his book is in its wealth of detail."

In the Washington Monthly, Matthew Harwood's review of The Fall of Baghdad was full of praise, "...his crisp and lush prose reads more like a work of literature than like reportage. But for all its literary beauty, the book's real power lies in its narrative strategy."