This book is well written, researched, edited and designed. It is not an easy read, but quite rewarding. I wish that the tedious details of Che's economic program were described, along with the specifics of his preference for the Chinese socialist model over the Soviet model, but, as the book is nearly 1000 pages, with a bewildering number of names to keep track of, I can certainly forgive the author for excluding the economics. But still, I would think that Che's economic theories were at least as important as his theories on Guerrilla Warfare, which receive considerable attention in this biography.

As this was my introduction to the life of Che Guevara (except for Che's Motorcycle Diaries and Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War), I don't have any unflattering portrait to compare it to. It is definitely a good introduction to Che, and most of the salient parts of those other two books are included here.