Translated by Victoria Ortiz.

This book is great for getting a bird's eye of the Cuban Revolution from an individual perspective. Guevara is meticulous in his notation of events and people. This is not the place to look for a general study of the Revolution. Guevara does speak of Castro and Cienfuegos among others but this is Guevara's story. What most impressed me was his honesty about his men, his mistakes, and the conditions under which the Revolution occured. The bugs, the heat, the lack of food, the support from the residents of the Sierra Maestro are so well described that you truly get a sense of what the experience must have been like. We can see and feel the emotion from his words and can see how complex his mind was. At times he was cruel and hard driving; at others, compassionate and unsure of himself. This is a collection of episodes that include various battles and other aspects of war logistics. It is written in his unique short, descriptive sentences and I was quickly drawn in. The first half is the text from the original book and the second half includes various other articles and accounts he wrote afterwards that flesh out the details. The various battles are exciting to read about and his revolutionary zeal and drive show through on every page. If you are interested in the Cuban Revolution, or Che, then this is required reading. It shows a side of the war from one man who was intimately involved and it is well written and engaging to boot.