"Whenever I travel, I like to spend the last day of my journey in the old part of town, lingering for hours in junk shops whose dusty shelves, no matter where in the world they may be, always seem to be piled high with old magazines and books and yellowed photographs."[return][return]Opening sentence really got me. I mused over the image it conjured for sometime before reading more. I wonder if the author really does do this. I suspect she does.[return][return]The story is something of a mother/daughter story so far, which would normally put me off, but I like Che, for all the wrong reasons, so I stuck it out and ended up liking the book.[return][return]I had some trouble with the rambling way the middle part of the story is told, through letters that feel more like how a scrapbook would read if it wasn't mostly pictures. The end is a bit too tidy, but I usually find endings too tidy. [return][return]Some quotes, in no particular order;[return][return]The next morning I spent several hours unable to move, staring only at the sliver of light through the closed blinds, and in my imagination the light was a solid thing gently trying to pry open the window. (page 75) I so love the idea of light as fingers.[return][return]...every era builds museums to its secret longings... (page 61) This refers to some kind of agreement with capitalism even though the country (Cuba) was moving to socialism. I am not sure how to apply this to today, but I know it does. It would take more thinking which I am not wont to do at the moment, but how wonderful I can note this here and come back to it later.[return][return]...the death that gently draped him. (page 66), referring to Che, but way too romantic for my tastes. I've read some about Che, and yes, you can't deny the romanticism. However, death and gently are not words that should go together describing him.[return][return]A kiss. The first parting of flesh. Everything that comes later is sweet elaboration. The first kiss is more intimate than the naked bed; its small perimeter already contains the first submission and the final betrayal. (page 91) Now this is not romantic and is a wonderful description of a kiss.[return][return]Loving Che was like palest sea foam, like wind through the stars (page 138) This is probably my least favorite sentence. So flowery and precious. Ick.[return][return]Women ate their dreams and bloomed like orchids in the rain. (page 19) And this is probably my favorite line.[return][return]'Don't you understand,' Calixto said to me before he left for Madrid, 'that the very word revolution is doomed to failure? Round and round and round, forever trapped inside its own semantic fortress, forced to retrace it steps for all eternity.' (page 152) And that line has probably been said in many ways since the French Revolution, but somehow we always think we are going to change the meaning of the word.
kenapa memilih buku ini? yang pasti, karena judulnya "loving che". kenapa tetap bertahan membaca buku ini sampai akhir, padahal ceritanya datar, hampir tanpa lonjakan, kekurangan banget unsur romantika dan gairah perselingkuhan? karena ini kisah tentang anak haramnya che!kenapa memberi rating satu? karena, ya ampun, ternyata buku ini ga ketahuan fiktif belaka atau tidak! tidak ada pembuktian, yang dengan gamblang kuasumsikan sebagai buku hasil imaginasi terlalu melambung dari penulis yang pasti diam-diam berharap pernah menjadi kekasih che.kenapa pula memilih buku ini dari sekian banyak buku antik dan unik di titi gantung? nah loh. good question! * ^~^ *
What do You think about Loving Che (2004)?
I read this richly imagined novel in an afternoon - I could not put the book down! (but then I find torrid affairs with troubling historical figures particularly intriguing). Loving Che is a fascinating exploration of a woman's lifelong "affair" with Che, and the hard choices she makes to be with him. I don't want to spoil the reality for you, so I'm keeping this brief. Ana Menedez is a marvelous young writer - an overnight success waiting to happen (she has another novel in the works - lucky us!).
—Danna
Loving Che is about a young lady who is on a search for the missing part of her life in Cuba. The birth mother of this girl conceived with a bad boy at a young age. Later on in her mothers life, there is a Hervana which causes the young lady and her grandfather to leave Cuba. She travels back as she becomes older on a search about her mothers past. This book would be great for the individual who enjoys a nice drama.This story allows people to explore their imagination in a drama. Personally, I really enjoyed the father because of the story that came with him in this story filled with drama and excitement. I believe that the intentions of this author was to let us experience every inch of the Cuban woman's emotion about her mother's past in which she had never known since she was taken to Miami while in her grandfather's hands. What took my attention captive was the mother's poems, the treasures never discovered until the last book. It was interesting and full of drama. I was able to predict but at the end she meets a french writer, who speaks of her beauty this is when conversation begins. If this book was made into a movie I qwould absolutely watch it. the actors and actresses I would choose would be Jennifer Lopez(main character), Mark Anthony(as her father), and Marlon Brando(grandfather). The emotions in this book would hopefully be expressed in this movie. The emotions that the audience should fell thatt I felt should be happy, sad, sorrow and pain. The line that should be used that I really liked should be "Fidel,our redeemer." The book was very well written and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but anyone who enjoys dramas.
—Latisha
Ana Menendez is my new favorite author, and Loving Che is her first novel and glorious. Beautiful prose flows throughout the narrative, making me gasp at times and also blush. Simple plot summary: a girl searches for her mother Theresa, who sent her to be raised by her grandfather in Miami, while she remained in Cuba to apparently vanish without a trace. A love story that may or may not be true comprises the bulk of this book; and the ending is very satisfying in an open-ended way. Menendez writes how I strive to….
—Venessa
