Hagiography. Really bad hagiography. I had read it and discarded it. I finally remembered to review it. ( )

As other reviewers have noted, this isn't really a graphic novel; it's a heavily illustrated biography, with many of those illustrations appearing as cartoons (speech balloons and all). Also as other reviewers have noted, it's more a hagiography than an objective biography, and the USA comes off pretty poorly. Given those parameters, the book accomplishes what it wants to fairly directly. Those seeking a balanced portrait of Castro should look elsewhere; this one's for True Believers only. ( )

I was looking forward to a graphic novel on Cuba, offered through the Early Reviewer program. I had never read anything on Cuba before and the graphic form just sounded…easy, a quick way to partially fill a gap. Should I have expected a book of blatant propaganda?

I can’t emphasize the blatant part enough. This was a pure Fidel love fest. America is the evil empire. Fidel is the brilliant visionary leader who lead his island out of Capitalist domination, who never tortured and was completely open to alternative view points (er, as long as they were communist). And Che Guevera is the beautiful purist who sounds so idealistic, but was in the end, of course, perfectly correct in everything. Argentinean author Néstor Kohan has found a comfortable way to deal with any complex view points about Fidel Castor, Che Geuvera and Cuba, he simply ignores them.

There is some truth in all of this, there is some truth is what Fox’s greater loons say too. I found the lack of balance, the sense of propaganda, odd, archaic feeling, and very entertaining. It’s easy to read, easy to put down (including when you’re annoyed), and easy to pick back up again. It’s great to read with the kids while they watch Scooby Doo. And this is all new information for me, so just taking in the names and general stories was actually quite interesting. And Che does come across as beautiful and I was actually depressed to learn how suddenly he was executed. I guess it was a somewhat successful brainwashing.

2010
http://www.librarything.com/topic/90167#2276090 ( )

Please Note: This is only a review of preliminary reactions. The reviewer must do more research into the subject matter before making a solid judgments.

Fidel is a small, book that tries to fit far too much within it. Kohan attempts to make it both a biography of Fidel Castro, a history of Cuba and its revolutions, and a polemic defense of Cuba against the United States. Hopefully, his writing lost something in translation, as the prose is succinct to the point of curtness and lacking in style. It is a misnomer to label it as a 'graphic biography', as the illustrations are much more like cartoons reminiscent of Totem Books's excellent INTRODUCING series. Unfortunately, they don't do terribly much for book except put some faces to names and give an icon of the revolution's hatred of the United States (which has several forms, the most common being that of a demonic, skeletal Micky Mouse).

As for the quality of the information, as stated above, this reviewer feels the need to do further research. Cuba is a very contentious issue in the United States, and personally I have little doubt that the population has been fed misinformation about the island over the decades. That being said, Kohan presents Castro as if he could do no wrong, and only at a few points mentions abuses by his government, which are glossed over as unwise actions of out-of-control bureaucrats. It reads too much like propaganda to take at face value; however, it has planted a seed to dig deeper into Cuba and try to find a seed of truth, if such a thing is possible. ( )

As other reviewers here have noted, it is hard to get past the clumsy, old-school Marxist propaganda that forms the basis of this illustrated history.

There IS a lot of useful information, if one can glean it from the heavy-handed point-of-view. Since the book is presented in one-page chapters that focus on a specific topic, it might be possible to find some nuggets of actual historical fact, mixed in with the propaganda. The author, Nestor Kohan has obviously spent a lot of energy researching the events of the Cuban Revolution, and the struggle to gain human rights in Latin America that both predated and followed that revolution. And there is actually more value in the presentation of Cuba's position in the world in the 1970's and 1980's.

If only those facts could have been presented dispassionately, the book might have gained in value. But that is, obviously, not the purpose of the author. ( )