Che Forever

by Gary Phillips

Yeah, okay, we got our marching orders and I’m supposed to blog about Cuba while also keeping in mind I’m prepping (which means I’m thinking about only ain’t wrote word one yet), and I love that word, my piece on Comandante Che Guevara. But, shit, I got a book to sell. Have I mentioned that I’m the editor and contributor to Orange County Noir? Oh, I have, haven’t I? Did I mentioned that last week, for the second week running, the anthology of original short stories set in the OC (and I know, only kids being ironic who live down there refer to the area thusly) was on the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association bestseller list? Sweet ... but how does this relate to Cuba and more specifically, El Che, you might well ask.

Hmmm, well, there’s really no connection save this one in that my upcoming article, which rolls out here at fourstory.org on Wednesday the 28th, is my riff on the enduring image of Che as immortalized by the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. You know the one I’m talking about. You’ve seen that image reproduced many, many times. Maybe you’ve even worn it over your torso on a T-shirt or on your crotch, or butt, on a skimpy bathing suit should you possess such a figure or be so bold.

The connection then to OC Noir is the image on the cover of the anthology brought to you by the fine folks at Akashic. On the cover is a slim paring knife stabbing into an orange half, liquid like globules decorating the blade’s metal. You haven’t seen it? Click here and you’ll be taken to it in all its wonder. My goal, aside from selling copies of the collection, is to make that cover image as iconic as the Comandante’s. I got a long way to go, but I’m all over it like a cheap suit. For this too relates to the Che piece in that my source material is not only his writings, his feature films—he’s been played by Omar Sharif (with Jack Palance as Castro ... fuckin’ classic) to Benicio del Toro, among others, but also the groovy recent documentary Chevolution: The Man, the Myth, the Merchandise by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez.

’Cause I’m all about the merchandising. I want that Orange County Noir image on crotches too. Now your part is to go buy the book. I’ll be around the L.A. Times Festival of Books this weekend on a couple of panels, “Dark Tales from the Golden State,” Saturday, 3 pm in Dodd Hall and “The California Way,” Sunday 1:30 pm in Rolfe. Plus I’ll be hanging around the Mystery Bookstore slash Mystery Writers of America So Cal chapter booth. So come on down, ya hear?

Que viva, baby.

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