Do Be Brief

There are some people you just don’t need to spend a whole lot of time with to get their point. Barney the Dinosaur. Paris Hilton. Certainly not Che Guevara, though whoever directed that Motorcycle Diaries movie could have lopped off a minute or 60 and just kept the parts where Gael Garcia Bernal looked hot. That’s the type of brief encounter with Che Guevara I’d like to have. But author Ben Fountain has other ideas in his book, Brief Encounters With Che Guevara, in which his characters get caught up in the Cuban revolution “to both disastrous and hilarious effect.” Sure, revolutions are disastrous, but thanks, Ben Fountain, for also showing us the hilarious side of bloody war and death. At least it’s Brief. The local author will be signing his book this Tuesday at Barnes & Noble, 616 Preston Royal Shopping Center, at 7 p.m. Call 214-363-0924.

Tue., Aug. 29, 7 p.m.