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"A wild ride through Cuba during the Spanish-American War." --Miami Herald "Not only his finest novel but one that transcends the limits of its genre and is worthy of being evaluated as literary fiction." --Houston Chronicle Before Grand Master Elmore Leonard earned his well-deserved reputation as "the best writer of crime fiction alive" (Newsweek), he penned some of the finest western fiction to ever appear in print. (The classics Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and 3:10 to Yuma were just a few of his notable works.) With his extraordinary Cuba Libre, Leonard ingeniously combines all of his many talents and delivers a historical adventure/caper/western/noir like none other. The creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, star of Raylan, Pronto, Riding the Rap, and TV's Justified, spins a gloriously exciting yarn about an American horse wrangler who escapes a date with a Cuban firing squad to join forces with a powerful sugar baron's lady looking to make waves and score big in and around Spanish-American War-torn Havana in 1898. Everything you love about Leonard's fiction--and more--is evident in Cuba Libre. No wonder the New York Times Book Review enthusiastically declared him "a literary genius."… (more)
User reviews
Leonard is a good writer, and can tell a good tale; one would expect this to be the case, considering his popularity among Hollywood's elite (okay, Jackie Brown and Get Shorty are not exactly classics). "Cuba Libre" is effortless, gracefully moving from page to page a story of gun-runners gone good in Cuba at the turn of the nineteenth century. There are betrayals, murders, accidents, incidents; everything is place.
But then when the end finally arrives, as it must always do, it is such a damp squib of an affair, with a silly conclusion stapled on, and a worthless final line of dialogue. This last ends with an exclamation mark; ironic considering how little there is to exclaim about.
I wouldn't say Cuba Libre was a waste of time to read, and I might try another Elmore Leonard novel again sometime, but if I'd had a bit more advance warning about this one I probably would have skipped it.
Ben Tyler is good with guns, killing, and horses, but also a former unsuccessful bank robber and overall rather dim-witted. Amelia Brown is more intelligent, but nonetheless falls in love with Tyler; she is primarily an opportunist interested in fame, excitement, and money. The Spanish plantation owner is an interesting character, but the Cuban characters are poorly developed, even though they play major roles in the book. As it turns out, all the main characters in the book are motivated primarily by money, not by idealism or patriotism.
The reading is pleasant enough. The plot starts off nicely, but definitely languishes after the initial third of the book. The character development is adequate but not great. One of the major pluses is the historical aspects. Many real places, people, and events show up. Even some of the small details are historical too, such as the boat "Vamoose", which was a real filibuster smuggling boat used to smuggle weapons into Cuba at that time.
Ben Tyler is trying his luck selling Horses and Guns in Cuba.
He meets a few different characters along the way. Some good some bad.
He ends up in jail a lovely young Lady called Amelia with help from her rich boyfriends
There is a big battle, Police are involved and the War has now started. Amelia and Ben get double crossed, lots of other people are after the money.
Amelia and Ben do get a little bit of money and decide they want to stay in Cuba.
This was different from the books I usually read was a bit long winded and political.