Buy or borrow this book! Support your local independent bookseller
Find it in a WorldCat library
Compare prices at major online bookstores
|
|
|
Review by Noah Shachtman
Elmore Leonard once again weaves a story of high drama and petty schemes in his new book, "Cuba Libre." But the scene has shifted in his latest work, from the grit of the modern American inner city, to the plantations of 1898 Cuba.
The book traces the path of Ben Tyler, an Arizona cowboy who's just gotten out of jail for robbing a bank -- of exactly nine hundred dollars, the amount owed to him by the local mining company. When an old acquaintance, Charlie Burke, sends a telegram, "found way to get rich with horses," Tyler goes to Cuba to turn his luck around.
But, as usual, Tyler's timing couldn't have been worse. He and Burke land in Havana three days after the USS Maine is destroyed -- an event that will soon bring America into war against Spain, Cuba's colonial master. Moments after arriving on the island, Tyler manages to get himself on the wrong side of the local authorities, the Guardia Civil, by insulting one of its lieutenants. To make matters worse, Amelia Brown, the mistress of the sugar baron supposedly buying Tyler's herd, has her eye on the cowboy.
Before long, the plans to unload the horses have gone sour, Tyler is back in the clink, and the island is enveloped in international conflict and civil war.
Readers of Leonard's previous works will find "Cuba Libre's" assortment of wisecracking, double-crossing characters satisfyingly juicy. Is Victor Fuentes, for example, a tycoon's submissive number two? Or a dashing revolutionary leader? Even up to the book's conclusion, you're left guessing where Fuentes and the other denizens of "Cuba Libre" stand. "What side are you on?" is the question asked throughout the book. A straight answer is rare.
Although a few of the book's innumerable, often-distracting time shifts could stand to be edited out, Leonard keeps the pace breezy and the prose muscular. What's more, the veteran novelist has clearly done his homework. Punctuating his fiction with historical tidbits, he recreates a turn-of-the-century Cuba which is as tangible, immediate and accessible as the corner store.
After 34 novels, Elmore Leonard has set precedents for intricate plots and colorful characters which remain unaltered in "Cuba Libre," despite the change in time and in locale. If you're one of the millions who've become hooked on Leonard's potboilers, then this foray into historical fiction is sure to please.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.