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Cuba Libre
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.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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2136 people want to read
About the author
Elmore Leonard
211 books3,698 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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June 26, 2025
RUM PUNCH
L’affondamento della corazzata USS Maine il 15 febbraio 1898 nella baia dell’Havana fu la scintilla che diede inizio alla guerra ispano-americana. Chi mise la mina causando la morte di oltre 250 marinai, tutti di colore (gli ufficiali bianchi erano a terra in libera uscita)?
Uno dei romanzi più famosi di Leonard, ma non credo sia uno dei migliori. Affascinante lo sfondo storico, che da sfondo si fa altorilievo, quando addirittura non tuttotondo. Non per niente è stato pubblicato nel centenario degli eventi che racconta.
Ma i personaggi sono invece poco scolpiti, più che altro tratteggiati – il dialogo non è dei suoi più brillanti – e ogni tanto è difficile sospendere l’incredulità.
Santiago de Cuba nel 1898.
Il periodo storico è il 1898, la guerra degli USA contro la Spagna per il dominio (occupazione) di Cuba. I locali vorrebbero l’indipendenza, né spagnoli né yankie, e invece devono subire prima gli uni e poi, la storia tramanda, gli altri.
Dopo la battaglia navale scatenata dall’affondamento della corazzata Maine nella baia dell’Havana, le truppe americane sbarcano a Guantanamo, mettendo le basi per quello che verrà.
E cioè, quello che è venuto è: il colonnello Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson che ogni mattina fa colazione a trecento metri da quattromila cubani addestrati a ucciderlo (Codice d’onore – A Few Good Men). E cioè, gli orrori post 11 settembre 2001.
Fame e denutrizione a Cuba nel 1898: contadini nelle campagne di Matanzas.
Amelia chiede a Víctor Fuentes se è un rivoluzionario, un collettivista, una specie di comunista, e lui risponde che di questi tempi è sufficiente essere un cubano.
Ma in qualche modo il protagonista maschile è Ben Tyler, una specie di cowboy, che uccide quando serve, ma lo fa con rammarico, solo per autodifesa, anche quando rapina le banche, prende solo i soldi che i creditori non gli pagano e cerca di non sparare a nessuno. Preferisce occuparsi di cavalli, catturarli, domarli, allevarli, probabilmente è per questo che non si toglie mai gli speroni e ama così tanto il suono che fanno mentre cammina.
Però, Ben è uno strano protagonista, talmente ostinato da risultare un po’ fesso, come se se l’andasse a cercare, i pericoli, le grane, le rogne, le botte. Affascinante, sì, a suo modo beltenebros, ma irrita per la cocciutaggine, per quel suo incaponirsi a sfidare nemici più forti e numerosi.
I Rough Riders (Rudi Incursori), reggimento di cavalleria composto da volontari e comandato dal colonnello Theodore Roosevelt, futuro presidente, al centro nella foto, qui fotografati dopo la battaglia pe rla conquista della collina di San Juan nel luglio del 1898.
Il personaggio più bello a me sembra Amelia, giovane di età incerta (venti? Meno? Più?), molto carina, probabilmente proprio bella, sicuramente molto attraente, arrivista e spregiudicata, moderna e libera, che si trasforma in partigiana, poi in infermiera, rivoluzionaria, ma alla fine ripiega sul ruolo di donna innamorata. Lei e Ben si amano al primo incontro, si “riconoscono” a colpo d’occhio, è come se si conoscessero (e amassero) da sempre.
Tom Berenger interpreta Theodore Rossevelt nella miniserie Tv in due puntate “Rough Riders” scritta e diretta da John Milius nel 1997.
Soprattutto sul finale si perde il lettore (almeno io) o si perde l’autore: soprattutto sul finale si ha l’impressione che da dietro un banano potrebbe spuntare perfino Sandokan, sicuramente Yanez e la sua eterna sigaretta, e con un po’ più di libertà, anche Tremal-Naik con tutte le Tigri della Malesia.
Il cuba libre nacque proprio a seguito della guerra ispano-americana, all’inizio del XX secolo, quando si cominciò a importare sull’isola caraibica la Coca Cola. A mio avviso la ricetta ufficiale è semi-analcolica: la cola e il rum vanno in parti uguali. Sennò che gusto c’è?
Truppe americane sbarcano a Cuba a fine aprile 1898. La guerra durò pochi mesi.
L’affondamento della corazzata USS Maine il 15 febbraio 1898 nella baia dell’Havana fu la scintilla che diede inizio alla guerra ispano-americana. Chi mise la mina causando la morte di oltre 250 marinai, tutti di colore (gli ufficiali bianchi erano a terra in libera uscita)?
Uno dei romanzi più famosi di Leonard, ma non credo sia uno dei migliori. Affascinante lo sfondo storico, che da sfondo si fa altorilievo, quando addirittura non tuttotondo. Non per niente è stato pubblicato nel centenario degli eventi che racconta.
Ma i personaggi sono invece poco scolpiti, più che altro tratteggiati – il dialogo non è dei suoi più brillanti – e ogni tanto è difficile sospendere l’incredulità.
Santiago de Cuba nel 1898.
Il periodo storico è il 1898, la guerra degli USA contro la Spagna per il dominio (occupazione) di Cuba. I locali vorrebbero l’indipendenza, né spagnoli né yankie, e invece devono subire prima gli uni e poi, la storia tramanda, gli altri.
Dopo la battaglia navale scatenata dall’affondamento della corazzata Maine nella baia dell’Havana, le truppe americane sbarcano a Guantanamo, mettendo le basi per quello che verrà.
E cioè, quello che è venuto è: il colonnello Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson che ogni mattina fa colazione a trecento metri da quattromila cubani addestrati a ucciderlo (Codice d’onore – A Few Good Men). E cioè, gli orrori post 11 settembre 2001.
Fame e denutrizione a Cuba nel 1898: contadini nelle campagne di Matanzas.
Amelia chiede a Víctor Fuentes se è un rivoluzionario, un collettivista, una specie di comunista, e lui risponde che di questi tempi è sufficiente essere un cubano.
Ma in qualche modo il protagonista maschile è Ben Tyler, una specie di cowboy, che uccide quando serve, ma lo fa con rammarico, solo per autodifesa, anche quando rapina le banche, prende solo i soldi che i creditori non gli pagano e cerca di non sparare a nessuno. Preferisce occuparsi di cavalli, catturarli, domarli, allevarli, probabilmente è per questo che non si toglie mai gli speroni e ama così tanto il suono che fanno mentre cammina.
Però, Ben è uno strano protagonista, talmente ostinato da risultare un po’ fesso, come se se l’andasse a cercare, i pericoli, le grane, le rogne, le botte. Affascinante, sì, a suo modo beltenebros, ma irrita per la cocciutaggine, per quel suo incaponirsi a sfidare nemici più forti e numerosi.
I Rough Riders (Rudi Incursori), reggimento di cavalleria composto da volontari e comandato dal colonnello Theodore Roosevelt, futuro presidente, al centro nella foto, qui fotografati dopo la battaglia pe rla conquista della collina di San Juan nel luglio del 1898.
Il personaggio più bello a me sembra Amelia, giovane di età incerta (venti? Meno? Più?), molto carina, probabilmente proprio bella, sicuramente molto attraente, arrivista e spregiudicata, moderna e libera, che si trasforma in partigiana, poi in infermiera, rivoluzionaria, ma alla fine ripiega sul ruolo di donna innamorata. Lei e Ben si amano al primo incontro, si “riconoscono” a colpo d’occhio, è come se si conoscessero (e amassero) da sempre.
Tom Berenger interpreta Theodore Rossevelt nella miniserie Tv in due puntate “Rough Riders” scritta e diretta da John Milius nel 1997.
Soprattutto sul finale si perde il lettore (almeno io) o si perde l’autore: soprattutto sul finale si ha l’impressione che da dietro un banano potrebbe spuntare perfino Sandokan, sicuramente Yanez e la sua eterna sigaretta, e con un po’ più di libertà, anche Tremal-Naik con tutte le Tigri della Malesia.
Il cuba libre nacque proprio a seguito della guerra ispano-americana, all’inizio del XX secolo, quando si cominciò a importare sull’isola caraibica la Coca Cola. A mio avviso la ricetta ufficiale è semi-analcolica: la cola e il rum vanno in parti uguali. Sennò che gusto c’è?
Truppe americane sbarcano a Cuba a fine aprile 1898. La guerra durò pochi mesi.
April 12, 2023
In the old days, Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard would be called a swashbuckler. Ben Tyler, our hero, is a cowboy gone South; in this case, as far south as Cuba. He also has a history of justifiable bank robbery, if there is such a thing.
So, in a way, this novel is a ‘western.’ Ben finds himself shipping horses to Cuba. But unknown to him, under the deck is more than straw and horse droppings. This is an operation smuggling guns to Cuban rebels who have been fighting an endless guerrilla war against the Spanish Don.
This is 1895, the year the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor. The Americans blamed the Spanish colonizers for the explosion and Teddy Roosevelt came in to charge up San Juan Hill.
In Cuba Ben meets and falls in love with the lovely Amelia, daughter of a well-to-do New Orleans family. So this is a romance novel too. Amelia's search for adventure has led her to Cuba where she has become the mistress of a wealthy American sugar plantation baron. (Shocking in the 1890s!)
The dirt-poor Cuban plantation workers are fighting the barons. Whose side is the American planter on, since the Spanish protect the planters' interests?
Against all this adventure as backdrop, Elmore has given us a well-researched historical novel. We get rich details about the sinking of the Maine, the 'yellow journalists' who populate Havana's bars sniffing out stories of corruption and cruelty among the Spanish colonizers, and battle details of this particular 'Splendid Little War.'
Leonard Elmore (1925-2013) was an amazingly prolific writer, publishing almost 40 novels as well as short stories and screenplays. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers. His most-read book on GR is Get Shorty. And this is even more amazing: Get Shorty and more than two dozen of his works were made into major movies.
The list of stars in movies made from his works reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. What an incredible debt the film industry and movie-goers (as well as readers!) owe to this author.
Here’s a partial list of stars in films made from his works: Paul Newman, Charles Bronson, Robert De Niro, Burt Lancaster, Ann Margaret, Alan Alda, Tom Selleck, Rock Hudson, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Peter Falk, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Danny Devito, Jennifer Anniston, Peter Fonda, Uma Thurman.
[Revised and typos corrected 4/12/23]
Top image of the charge of the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill from nps.gov
The wreckage of the Maine from cfr.org
The author from loa.org
So, in a way, this novel is a ‘western.’ Ben finds himself shipping horses to Cuba. But unknown to him, under the deck is more than straw and horse droppings. This is an operation smuggling guns to Cuban rebels who have been fighting an endless guerrilla war against the Spanish Don.
This is 1895, the year the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor. The Americans blamed the Spanish colonizers for the explosion and Teddy Roosevelt came in to charge up San Juan Hill.
In Cuba Ben meets and falls in love with the lovely Amelia, daughter of a well-to-do New Orleans family. So this is a romance novel too. Amelia's search for adventure has led her to Cuba where she has become the mistress of a wealthy American sugar plantation baron. (Shocking in the 1890s!)
The dirt-poor Cuban plantation workers are fighting the barons. Whose side is the American planter on, since the Spanish protect the planters' interests?
Against all this adventure as backdrop, Elmore has given us a well-researched historical novel. We get rich details about the sinking of the Maine, the 'yellow journalists' who populate Havana's bars sniffing out stories of corruption and cruelty among the Spanish colonizers, and battle details of this particular 'Splendid Little War.'
Leonard Elmore (1925-2013) was an amazingly prolific writer, publishing almost 40 novels as well as short stories and screenplays. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers. His most-read book on GR is Get Shorty. And this is even more amazing: Get Shorty and more than two dozen of his works were made into major movies.
The list of stars in movies made from his works reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. What an incredible debt the film industry and movie-goers (as well as readers!) owe to this author.
Here’s a partial list of stars in films made from his works: Paul Newman, Charles Bronson, Robert De Niro, Burt Lancaster, Ann Margaret, Alan Alda, Tom Selleck, Rock Hudson, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Peter Falk, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Danny Devito, Jennifer Anniston, Peter Fonda, Uma Thurman.
[Revised and typos corrected 4/12/23]
Top image of the charge of the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill from nps.gov
The wreckage of the Maine from cfr.org
The author from loa.org
April 8, 2017
”Tyler arrived with the horses February eighteenth, three days after the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor. He saw buzzards floating in the sky the way they do but couldn’t make out what they were after. This was off Morro Castle, the cattle boat streaming black smoke as it came through the narrows.”
There are better times in history to visit Cuba than in 1898. The U.S. battleship Maine is nothing, but a pile of wreckage in the harbor. The Spanish are wondering how America will respond. Will they declare war? Will they invade? The insurrectos are becoming more bold and more aggressive. Even the whores have chosen a side and are working for what the revolutionaries need most.
”’The Whores in Havana,’ Fuentes said to Tyler, ‘won’t take money from the common Spanish soldier, the soldado raso, who’s paid next to nothing. What they do, they charge one hundred Mauser cartridges to go to bed with them, which to the soldier is like getting it for nothing. Fuentes said the whores gave the cartridges to the insurrectos and this was one of the ways they got bullets for their Mausers, the rifles they took from Spanish soldiers they killed.’”
Cuba is a time bomb, and the clock is ticking down to zero.
These uncertain times may not be the best time for Ben Tyler from Sweetmary, Arizona, to be bringing in a string of horses, but then horses aren’t worth a plugged nickel in the states. In Cuba, a country on the verge of war, horses are bringing a premium price. Roland Boudreaux says he wants them for Polo ponies, but then again, a guy like Boudreaux might have all kinds of plans for those horses. He is rich, and his loyalty might be to Spain or it might be to whoever might best represent his interests. He has a gorgeous 20 year old American mistress who has uncertain loyalties as well and is as volatile as nitroglycerine.
Ben Tyler sees her, and Amelia Brown sees him.
Something sparks that gold can’t buy.
Charlie Burke is Tyler’s old friend from the states who set this deal up. Of course, the horses are not where the big money is; that resides under the floorboards of the transportation boat. He brought in Tyler because he wanted someone who had ”et the cake.” Boudreaux is getting wishy washy on paying what he owes for the horses. He looks at Tyler and sees nothing, but a flat broke cowboy. What he can’t see is that Tyler is full of sand from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. If you don’t pay him, he’ll find a way to make you pay him.
Just ask the mining company of Hatch and Hodges.
When they refuse to pay him, he walks into a branch of the Maricopa Bank and kindly asks the teller to withdraw $900 from the Hatch and Hodges account. Tyler is nice about it, but the reason he gets the money is because of the .44 Smith and Wesson Russian pistol he sticks in the teller’s face.
Robbing banks seems like an easy way to make money.
He ends up in Yuma prison which is no picnic, but little does he know that in Cuba he is mere hours away from ending up in Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro. Most men who go in there never come back out, and those that do are just a mere shadow of their former selves. There are no rules. There are no rights.
So how does a guy like Ben Tyler end up in Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro? Well, he has an altercation. There are those men who walk through life, usually for a very short while, who are intentionally thin skinned and are just hoping that someone insults them so they can make something of it. This Spanish officer, who fits that description...makes something... with the wrong guy. He ends up with a third eye between the other two, and Ben Tyler ends up at the mercy of unscrupulous men.
Amelia Brown’s knees are made of water, and her stomach has been doing little flip flops ever since she first caught sight of Ben Tyler. She may not have had a good idea of what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, but now she knows who she wants to do it with. She concocts a plan to get him out of this impregnable prison and help the insurrection at the same time.
It almost goes well.
Elmore Leonard is a master of dialogue. He doesn’t overwrite it. He leaves a lot unsaid, but those pauses between exchanges are FAT with meaning. This technique lends an authenticity to his writing. He is one of those writers who defies genre categorization. When I was in the book business, Elmore Leonard was a writer whom many professors, professionals, and elitist readers called their guilty pleasure. Leonard routinely made the bestseller list; Hollywood mined his work for films, and yet no one dared call him a sell out. I was fortunate enough to meet him one time. He was quiet, completely self-possessed, and could have easily been a sidekick for a main character in one of his own stories. He was a quick and assured writer with a head full of stories that spilled out of his pen like oil from an Oklahoma well.
This was his last Western and the only one he’d written since 1970. His success at writing hardboiled novels took him away from writing Westerns, but I’m sure there were twenty or thirty stories of the West percolating in his head if he ever needed to write them. He found an even bigger audience late in his career with the TV show Justified, where the main character, Raylan Givens, is a man who could have walked out of a Western novel set during the 1860s instead of the modern era. Certainly Givens’s code is of a man from another time and place. Wrong is just wrong, and right has to be made right.
I used to read Leonard’s books just for enjoyment, an escape from my boring life, but now when I read his books, I really appreciate what he does. The structure, the crisp dialogue, the way his characters, even some of his villains, stood for something. That Leonard code that may have come to life in his early Westerns continues to surface in all of his work, clear up until his final novel. Good men are bad, and bad men are good. Leonard spent a lifetime blurring the lines of our own assumptions about people and revealing the flaws that make us human. Sometimes those flaws prove to be worth more than our virtues.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
There are better times in history to visit Cuba than in 1898. The U.S. battleship Maine is nothing, but a pile of wreckage in the harbor. The Spanish are wondering how America will respond. Will they declare war? Will they invade? The insurrectos are becoming more bold and more aggressive. Even the whores have chosen a side and are working for what the revolutionaries need most.
”’The Whores in Havana,’ Fuentes said to Tyler, ‘won’t take money from the common Spanish soldier, the soldado raso, who’s paid next to nothing. What they do, they charge one hundred Mauser cartridges to go to bed with them, which to the soldier is like getting it for nothing. Fuentes said the whores gave the cartridges to the insurrectos and this was one of the ways they got bullets for their Mausers, the rifles they took from Spanish soldiers they killed.’”
Cuba is a time bomb, and the clock is ticking down to zero.
These uncertain times may not be the best time for Ben Tyler from Sweetmary, Arizona, to be bringing in a string of horses, but then horses aren’t worth a plugged nickel in the states. In Cuba, a country on the verge of war, horses are bringing a premium price. Roland Boudreaux says he wants them for Polo ponies, but then again, a guy like Boudreaux might have all kinds of plans for those horses. He is rich, and his loyalty might be to Spain or it might be to whoever might best represent his interests. He has a gorgeous 20 year old American mistress who has uncertain loyalties as well and is as volatile as nitroglycerine.
Ben Tyler sees her, and Amelia Brown sees him.
Something sparks that gold can’t buy.
Charlie Burke is Tyler’s old friend from the states who set this deal up. Of course, the horses are not where the big money is; that resides under the floorboards of the transportation boat. He brought in Tyler because he wanted someone who had ”et the cake.” Boudreaux is getting wishy washy on paying what he owes for the horses. He looks at Tyler and sees nothing, but a flat broke cowboy. What he can’t see is that Tyler is full of sand from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. If you don’t pay him, he’ll find a way to make you pay him.
Just ask the mining company of Hatch and Hodges.
When they refuse to pay him, he walks into a branch of the Maricopa Bank and kindly asks the teller to withdraw $900 from the Hatch and Hodges account. Tyler is nice about it, but the reason he gets the money is because of the .44 Smith and Wesson Russian pistol he sticks in the teller’s face.
Robbing banks seems like an easy way to make money.
He ends up in Yuma prison which is no picnic, but little does he know that in Cuba he is mere hours away from ending up in Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro. Most men who go in there never come back out, and those that do are just a mere shadow of their former selves. There are no rules. There are no rights.
So how does a guy like Ben Tyler end up in Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro? Well, he has an altercation. There are those men who walk through life, usually for a very short while, who are intentionally thin skinned and are just hoping that someone insults them so they can make something of it. This Spanish officer, who fits that description...makes something... with the wrong guy. He ends up with a third eye between the other two, and Ben Tyler ends up at the mercy of unscrupulous men.
Amelia Brown’s knees are made of water, and her stomach has been doing little flip flops ever since she first caught sight of Ben Tyler. She may not have had a good idea of what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, but now she knows who she wants to do it with. She concocts a plan to get him out of this impregnable prison and help the insurrection at the same time.
It almost goes well.
Elmore Leonard is a master of dialogue. He doesn’t overwrite it. He leaves a lot unsaid, but those pauses between exchanges are FAT with meaning. This technique lends an authenticity to his writing. He is one of those writers who defies genre categorization. When I was in the book business, Elmore Leonard was a writer whom many professors, professionals, and elitist readers called their guilty pleasure. Leonard routinely made the bestseller list; Hollywood mined his work for films, and yet no one dared call him a sell out. I was fortunate enough to meet him one time. He was quiet, completely self-possessed, and could have easily been a sidekick for a main character in one of his own stories. He was a quick and assured writer with a head full of stories that spilled out of his pen like oil from an Oklahoma well.
This was his last Western and the only one he’d written since 1970. His success at writing hardboiled novels took him away from writing Westerns, but I’m sure there were twenty or thirty stories of the West percolating in his head if he ever needed to write them. He found an even bigger audience late in his career with the TV show Justified, where the main character, Raylan Givens, is a man who could have walked out of a Western novel set during the 1860s instead of the modern era. Certainly Givens’s code is of a man from another time and place. Wrong is just wrong, and right has to be made right.
I used to read Leonard’s books just for enjoyment, an escape from my boring life, but now when I read his books, I really appreciate what he does. The structure, the crisp dialogue, the way his characters, even some of his villains, stood for something. That Leonard code that may have come to life in his early Westerns continues to surface in all of his work, clear up until his final novel. Good men are bad, and bad men are good. Leonard spent a lifetime blurring the lines of our own assumptions about people and revealing the flaws that make us human. Sometimes those flaws prove to be worth more than our virtues.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
May 16, 2016
One of the better offerings from Elmore Leonard : this one is both western and heist, with a lot of historical references about the American intervention in Cuba after the explosion of the Maine in the port of Havana. I know it is a recently published book, but I kept seeing Jimmy Stewart and Lauren Bacall as the main protagonists as I read through the novel. Good cast of secondary characters, and a feeling of inevitability about the progression of the plot: every move apparently unavoidable, forced from the first moment Tyler got involved in the Cuban adventure. I liked the way Leonard managed to convey the silences and the things left unspoken in conversations - natural dialogues are one of his reliable trademarks.
May 14, 2016
Cuba Libre was published in 1998 and I'd like to believe that Elmore Leonard changed course from his contemporary crime novels to refute any allegations that he was turning out the same book over and over again. But judging from the grin on my face while reading Leonard's 34th novel, he probably just wanted to have a good time writing a cowboy story, returning to territory he hadn't explored since Valdez Is Coming in 1970. The book is a hell of a soirée, nicely researched and slowly revealing characters and motifs that will be familiar to the author's fans, albeit in an exotic locale.
The opening paragraph is:
Tyler arrived with the horses February eighteenth, three days after the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor. He saw buzzards floating in the sky the way they do but couldn't make out what they were after. This was off Morro Castle, the cattle boat streaming black smoke as it came through the narrows.
Tyler is Ben Tyler, our cowboy. He appears in Sweetwater in the Arizona Territory with an offer from his old friend who is:
Charlie Burke, foreman of the Circle-Eye at the time, as many as thirty riders under him spring through the fall, put the boy to work chasing mustangs and company stock that had quit the bunch, and watched this kid gentle the green ones with a patience you didn't find in most hands. Watched him trail-boss herds they brought down in Old Mexico and drove to graze. Watched him quit the big spread after seven years to work for a mustanger named Dana Moon, supplying horses to mine companies and stage lines and remounts to the U.S. cavalry.
Tyler took to extreme measures to collect nine hundred dollars a mining company owed him, finally withdrawing the money from Maricopa Bank with a .44. He resorted to the same tactic to collect another debt and with all that experience robbing banks under his belt, kept going, until his capture and internment to Yuma Prison. Freed after three years, Tyler discovers a new problem which is:
"You don't ever want to win fame as an outlaw," Tyler said, "unless everybody knows you've done your time. There're people who save wanted dodgers and keep an eye out. They see me riding up the street and think, Why, there's five hundred dollars going by. Next thing I know, I'm trying to explain the situation to these men holding Winchesters on me. I've been shot at twice out on the graze, long range. Another time I'm in a line shack, a fella rode right into my camp and pulled on me."
"You shot him?"
"I had to. Now I got his relatives looking for me. It's the kind of thing that never ends."
"Well," Charlie Burke said, "you should never've robbed those banks."
Tyler said, "Thanks for telling me."
Charlie Burke convinces Tyler to come in with him on a deal in Cuba with a buyer who needs polo horses. When he was nine, Tyler spent a summer in Cuba on a sugar plantation operated by his father. The brutal Spanish aristocracy, the dons, are at war with the native insurrectos and have provided Charlie Burke a market for horses the rebels either run off or kill. Tyler does the math on their expenses and figures out that Charlie Burke is also doing business with the rebels smuggling guns. The old man wants a partner who knows Cuba and has the nerve to operate on the opposite side of the law.
Leonard sails the reader into Cuba for the weeks leading up to and following the Spanish American War in 1898. In Havana, Tyler and Charlie Burke meet a Cuban horse trader named Victor Fuentes serving as middleman on the deal between the cowboys and their buyer, an unscrupulous American businessman named Roland Boudreaux, who owns a sugar estate, among other assets. These include Amelia Brown, his canny twenty-year-old American mistress, one of the few people who does as she pleases and says what she pleases around Boudreaux. Upon meeting Tyler, she tells the cowboy that she likes his hat, not flirting, but looking him over. Lionel Tavalera is an officer in the Guardia Civil who hunts insurrectos and--as war against the United States edges forward--American spies.
Defending himself against a dandy cavalry officer he offends, Tyler is thrown into the infamous Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro. Tavalera suspects the cowboy of running guns and keeps him in the medieval prison until he can have Tyler shot. Amelia, who's been supplying information to Victor Fuentes on behalf of the insurrectos, devises a scheme to have herself "kidnapped" by rebels and to aid them by ransoming herself to Boudreaux for forty thousand dollars. To pull this off, Amelia and Fuentes break Tyler out of Morro, slaughtering eight of Tavalera's men. The officer determines the kidnapping is a hoax and as the Americans come ashore, considers those forty thousand dollars to be his spoils of war. To locate Tyler and Amelia and the loot, Tavalera employs his mistress's sadistic brother Osma, a runaway slave tracker. As for Tyler and Amelia, they fall in love while at large and plot to take the ransom for themselves.
In other words, vintage Elmore Leonard wrapped in colorful new packaging.
What makes this a fun novel as opposed to a great one is that a lot of stuff seems to happen to the main character rather than the main character making stuff happen. I can't help but think the outcome of the story would've been exactly the same had Ben Tyler never come to Cuba. His relationship with Amelia is pretty much dictated by hormones, which is believable, but not very compelling. I didn't find them a attractive couple, like Wayne & Carmen Colson in Killshot. The mark of a great literary couple is when I start imagining all the great sex they're having between chapters, because the author is too polite to intrude and report back. I never felt my mind wandering there in this book.
Like a lot of westerns, Cuba Libre is straightforward; the good guys and the bad guys are exactly who they appear to be. There's a train robbery, a prison break, a saloon duel, several shootouts and a showdown and all of them turn out exactly like I expected. I could have done with less action and more interplay between the parties as they scramble for the ransom money. Surprises weren't in high order, but what I enjoyed were a train robbery, a prison break, a saloon duel, several shootouts and a showdown being executed with the brevity and panache of an author who loves this milieu and had it researched clearly.
Here's my list of Elmore Leonard novels ranked from favorite to least favorite:
1. Stick (1983)
2. Killshot (1989)
3. Cuba Libre (1998)
4. Pronto (1993)
5. Be Cool (1999)
6. Get Shorty (1990)
7. LaBrava (1983)
The opening paragraph is:
Tyler arrived with the horses February eighteenth, three days after the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor. He saw buzzards floating in the sky the way they do but couldn't make out what they were after. This was off Morro Castle, the cattle boat streaming black smoke as it came through the narrows.
Tyler is Ben Tyler, our cowboy. He appears in Sweetwater in the Arizona Territory with an offer from his old friend who is:
Charlie Burke, foreman of the Circle-Eye at the time, as many as thirty riders under him spring through the fall, put the boy to work chasing mustangs and company stock that had quit the bunch, and watched this kid gentle the green ones with a patience you didn't find in most hands. Watched him trail-boss herds they brought down in Old Mexico and drove to graze. Watched him quit the big spread after seven years to work for a mustanger named Dana Moon, supplying horses to mine companies and stage lines and remounts to the U.S. cavalry.
Tyler took to extreme measures to collect nine hundred dollars a mining company owed him, finally withdrawing the money from Maricopa Bank with a .44. He resorted to the same tactic to collect another debt and with all that experience robbing banks under his belt, kept going, until his capture and internment to Yuma Prison. Freed after three years, Tyler discovers a new problem which is:
"You don't ever want to win fame as an outlaw," Tyler said, "unless everybody knows you've done your time. There're people who save wanted dodgers and keep an eye out. They see me riding up the street and think, Why, there's five hundred dollars going by. Next thing I know, I'm trying to explain the situation to these men holding Winchesters on me. I've been shot at twice out on the graze, long range. Another time I'm in a line shack, a fella rode right into my camp and pulled on me."
"You shot him?"
"I had to. Now I got his relatives looking for me. It's the kind of thing that never ends."
"Well," Charlie Burke said, "you should never've robbed those banks."
Tyler said, "Thanks for telling me."
Charlie Burke convinces Tyler to come in with him on a deal in Cuba with a buyer who needs polo horses. When he was nine, Tyler spent a summer in Cuba on a sugar plantation operated by his father. The brutal Spanish aristocracy, the dons, are at war with the native insurrectos and have provided Charlie Burke a market for horses the rebels either run off or kill. Tyler does the math on their expenses and figures out that Charlie Burke is also doing business with the rebels smuggling guns. The old man wants a partner who knows Cuba and has the nerve to operate on the opposite side of the law.
Leonard sails the reader into Cuba for the weeks leading up to and following the Spanish American War in 1898. In Havana, Tyler and Charlie Burke meet a Cuban horse trader named Victor Fuentes serving as middleman on the deal between the cowboys and their buyer, an unscrupulous American businessman named Roland Boudreaux, who owns a sugar estate, among other assets. These include Amelia Brown, his canny twenty-year-old American mistress, one of the few people who does as she pleases and says what she pleases around Boudreaux. Upon meeting Tyler, she tells the cowboy that she likes his hat, not flirting, but looking him over. Lionel Tavalera is an officer in the Guardia Civil who hunts insurrectos and--as war against the United States edges forward--American spies.
Defending himself against a dandy cavalry officer he offends, Tyler is thrown into the infamous Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro. Tavalera suspects the cowboy of running guns and keeps him in the medieval prison until he can have Tyler shot. Amelia, who's been supplying information to Victor Fuentes on behalf of the insurrectos, devises a scheme to have herself "kidnapped" by rebels and to aid them by ransoming herself to Boudreaux for forty thousand dollars. To pull this off, Amelia and Fuentes break Tyler out of Morro, slaughtering eight of Tavalera's men. The officer determines the kidnapping is a hoax and as the Americans come ashore, considers those forty thousand dollars to be his spoils of war. To locate Tyler and Amelia and the loot, Tavalera employs his mistress's sadistic brother Osma, a runaway slave tracker. As for Tyler and Amelia, they fall in love while at large and plot to take the ransom for themselves.
In other words, vintage Elmore Leonard wrapped in colorful new packaging.
What makes this a fun novel as opposed to a great one is that a lot of stuff seems to happen to the main character rather than the main character making stuff happen. I can't help but think the outcome of the story would've been exactly the same had Ben Tyler never come to Cuba. His relationship with Amelia is pretty much dictated by hormones, which is believable, but not very compelling. I didn't find them a attractive couple, like Wayne & Carmen Colson in Killshot. The mark of a great literary couple is when I start imagining all the great sex they're having between chapters, because the author is too polite to intrude and report back. I never felt my mind wandering there in this book.
Like a lot of westerns, Cuba Libre is straightforward; the good guys and the bad guys are exactly who they appear to be. There's a train robbery, a prison break, a saloon duel, several shootouts and a showdown and all of them turn out exactly like I expected. I could have done with less action and more interplay between the parties as they scramble for the ransom money. Surprises weren't in high order, but what I enjoyed were a train robbery, a prison break, a saloon duel, several shootouts and a showdown being executed with the brevity and panache of an author who loves this milieu and had it researched clearly.
Here's my list of Elmore Leonard novels ranked from favorite to least favorite:
1. Stick (1983)
2. Killshot (1989)
3. Cuba Libre (1998)
4. Pronto (1993)
5. Be Cool (1999)
6. Get Shorty (1990)
7. LaBrava (1983)
November 21, 2023
Elmore Leonard began his career by writing a number of great western novels. He then segued into crime fiction and promptly produced some of the best crime novels ever written by anyone. Then, in 1998, he decided to take a turn at historical fiction and in the 100th anniversary year of the Spanish-American War, he produced Cuba Libre which is something of a western set against the backdrop of the war. I am a huge fan of Leonard's work, principally his crime novels, but for whatever reason, this book just did not resonate with me and even after reading it twice, it remains my least favorite of his novels.
There's a large cast of characters in this book, much more so than almost any of Leonard's other novels, including Americans, Spanish military officers, Cuban insurrectionists and, of course, the poor Cuban people who get caught in the middle of this mess. The Cuban people themselves get little time on the pages of the book, but they are always in the background, paying the price for all the various people who are exploiting them for their own selfish purposes.
At the center of the novel is a cowboy-turned-bank robber named Ben Tyler who, when freed from prison in Yuma, Arizona (One wonders if he took the 3:10 to Yuma, falls in with a buddy who wants to round up some horses, ship them to Cuba, and sell them there. It's quickly apparent that his buddy is really running guns to the Cuban rebels under the cover of selling horses, but Tyler is up for an adventure that he suspects could turn a profit as well.
They arrive in Cuba shortly after the U.S. warship The Maine blows up in the harbor at Havana. While the issue remains a subject of debate in some circles, it now seems virtually certain that the ship was destroyed by an internal explosion when the coal that fueled the vessel spontaneously combusted. Still, egged on by the newspapers, the rallying cry became, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!", and before long, Spain and the United States found themselves involved in a brief and very inglorious war.
The book plays out against the backdrop of these events. Tyler will find a love interest; there will be lots of action, and virtually all of the characters will be engaged in devious schemes against each other. Like all of Leonard's books, this is very well written, although the dialog is not nearly as snappy and engaging as it is in most of his crime novels. This book may appeal to those readers who enjoy historical fiction a lot more than I do, but personally, I will be very happy to move on to one of Leonard's more contemporary crime novels.
There's a large cast of characters in this book, much more so than almost any of Leonard's other novels, including Americans, Spanish military officers, Cuban insurrectionists and, of course, the poor Cuban people who get caught in the middle of this mess. The Cuban people themselves get little time on the pages of the book, but they are always in the background, paying the price for all the various people who are exploiting them for their own selfish purposes.
At the center of the novel is a cowboy-turned-bank robber named Ben Tyler who, when freed from prison in Yuma, Arizona (One wonders if he took the 3:10 to Yuma, falls in with a buddy who wants to round up some horses, ship them to Cuba, and sell them there. It's quickly apparent that his buddy is really running guns to the Cuban rebels under the cover of selling horses, but Tyler is up for an adventure that he suspects could turn a profit as well.
They arrive in Cuba shortly after the U.S. warship The Maine blows up in the harbor at Havana. While the issue remains a subject of debate in some circles, it now seems virtually certain that the ship was destroyed by an internal explosion when the coal that fueled the vessel spontaneously combusted. Still, egged on by the newspapers, the rallying cry became, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!", and before long, Spain and the United States found themselves involved in a brief and very inglorious war.
The book plays out against the backdrop of these events. Tyler will find a love interest; there will be lots of action, and virtually all of the characters will be engaged in devious schemes against each other. Like all of Leonard's books, this is very well written, although the dialog is not nearly as snappy and engaging as it is in most of his crime novels. This book may appeal to those readers who enjoy historical fiction a lot more than I do, but personally, I will be very happy to move on to one of Leonard's more contemporary crime novels.
June 28, 2022
I was looking to escape from the grim view of human nature Patricia Highsmith embraces (and that I also admire for its own wickedness) and have read some Elmore Leonard, mostly the comic romps. That was for me now, so at random picked this up and darn it, it is a serious novel about Cuba, The US and Spain, 1898, immediately before the Spanish-American civil wars, written in 1998. Like other work from Leonard, it features guns and lots of brutal killing, though not, in this instance, the killing done by or of lowlife thugs (his comic noir novels) or cowboy killing (westerns). But if you are looking for stories of guns and killing, not to worry, this will still satisfy.
Leonard elsewhere famously shares his principles of writing detective books, and then practices what he preaches here, in his 34th book. He does not, for instance, begin by writing about the weather. Instead, he wisely opens with the explosive destruction of the USS Maine off the harbor of Havana, which gets our attention. This act sets fire to the tinder that will bring on the war. Then he introduces us to his anti-hero, Ben Tyler, a cowboy and sometimes thief, who is recruited to ship horses to a rich guy in Cuba.
Now we tack back and forth between the Cuban revolution and the Spanish-American war, mostly retold by participants. Leonard does his historical research and makes it comes alive. We also see a number of folks trying to profit off the war, because this is what happens, their being humans, con men, violent killers, greedy, all that. One guy is a particularly evil violent guy, Guardia Civil Officer Tavalera. We don’t like him and hope he gets what’s coming to him. But no one is admirable, though we hear enough good things about a couple of them to support them, in a finale of sweet revenge and sweet romance (okay, I’ll tell you: Between Ben Tyler and Amelia Brown).
There’s a lot of colorful characters such as sugar planter Roland Boudreaux and his young mistress Amelia Brown, and car chases, ambushes, shootings in a Havana bar, the attack on Guantanamo Bay. And some racist treatment by Spain of (particularly black) Cubans. Did I escape from the grim view of human nature of Highsmith? Well, Leonard is cynical about people, but he also likes them as characters, and smiles at them more than Highsmith, probably.
We learn that American soldiers won this war despite the incompetence of their leaders.'' And they won it for American business interests, sound familiar? But this is not primarily a political tract, as Leonard writes to entertain, tell a good yarn, and tell it well. If I had read history books as entertainingly written and honest as Elmore writes, hell, I might have become a historian!
Oh, and a taste of that good writing, that practicing what he preaches approach: ''The mulatta served them coffee in the early morning of the 27th, the two leaning on the table to conspire: her lover in his uniform talking, talking -- it was what he did -- and her brother listening, Osma the slave hunter resting on his thick arms, Osma nodding, Osma raising the cup to sip coffee through his beard.''
Leonard elsewhere famously shares his principles of writing detective books, and then practices what he preaches here, in his 34th book. He does not, for instance, begin by writing about the weather. Instead, he wisely opens with the explosive destruction of the USS Maine off the harbor of Havana, which gets our attention. This act sets fire to the tinder that will bring on the war. Then he introduces us to his anti-hero, Ben Tyler, a cowboy and sometimes thief, who is recruited to ship horses to a rich guy in Cuba.
Now we tack back and forth between the Cuban revolution and the Spanish-American war, mostly retold by participants. Leonard does his historical research and makes it comes alive. We also see a number of folks trying to profit off the war, because this is what happens, their being humans, con men, violent killers, greedy, all that. One guy is a particularly evil violent guy, Guardia Civil Officer Tavalera. We don’t like him and hope he gets what’s coming to him. But no one is admirable, though we hear enough good things about a couple of them to support them, in a finale of sweet revenge and sweet romance (okay, I’ll tell you: Between Ben Tyler and Amelia Brown).
There’s a lot of colorful characters such as sugar planter Roland Boudreaux and his young mistress Amelia Brown, and car chases, ambushes, shootings in a Havana bar, the attack on Guantanamo Bay. And some racist treatment by Spain of (particularly black) Cubans. Did I escape from the grim view of human nature of Highsmith? Well, Leonard is cynical about people, but he also likes them as characters, and smiles at them more than Highsmith, probably.
We learn that American soldiers won this war despite the incompetence of their leaders.'' And they won it for American business interests, sound familiar? But this is not primarily a political tract, as Leonard writes to entertain, tell a good yarn, and tell it well. If I had read history books as entertainingly written and honest as Elmore writes, hell, I might have become a historian!
Oh, and a taste of that good writing, that practicing what he preaches approach: ''The mulatta served them coffee in the early morning of the 27th, the two leaning on the table to conspire: her lover in his uniform talking, talking -- it was what he did -- and her brother listening, Osma the slave hunter resting on his thick arms, Osma nodding, Osma raising the cup to sip coffee through his beard.''
October 21, 2025
Nobody writes like Elmore John Leonard Jr. (1925-2013). He began his writing career with Western short stories and novels in the 50s. Then he turned to crime stories, his first one, "The Big Bounce," published in 1969. "Glitz" was his big breakout in the crime genre. An Atlantic City gambling story published in 1985, it led to a review by Stephen King, which placed Leonard in the company of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
Leonard wrote more than forty books and a number of them have been adapted as films, such as "Rum Punch" which became the 1997 film "Jackie Brown" starring Pam Grier, and directed by Quentin Tarentino.
I think what I like best about Leonard are his characters and very natural (read: ungrammatical) dialogues. I can hear the characters talking in my head as I read. So it seems to me his stories are a good fit for film adaptation. Unsurprisingly, Leonard also wrote screenplays, such as for "Joe Kidd," a 1972 Western featuring Clint Eastwood.
In "Cuba Libre," published in 1998, Leonard returned to doing a Western. We have a likeable cowboy hero, Ben Tyler, who was also a bank robber and served time in Yuma Prison. But the story unfolds not in the West ( Leonard's favorite territory of the Southwest) but in the South-on the island of Cuba. It's 1898 and Ben Tyler is bringing a herd of horses by ship to Cuba for sale ( and also running guns to the Cuban rebels against their Spanish overlords). He arrives in Havana just after a US battleship, the Maine, exploded and sank in the harbor. Although no one really knows what caused the explosion, it looks like the sinking of the Maine will give the US the pretext for intervening in Cuba for the cause of "Cuba Libre," a free Cuba, and, of course, to protect its economic interests in the island. Tyler gets involved with various characters on the island, such as the American businessman from New Orleans, Boudreaux, and his young American mistress, Amelia. It's no big surprise that Tyler hooks up with Amelia and also the rebels. There's a heist in the story, planned by Tyler and Amelia. The attempt to pull it off while war rages in Cuba is the central part of the story. And there's also the loathsome Spanish villain Tavalera and I could not wait to see justice meted out to him...
No problem giving this one 4 stars, especially for the setting, very "exotic" for a Western! And why wasn't it made into a movie ( I can see the Tom Selleck of "Quigley Down Under" in it!)?
Leonard wrote more than forty books and a number of them have been adapted as films, such as "Rum Punch" which became the 1997 film "Jackie Brown" starring Pam Grier, and directed by Quentin Tarentino.
I think what I like best about Leonard are his characters and very natural (read: ungrammatical) dialogues. I can hear the characters talking in my head as I read. So it seems to me his stories are a good fit for film adaptation. Unsurprisingly, Leonard also wrote screenplays, such as for "Joe Kidd," a 1972 Western featuring Clint Eastwood.
In "Cuba Libre," published in 1998, Leonard returned to doing a Western. We have a likeable cowboy hero, Ben Tyler, who was also a bank robber and served time in Yuma Prison. But the story unfolds not in the West ( Leonard's favorite territory of the Southwest) but in the South-on the island of Cuba. It's 1898 and Ben Tyler is bringing a herd of horses by ship to Cuba for sale ( and also running guns to the Cuban rebels against their Spanish overlords). He arrives in Havana just after a US battleship, the Maine, exploded and sank in the harbor. Although no one really knows what caused the explosion, it looks like the sinking of the Maine will give the US the pretext for intervening in Cuba for the cause of "Cuba Libre," a free Cuba, and, of course, to protect its economic interests in the island. Tyler gets involved with various characters on the island, such as the American businessman from New Orleans, Boudreaux, and his young American mistress, Amelia. It's no big surprise that Tyler hooks up with Amelia and also the rebels. There's a heist in the story, planned by Tyler and Amelia. The attempt to pull it off while war rages in Cuba is the central part of the story. And there's also the loathsome Spanish villain Tavalera and I could not wait to see justice meted out to him...
No problem giving this one 4 stars, especially for the setting, very "exotic" for a Western! And why wasn't it made into a movie ( I can see the Tom Selleck of "Quigley Down Under" in it!)?
February 26, 2016
It has taken five books learn how devious Leonard can be in telling his stories. I once thought of Leonard as a solid character writer. Every character that he has brought to life has provided hours of entertainment through their unique characteristics. He has never failed to tell a good story.
But I also enjoy books with more than just a good story. I like books that reach out from the page, as Graham Greene often does, with insights to think about and consider:
This time, while reading Cuba Libre, I realized that Leonard does the same thing, but he is not as overt. If Leonard wants to convey such insight, he does so. But he does it through his characters, through their actions and dialogue without the need to pause for such commentary. It is this implicit, character-based insight that I found so intriguing in this, my fifth Leonard book. And it is this implicit approach that keeps the characters out in front of the story, where the action is taking place, without a need to pause as Green is known to do.
Cuba Libre itself is a unique adventure. Leonard takes time, place and (of course) characters and throws them all together. Each character has a kindness about them that is contrasted with a dark past. Towards the end, each of the characters was capable and suspect of doing the very opposite of their eventual acts. Thus, a mystery was formed, not by withholding some crucial piece of information, but through the depiction of human nature all on its own. In the end, hate, love, forgiveness, and greed swirl around within every character such that anything is possible.
But I also enjoy books with more than just a good story. I like books that reach out from the page, as Graham Greene often does, with insights to think about and consider:
“The truth has never been of any real value to any human being - it is a symbol for the mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths” -GG
This time, while reading Cuba Libre, I realized that Leonard does the same thing, but he is not as overt. If Leonard wants to convey such insight, he does so. But he does it through his characters, through their actions and dialogue without the need to pause for such commentary. It is this implicit, character-based insight that I found so intriguing in this, my fifth Leonard book. And it is this implicit approach that keeps the characters out in front of the story, where the action is taking place, without a need to pause as Green is known to do.
Cuba Libre itself is a unique adventure. Leonard takes time, place and (of course) characters and throws them all together. Each character has a kindness about them that is contrasted with a dark past. Towards the end, each of the characters was capable and suspect of doing the very opposite of their eventual acts. Thus, a mystery was formed, not by withholding some crucial piece of information, but through the depiction of human nature all on its own. In the end, hate, love, forgiveness, and greed swirl around within every character such that anything is possible.
October 16, 2022
The Spanish-American war and the sinking of the USS Maine in the history according to Elmore Leonard, which means: gunrunners and cowboys and a prison break and a train heist and warlords and yellow fever and a love story, and everybody here is a schemer, and everybody here is just human, not particularly noble or evil or honorable or vile but right and wrong in big and small ways regardless.
November 26, 2014
I like Elmore Leonard, but this was pretty horrendous. Writing a historical novel doesn't mean having your characters spout paragraphs of exposition to show off all the research you've done about yellow journalism, slavery, etc. Leonard's characters are so much more effective when they're speaking softly and carrying big sticks.
September 7, 2019
Guys. This book has set a new personal record for me. Within 16 seconds of listening to this audio on libby (i shit you not), I thought to myself: I'm not gunna give a fuck about this book.
And guess what?
I have no idea what compelled this author to write a book centered in Cuba with two American protagonists, one of which is a cowboy and a criminal.
Like???
Waste of my fucking time but I did it. I am officially one book away from completing my 2019 reading goal of reading six books about Cubans and/or Cuba. Last year, I read so many books about my people that were well done, inspirational, nostalgic, and overall thought evoking on several accounts. But this year I can't seem to read one deserving of a higher rating than a reluctant three. ughhhhh, que mierda.
Anyways - reasons why I disliked this book:
- Instalove
- Uninteresting, one-dimensional characters
- Book was longer than it needed to be, by, like, the 16th second apparently lol
- Machismo themes *rolls eyes*
- Started off boring and somehow managed to get worse halfway through
Torturous Half-Ass Synopsis:
This novel revolves around Ben Tyler, a criminal, who gets hired to smuggle 30 horses to a wealthy American sugar planter in Cuba (because, sure, we'll have a book centered in Cuba and not have any of the main characters or plot lines centered on Cubans - why not? -.-) Anyways, some drama happens and turns out they're actually smuggling guns hidden on the boat carrying the horses (does this all sound dumb and lame? because it should).
Historical components are intertwined with the story line, such as the coming war between America and Spain and the gun fights apparent during the build-up to the revolutionary wars. This all indicates that the narrative takes place around 1890s (closer to 1898).
^^ It took all of my brain power to retain that much information and not just automatically delete this entire narrative from my existence. The moment I finished this book, I had to crawl into bed and nap for a solid two hours in order to recuperate from the migraine Leonard gave me.
Never reading a book by this author again cuz aint nobody got time for that.
And guess what?
I have no idea what compelled this author to write a book centered in Cuba with two American protagonists, one of which is a cowboy and a criminal.
Like???
Waste of my fucking time but I did it. I am officially one book away from completing my 2019 reading goal of reading six books about Cubans and/or Cuba. Last year, I read so many books about my people that were well done, inspirational, nostalgic, and overall thought evoking on several accounts. But this year I can't seem to read one deserving of a higher rating than a reluctant three. ughhhhh, que mierda.
Anyways - reasons why I disliked this book:
- Instalove
- Uninteresting, one-dimensional characters
- Book was longer than it needed to be, by, like, the 16th second apparently lol
- Machismo themes *rolls eyes*
- Started off boring and somehow managed to get worse halfway through
Torturous Half-Ass Synopsis:
This novel revolves around Ben Tyler, a criminal, who gets hired to smuggle 30 horses to a wealthy American sugar planter in Cuba (because, sure, we'll have a book centered in Cuba and not have any of the main characters or plot lines centered on Cubans - why not? -.-) Anyways, some drama happens and turns out they're actually smuggling guns hidden on the boat carrying the horses (does this all sound dumb and lame? because it should).
Historical components are intertwined with the story line, such as the coming war between America and Spain and the gun fights apparent during the build-up to the revolutionary wars. This all indicates that the narrative takes place around 1890s (closer to 1898).
^^ It took all of my brain power to retain that much information and not just automatically delete this entire narrative from my existence. The moment I finished this book, I had to crawl into bed and nap for a solid two hours in order to recuperate from the migraine Leonard gave me.
Never reading a book by this author again cuz aint nobody got time for that.
November 26, 2008
Like his book "The Hot Kid" from 2005, Elmore Leonard's earlier "Cubra Libre" is an entertaining crime novel set in a bygone era. In this case, the time period is the days leading up to and during the Spanish-American War, with the crimes involving smuggling guns to Cuba and absconding with ransom money.
As he did in "The Hot Kid," Leonard in "Cubra Libre" offers up an interesting cast of characters, artfully juggles interrelated storylines, and demonstrates a keen ear for conversation. (There's also another connection between the two books: Virgil Webster, the father of "The Hot Kid"'s hero, is a minor character in both.)
"Cubra Libre"'s main weakness, as often seems to be the case in Leonard's novels, is his depiction of the lead female character. Leonard's women feel more like male fantasies -- amazingly attractive, sexually available, and breezily quick-witted in conversation -- than believable human beings. "Cuba Libre"'s Amelia Brown is no exception. Also, the romance between Amelia and Ben Tyler is as sappy and shallow as the one between Kelly Barr and Frank Delsa in Leonard's "Mr. Paradise" from 2004.
"Cuba Libre" is still a far stronger book than "Mr. Paradise," though, and its flaws aren't overly distracting. It's an easy recommendation for Leonard fans, of course, but also for anyone who enjoys crime novels that offer readers something beyond propulsive plots.
As he did in "The Hot Kid," Leonard in "Cubra Libre" offers up an interesting cast of characters, artfully juggles interrelated storylines, and demonstrates a keen ear for conversation. (There's also another connection between the two books: Virgil Webster, the father of "The Hot Kid"'s hero, is a minor character in both.)
"Cubra Libre"'s main weakness, as often seems to be the case in Leonard's novels, is his depiction of the lead female character. Leonard's women feel more like male fantasies -- amazingly attractive, sexually available, and breezily quick-witted in conversation -- than believable human beings. "Cuba Libre"'s Amelia Brown is no exception. Also, the romance between Amelia and Ben Tyler is as sappy and shallow as the one between Kelly Barr and Frank Delsa in Leonard's "Mr. Paradise" from 2004.
"Cuba Libre" is still a far stronger book than "Mr. Paradise," though, and its flaws aren't overly distracting. It's an easy recommendation for Leonard fans, of course, but also for anyone who enjoys crime novels that offer readers something beyond propulsive plots.
February 8, 2017
I became intrigued with reading Elmore Leonard's books after watching the first season of "Justified", especially his interview in one of the bonus features. This is the first book I have read. It has a very interesting style, almost a shorthand that allows you to fill the gaps in the narrative.
This story begins with 2 American cowboys contracted to deliver a shipment of horses (and some other stuff), who arrive in Cuba 3 days after the Maine is blown up in Havana's harbor. It's filled with a multitude of disreputable characters who each seem to have their own code of honor. Leonard switches the attention from one character to the next making sharp plot twists. My overall impression is of a mostly corrupt society made complaisant by colonialism.
This story begins with 2 American cowboys contracted to deliver a shipment of horses (and some other stuff), who arrive in Cuba 3 days after the Maine is blown up in Havana's harbor. It's filled with a multitude of disreputable characters who each seem to have their own code of honor. Leonard switches the attention from one character to the next making sharp plot twists. My overall impression is of a mostly corrupt society made complaisant by colonialism.
May 24, 2011
While I endlessly adore Elmore Leonard, historical novels about wars are not my thing.
January 3, 2015
USS Maine na Baía de Havana 1898
O escritor norte-americano Elmore Leonard (1925 – 2013) escreveu uma novela histórica, nas vésperas da Guerra Hispano-Americana, que decorreu entre 25 de Abril e 12 de Agosto de 1898, entre a Espanha e os Estados Unidos da América, em Cuba, interligando, igualmente, a revolta cubana contra o domínio espanhol e a sua Guerra da Independência.
É o naufrágio misterioso do navio USS Maine a 15 de Fevereiro de 1898 no porto de Havana, numa explosão, por acidente ou por sabotagem, que vai despoletar a eclosão da Guerra Hispano-Americana e que enquadra admiravelmente um enredo com personagens inesquecíveis e realistas, numa trama complexa mas de fácil leitura.
Ben Tyler é um comboy norte-americano, assaltante de bancos e ex-presidiário, que “tinha sofrido o efeito das intempéries e das dificuldades”, contratado por Charles Burke, um negociante de cavalos, para entregar 30 cavalos em Cuba, ao seu conterrâneo, o industrial da “cana-do-açúcar” e capitalista Roland Boudreaux (Rollie), numa transacção destinada a encobrir a venda de armas aos “insurrectos” cubanos, e liderada por Victor Fuentes.
O elemento da Guardia Civil Lionel Talavera, o chefe da Polícia Municipal de Havana Andrés Palenzuela, o detective da polícia Rudi Calvo e o chefe da guerrilha Islero, são algumas das personagens, que representam uma outra vertente da narrativa, dominada por interesses dúbios, mas integrada perfeitamente na sua componente histórica, com crimes e tiroteios, perseguições e prisões infernais, associados a códigos de honra complexos.
Virgil Webster o marinheiro sobrevivente na explosão do navio USS Maine e o jornalista norte-americano Neely Tucker, fonte de informação e contador de “histórias”, duas outras personagens secundárias, porque protagonistas de aventuras paralelas, se revelam essenciais no desenvolvimento da narrativa.
Numa história dominada pelos homens Elmore Leonard revela-nos uma enigmática e lindíssima personagem feminina, Amelia Brown, amante de Brodeaux, uma femme fatale, num triângulo amoroso com Ben Tyler, feito de amores à primeira-vista, e envolvida numa história de sequestro, com um resgate de 40.000 dólares, conjugando traições e uniões inesperadas.
Em “Cuba Libre” (1998) Elmore Leonard associa a vertente histórica de uma guerra complexa, onde se congregam inúmeros interesses revolucionários, numa trama interligada e com recurso ao uso de flash-backs, revelando um suspense e uma acção espectacular, onde os diálogos são soberbos, e escritos com humor rebuscado e irónico.
Altamente recomendado.
“Lutámos com honra e agora está tudo acabado.” (Pág. 299)
May 26, 2016
A well written historical novel, Cuba Libre describes the island's cities and towns with just enough information to make the reader want to see this country for themselves. I liked the love story involving the southern American cowboy Ben and the beautiful, rebellious Amelia. Though this is a work of fiction, it is very accurate in its details of the Spanish/American war of 1898.
Interesting facts about the sinking of the battleship Maine which I have found on the internet and summarized: 9.40pm on the night of February 15th, 1898 the United States battleship Maine, at anchor in Havana harbour, was suddenly blown up, apparently by a mine, in an explosion which tore her bottom out and sank her, killing 260 officers and men on board. What caused the explosion or who was responsible has never been established but the consequence was the Spanish-American War of 1898. American sentiment was strongly behind Cuban independence. The New York Journal and the New York World, inflamed the situation with the exhortation to ‘Remember the Maine’, and by encouraging action. They were vigorously supported by hawkish senators and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. In the end the government in Spain declared war on the United States on April 24th. The American Congress had already authorised the use of armed force and the United States formally declared war on April 25th. An American fleet under Commander Dewey annihilated a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1st. In June an American force landed east of the Cuban city of Santiago. On July 1st Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’ helped troopers of the 10th Cavalry take the San Juan Heights above the city of Santiago, which surrendered on the 17th. The Spanish Cuban fleet, which had meanwhile fled Santiago harbour, was hunted down by American battleships and destroyed in four hours. American troops took Puerto Rico a few days afterwards. When a peace treaty was signed in Paris in December, Spain lost its last colonies in the New World. The United States took the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Pacific island of Guam, and achieved worldwide recognition as a great power. Cuba gained independence, Theodore Roosevelt earned a hero’s reputation.
Interesting facts about the sinking of the battleship Maine which I have found on the internet and summarized: 9.40pm on the night of February 15th, 1898 the United States battleship Maine, at anchor in Havana harbour, was suddenly blown up, apparently by a mine, in an explosion which tore her bottom out and sank her, killing 260 officers and men on board. What caused the explosion or who was responsible has never been established but the consequence was the Spanish-American War of 1898. American sentiment was strongly behind Cuban independence. The New York Journal and the New York World, inflamed the situation with the exhortation to ‘Remember the Maine’, and by encouraging action. They were vigorously supported by hawkish senators and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. In the end the government in Spain declared war on the United States on April 24th. The American Congress had already authorised the use of armed force and the United States formally declared war on April 25th. An American fleet under Commander Dewey annihilated a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1st. In June an American force landed east of the Cuban city of Santiago. On July 1st Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’ helped troopers of the 10th Cavalry take the San Juan Heights above the city of Santiago, which surrendered on the 17th. The Spanish Cuban fleet, which had meanwhile fled Santiago harbour, was hunted down by American battleships and destroyed in four hours. American troops took Puerto Rico a few days afterwards. When a peace treaty was signed in Paris in December, Spain lost its last colonies in the New World. The United States took the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Pacific island of Guam, and achieved worldwide recognition as a great power. Cuba gained independence, Theodore Roosevelt earned a hero’s reputation.
November 22, 2010
A "dime novel" from 1860 would cost about $4 today when factoring in inflation, and that's about as much as I paid for this book used. It's about right, all around. This is a quick read, something of a toss-off. It's very standard Leonard -- some of his familiar character-types (the wise old criminal; the dangerous but essentially good guy; the not totally trustworthy lady love interest; the rich but only moderately bad guy) interacting in a series of crosses and double-crosses, set in Cuba around the beginning of the Spanish-American War. A deep historical novel, this ain't. A gripping yarn, well, not exactly. A $4 book to read while trying to figure out what your next "real" book to tackle will be -- maybe that's all it is. It's Leonard, so the dialogue is mostly good, the story is OK (it is a little stock if you are Leonard fan), but there isn't a whole lot to it other than that. Definitely not in the same bracket as "Get Shorty" and other really sparkling Leonard classics.
July 9, 2017
Let me begin by saying I like Elmore Leonard whether it is in book form for the movies that I have seen. I get his humor, as dark as it can be at times, so its easy to say that I liked this book about a cowboy who is talked into gathering horses to sell in Cuba. He partners with an old friend, who uses the horses (which frankly, don't make anything for them) as cover for gun running. Add into that story is the sinking of the USS Maine and the battle between the "insurrection" and the Guardias and the big landowners. And as icing on the cake, a beautiful young woman who visits the island and become the mistress to one of the landowners.
What you have is a darkly humorous, action-packed adventure yarn that sizzles with revenge, love and sometimes even honor as all the parties come together in 1898 as the Americans come on shore to show who is top dog in the Americas. This may not be for everyone but as I say, I like Leonard's humor and the touch of history running through the tale.
What you have is a darkly humorous, action-packed adventure yarn that sizzles with revenge, love and sometimes even honor as all the parties come together in 1898 as the Americans come on shore to show who is top dog in the Americas. This may not be for everyone but as I say, I like Leonard's humor and the touch of history running through the tale.
September 29, 2011
This is a cowboy/western book, set in historical Cuba in 1898. The protagonist, Ben Tyler, is taking horses as a cover for smuggling guns to Cuba, and arrives shortly after the sinking of the battleship Maine. He meets various bad guys (Guardia Civil) and a sugar mill plantation owner, along with American newspapermen (it is the time of yellow journalism coverage of Cuba), and the mistress, Amelia Brown, of the plantation owner. Tyler quickly ends up in prison for killing someone, is rescued with the aid of Amelia, and then they are off to make their fortune in the rough-and-tumble, deadly war time effort with Cuban insurgents and Spanish soldiers and Americans soldiers all fighting each other.
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 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.
August 2, 2016
I usually don't get this far in books that disappoint me, but Leonard is such a fine writer and the setting and subject matter so engaging, that I expected it to kick into gear at any moment. But around page 200 I realized that I could put it down and never pick it up again—and not be bothered in the least. So I did. The characters just didn't come alive as in other Leonard books and for such an interesting historical period the drama just seemed flat. I will try another Leonard soon to see if Get Shorty (the only other one I've read) was the exception, or whether this one simply wan't among his best.
October 20, 2015
Leonard is the master of many things, but the two that shine here above all others: dialogue, and men with ethics who end up on the wrong side of the law.
I wish he would write more historical fiction -- this is set in Cuba during the Spanish American war -- because he could give McMurtry a run for his money.
There are whole sections here where the scene comes to life because of the absolute perfect pitch of the dialog. It might be said that there is a lull in the structure of the plot towards the middle, but not much of one.
I wish he would write more historical fiction -- this is set in Cuba during the Spanish American war -- because he could give McMurtry a run for his money.
There are whole sections here where the scene comes to life because of the absolute perfect pitch of the dialog. It might be said that there is a lull in the structure of the plot towards the middle, but not much of one.
January 29, 2024
I continue to enjoy his writing with a story spun around actual places and events.
August 20, 2025
This was great. I'm Cuban-American, and Leonard captured Cubans so well I almost can't believe he's not a Cuban himself! Though be warned, most of the main characters are American, and all of the characters are bad guys.
August 6, 2012
This is one book that would probably make a better movie than a book. Never engaged me in the characters or the story. Scenery was the only thing that stands out. My first Elmore Leonard and not sure I need to find anymore of his works.
June 10, 2014
This was kind of boring. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more entertainment. But, it did want to make me learn more about Cuban history, and that's something, right? And made me want to re-read Out of Sight to see if it's much better than this like I remember...
December 7, 2017
The subject matter was good and I really tried to get into this book. I gave it 140 pages hoping that somewhere it would really pique my interest enough to continue but I had to put it down.
September 28, 2018
Too slow, not too my style
November 11, 2019
Unfortunately, I'm not quite halfway and it's been such a struggle to get this far and it feels so slow, I'm finding it hard to care what happens to any of them, and I'm about to pull the plug.
March 16, 2023
Of the few Leonard novels I've read, this tops my list for least favorite.
The best parts of Leonard - his quit-witted dialogue, his flawed-but-likable protagonists, his fast moving film-like plot devices -those are all missing in Cuba Libre. His signature style feels masked by long stretches of forced historical exposition at the start of a chapter or in the middle of a conversation, squashing out his usual natural dialogue. The romance between our protagonists has about as much chemistry as a middle school boys locker room. It's just awkward and hard to believe. And please for the love of god, Elmore, stop using the n-word.
Anyway, I will say this novel has the most fast-paced action of the books of his I've read thus far. But by "fast-paced action" I mostly refer to the excessive number of people who are iced by a bullet to the forehead. The first time, it was great. But after that? Come on, Dutch.
*spoiler ahead*
"Tyler pulled a big .44 revolver from inside his new alpaca coat and shot Teo Barbón in the middle of his forehead."
"They shot him and then the officer went over to Charlie lying on the ground and shot him in the head."
"...Tyler putting his .44 on the Guardia and bam, took the man's hat off with a good part of his skull."
"Tyler came down on the Guardia bringing up his carbine, Tyler pointing a .44 at the carbine pointing at him, fired and fired again and fired again and saw the carbine fly up in the air."
...you get the point
I really just wanted one or two characters I could truly root for, but instead everyone got blown away in a .44 caliber Clint Eastwood flavored cliche.
So all that being said, Cuba just feels like cheap thrills after a while. But it's fine.
I think Leonard just really wanted to write a book about Cuba, so he did.
Man's gotta do something to pay the bills.
The best parts of Leonard - his quit-witted dialogue, his flawed-but-likable protagonists, his fast moving film-like plot devices -those are all missing in Cuba Libre. His signature style feels masked by long stretches of forced historical exposition at the start of a chapter or in the middle of a conversation, squashing out his usual natural dialogue. The romance between our protagonists has about as much chemistry as a middle school boys locker room. It's just awkward and hard to believe. And please for the love of god, Elmore, stop using the n-word.
Anyway, I will say this novel has the most fast-paced action of the books of his I've read thus far. But by "fast-paced action" I mostly refer to the excessive number of people who are iced by a bullet to the forehead. The first time, it was great. But after that? Come on, Dutch.
*spoiler ahead*
"Tyler pulled a big .44 revolver from inside his new alpaca coat and shot Teo Barbón in the middle of his forehead."
"They shot him and then the officer went over to Charlie lying on the ground and shot him in the head."
"...Tyler putting his .44 on the Guardia and bam, took the man's hat off with a good part of his skull."
"Tyler came down on the Guardia bringing up his carbine, Tyler pointing a .44 at the carbine pointing at him, fired and fired again and fired again and saw the carbine fly up in the air."
...you get the point
I really just wanted one or two characters I could truly root for, but instead everyone got blown away in a .44 caliber Clint Eastwood flavored cliche.
So all that being said, Cuba just feels like cheap thrills after a while. But it's fine.
I think Leonard just really wanted to write a book about Cuba, so he did.
Man's gotta do something to pay the bills.
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