Cuba Libre [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Elmore Leonard (Author), Henry Levya (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1998

Set on the eve of the Spanish-American War, Elmore Leonard's electrifying novel takes off like a shot.  A spellbinding journey into the heart and soul of the Cuban revolution of a hundred years ago, Cuba Libre is an explosive mix of high adventure, history brought to life, and a honey of a love story--all with the dead-on dialogue and unforgettable characters that mark Elmore Leonard as an American original.

Just three days after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, Ben Tyler arrives with a string of horses to sell--cover for a boatload of guns he's running to Cuban insurgents, risking a firing squad if he's caught.

This cowboy's first day ashore sets the pace for a wild ride to come.  He sells the horses to an American planter, Roland Boudreaux, who's making a killing in Cuba...meets the man's sparkly New Orleans-born mistress, Amelia Brown, and falls in love...makes an enemy of a terrorizing Guardia Civil officer named Tavalera, and a friend of a mysterious old Cuban, Victor Fuentes...is forced into a gunfight and thrown in prison, Tavalera determined to nail him as a spy.  

Tyler has done time in the past for robbing banks, but never in a place like Morro Castle.  America is about to declare war on Spain, and if Tyler doesn't manage to get out very soon, he's a dead man.  

How his escape comes about, with surprising help, is the high point from which the plot takes off on a train ride across Cuba, with Tyler and Amelia looking for more than love, a lot more--a chance to snatch a bundle of Boudreaux's cash, if they can pull it off.  But who can you trust?  Everyone's a schemer in this one.

Leonard breaks new ground in this rip-roaring jaunt into history, packed with all the twists, turns, sly plot, and wicked wit his fans have come to expect of the writer who has redefined the art of the novel.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Elmore Leonard has a long track record of creating memorable characters--enough to bring life to many movies, the two most notable being Get Shorty and Jackie Brown(based on Leonard's Rum Punch). Both are pretty good movies, but the novels are much better. Today Leonard writes mostly "crime" novels, labeled as such because his characters struggle to be good in a world so full of temptation that some kind of crime is always involved.

Cuba Libre finds Leonard reaching for a broader audience than those which appreciated either his crime novels or the westerns he once wrote, which he accomplishes by combining elements of both. Ben Tyler is a cowboy who robs banks, but only those that contain money of people who owe but won't pay him--he only takes what they owe. Charlie Burke is a businessman who buys horses cheap in the west, then sells them to exporters, while heroine Amelia Brown is the mistress of one of the truly bad men in the novel and struggles with dilemmas similar to those endured by other cast members.

Begining around the time that the Maine is sunk in Havana Harbor and ending when Teddy and others storm San Juan Hill, the story is at its best when its colorful characters are turned loose in one of the novel's colorful settings. If you like Leonard, you'll love Cuba Libre, and if--for some reason--you haven't yet discovered the author, prepare for a real treat. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

YA-This book has something to interest almost everyone. Set against the rich and compelling backdrop of Cuba during its struggle for independence, the story includes bank robbery, cattle rustling, love, suspense, and action-packed adventure. Realistic, memorable characters come to life in the scheming twists and turns of a complex plot. Leonard writes in an easy-to-follow style; his bad guys are truly BAD, and readers find themselves rooting for the hero and heroine as they hide, the Spanish Civil guards in hot pursuit. The plot is larded with history, beginning with the sinking of the USS Maine in the harbor of Havana, and ending with Roosevelt and his Rough Riders's charge up San Juan Hill. A rare glimpse of the Spanish-American War and the fight for Cuban independence.
Anita Short, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio (January 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553479474
• ISBN-13: 978-0553479478
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 4.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,090,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty novels, including bestsellers Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Pagan Babies, and Glitz. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leonard Libre, November 10, 2001

By 

Larry Scantlebury (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cuba Libre (Mass Market Paperback)

I believe that at the end of the day, Elmore Leonard will be considered by many as one of the best novelists of this generation. His prose is tight; his characters are multi dimensional and speak in compressed, vivid dialogue. When Charley Burke asks Ben Tyler, having just been released from the Arizona State Prison at Rosemary, Arizona in 1898, if he learned anything following his incarceration for bank robbery and the ensuing, relentless pursuit of the posse, Ben tells him "Yes. Next time I need more fresh horses."

Charley, Ben, the lovely Amelia, her evil keeper, the Spanish captors and the homeric insurrectionists (ocassionally they swap moralities), all coalesce on the island of Cuba a few days after the USS Maine is blown up in the harbor.

This is Leanord at his best: Colorfully, flawed characters, women who love hard, oftentimes for the wrong man, evildoers with streaks of decency, downtrodden individuals with streaks of evil, fabulous booty that's chased, followed, captured, lost, gained, lost again, regained, and the type of dialogue that from time to time makes you put the book down, repeat the line to yourself, and smile.

Just like Hammet, Chandler, DeMille, and Parker, you have to first like Leonard. If you do, this is a master at the heighth of his craft. Enjoy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile book, January 6, 2000

By 

Michael J. Berquist - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuba Libre (Mass Market Paperback)

Fans of Elmore Leonard will find "Cuba Libre" to be an interesting and utterly worthwhile departure for this author. Unlike his more famous novels, this is not a contemporary exploration of people making their way in a society which punishes them for the choices they made so long ago.

The place is Havana, Cuba. The time is 1898. Set against the backdrop of the Spanish-American War, a group of Americans are trying to survive the soldiers of Cuba's Spanish regime and pull off a heist against a wealthy Cuban landowner.

The themes of Leonard's novel are the same- a heist to part a fool with his money, Americans dealing with the legacy of poor choices, the system against the heros. But the change here is the time of the story, and Leonard really shines in giving the readers a vision of what Cuba was like at the end of the 19th Century. The reader can almost feel the humidity of Havana, the sound of music from the city, the sights and sounds of 1898 Cuba pulsating through Leonard's prose.

The characters are dependably interesting, if a little familiar at the same time. Leonard's prose is excellent as usual, and the story never flags or fails to hold the reader's interest. Very good work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow build-up going nowhere, March 31, 2008

By 

Ash Ryan (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuba Libre (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first Elmore Leonard novel, and I have to say, I thought it was just okay. The historical setting was interesting, the protagonists (Ben and Amelia) were quite likeable, and the villains were suitably vile, and for a while there the plot looked like it was really going somewhere, albeit slowly. However, the climactic train heist, with a good half dozen separate parties after the loot (one hell of a set-up), basically fizzled, and after that not much of interest occurred.

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.