Cuba Libre

Written by Elmore Leonard

Narrated by George Guidall

“A wild ride through Cuba during the Spanish-American War.”
—Miami Herald

“Not only his finest novel but one that transcends the limits of its genre and is worthy of being evaluated as literary fiction.”
—Houston Chronicle

Before Grand Master Elmore Leonard earned his well-deserved reputation as “the best writer of crime fiction alive” (Newsweek), he penned some of the finest western fiction to ever appear in print. (The classics Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and 3:10 to Yuma were just a few of his notable works.) With his extraordinary Cuba Libre, Leonard ingeniously combines all of his many talents and delivers a historical adventure/caper/western/noir like none other. The creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, star of Raylan, Pronto, Riding the Rap, and TV’s Justified, spins a gloriously exciting yarn about an American horse wrangler who escapes a date with a Cuban firing squad to join forces with a powerful sugar baron’s lady looking to make waves and score big in and around Spanish-American War-torn Havana in 1898. Everything you love about Leonard’s fiction—and more—is evident in Cuba Libre. No wonder the New York Times Book Review enthusiastically declared him “a literary genius.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Oct 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9780061993824

Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers Raylan, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool, Get Shorty, and Rum Punch, as well as the acclaimed collection When the Women Come Out to Dance, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. The short story "Fire in the Hole," and three books, including Raylan, were the basis for the FX hit show Justified. Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013.

Reviews for Cuba Libre

[daftboy1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is set in 1899 as War breaks out between USA and Spain in Cuba. Ben Tyler is trying his luck selling Horses and Guns in Cuba. He meets a few different characters along the way. Some good some bad. He ends up in jail a lovely young Lady called Amelia with help from her rich boyfriends assistant hatch a plan to free Ben from jail and also fake her kidnapping to receive $45,000 ransom money. There is a big battle, Police are involved and the War has now started. Amelia and Ben get double crossed, lots of other people are after the money. Amelia and Ben do get a little bit of money and decide they want to stay in Cuba. This was different from the books I usually read was a bit long winded and political.

[mathrocks_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[rjuniper_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Typically Leonard with taut, realistic dialogue. Fun, fast paced thriller with rich mix of late 19 Century Cuban history (Spanish-American war). Perfect for a Cuban beach read.

[ashryan_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes a story works hard to get the reader to the end just for the pay-off for a twist that just has to satisfy. Othertimes, the reader is lured in by a book that is great for long enough that one becomes invested, and has to continue to the end, no matter how poorly or anticlimactic it might turn out to be. "Cuba Libre" falls into the latter camp.Leonard is a good writer, and can tell a good tale; one would expect this to be the case, considering his popularity among Hollywood's elite (okay, Jackie Brown and Get Shorty are not exactly classics). "Cuba Libre" is effortless, gracefully moving from page to page a story of gun-runners gone good in Cuba at the turn of the nineteenth century. There are betrayals, murders, accidents, incidents; everything is place.But then when the end finally arrives, as it must always do, it is such a damp squib of an affair, with a silly conclusion stapled on, and a worthless final line of dialogue. This last ends with an exclamation mark; ironic considering how little there is to exclaim about.