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Cuba Libreby Leonard, Elmore
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Book DescriptionNew York, NY, U.S.A.: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002 spine creasing. Mass Market Paperback. Good. Book summaryGunrunner Ben Tyler travels to Cuba during the Spanish-American war hoping to sell arms to Cuban nationals and make a hefty profit. Then the USS Maine explodes, sending the already turbulent region into greater turmoil.Media Reviews"Top entertainment from the pro's pro: a million greedy schemes with time-outs for war and sex." -- Kirkus "Leonard shows his usual flair for characters and capers, and he's good with history writ small--he evokes a bygone Havana with plausible particulars, plenty of narrow streets and closed shutters....Until the end, Leonard manages to keep you in suspense about who's going to wind up with the cash, but there's one thing you know from the start: the 'mambis' never stand a chance." -- Henry Louis Gates, New Yorker "The war turns out to be backdrop rather than instigating purpose, a way to raise the hype rather than the ante. There is so much good storytelling in the novel, from parodies of the press to mockeries of the aristocracy to lessons on the manners of horses, that the reader is disappointed when the story falls back on traditional adventure motifs. Still, there are few writers who can match Leonard when it comes to narrative moves, none who write dialogues that say so little and mean so much....The result is a taut, often funny, frequently brutal account of how personal desires take tangled forms in trying times." -- Paul Skenazy, San Francisco Book Review "'Cuba Libre' maintains its equilibrium throughout, gives a dash of entertainment to the origins of the still-unresolved relationship between the United States and Cuba and carries the reader to a rewarding, if somewhat predictable, climax. To Leonard's immense credit, after more than 30 books, he still explores new terrain, continues to expand his turf and pulls it off with class." -- Tom Miller, Los Angeles Times Book Review "'Cuba Libre is not a bad book; it is, however, disappointing. The combination of subject and author promised much more than Leonard delivers." -- Nina King, Washington Post Book World Publisher NotesWar in Cuba isn't Ben Tyler's concern. Still, sailing mares and guns into Havana harbor in 1898--right past the submerged wreckage of the U.S. battleship Maine--may not be the smartest thing the recently prison-sprung horse wrangler ever did. Neither is shooting one of the local Guardia, though the pompous peacock deserved it. Now Tyler's sitting tight in a vermin-infested Cuban stockade waiting to face a firing squad. But he's not dying until he gets the money he's owed from a two-timing American sugar baron. And there's one smart, pistol-hot lady at the rich man's side who could help Ben get everything he's got rightfully coming...even when the whole damn island's going straight to hell. Other Recommended Books
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