Rating: 
Summary: Revolutionaries, opportunists.....corruption and love
Review: Cuba Libre seems to me to be a lot different from Elmore Leonard's previous books, the twisted characters, the crack dialogue and the anti-moral morality.
That is not, however, to say that this is not an interesting work by Leonard!!
This is a story of the lives of people living in Cuba as the Spanish American war threatens to change things for many, but not for all. It is about love and trust from some people who have rarely known those things. As always there are always those who survive and flourish during times of upheaval, those who do not particularly care who wins and who looses. These are the people who take advantage of uncertainty and have no moral leanings other than taking care of themselves.
This novel presents a multi-faceted cast of characters who run the gamut from revolutionaries to opportunists, from users to lovers, from the corrupt to the innocent and all of these are fascinating creations.
The dialogue holds true to Leonards style, honest, real, earthy and true to each character, no holds barred!!
There are points when I desired a bit more of the historical side and other times when I was more involved with the people.
Cuba Libre takes Leonard out of his usual element, but he thrives in this new one as well.
Rating:
Summary: Missing in Action
Review: I am reviewing the audio version of this book, which I bought off the "used" rack at Amazon. The four two-sided tapes tell the unabridged story. I found it a little long, with a few too many characters to follow on tape. Although the historical setting is interesting, the story lacks the manic quality of Leonard's best books. It's never funny, the plot is a little slow, the dialogue is stilted, and that one truly scuzzy character who enlivens his best books is missing from the action.
Rating: 
Summary: Bringing a portion of Cuba's past to life
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a bit.
Review: I found Cuba Libre to be a mixed bag. It started out kind of slow. I didn't feel very compelled to care about the main character, Ben Tyler. But as the story moved along, I became more interested. By the end of the 2nd chapter (out of 26), I felt myself getting pulled in. Its setting and mood really made the book feel authentic to turn of the century Cuba. There were some chapters that dragged or weren't of much interest. But the story was deep enough that none of that mattered much. The middle of the story involves a large amount of ransom money for a fake kidnapping, and the heroes' pursuit of said money. Things start getting exciting, as everyone in the story has their own seperate scheme. It builds and builds and then..... ...it ends. It ends badly. Not badly as in bad for the characters, but bad as in shoddy writing. I firmly believe Leonard had some sort of deadline and had to wrap the novel up in an hour. There's really no other explanation. So, overall, what you get in Cuba Libre is a pretty good story with a bad ending. It would make a pretty good film if they would change the ending so that it had a tangible climax. Except I just know the producers would cast Matthew McConaughey, or Mark Wahlberg, or Ben Affleck, or someone else that wouldn't fit at all.
Rating: 
Summary: no wonder it comes in supermarket novel format...
Review: i read "cuba libre" because a friend left it behind after moving away from my city and i'd never read an elmore leonard novel, though i'd heard of him many times...it's no surprise that she didn't take this book along with her, since it is completely forgettable... this is the kind of book you would expect to find sitting between a package of cheez-wizz and the tabloids at the checkout counter in your local grocery store, and it is of about the same literary quality... the characters are totally absurd archetypes, the writing is about 5th-grade level and the use of the spanish language is downright insulting (because of all the mistakes, misspellings and the like)... how did such an interesting historical event get wrapped up in such a mediocre novel? i would just buy a history book on the origins of the spanish-american 'war' and would probably find it much more fascinating... in any case, it was impossible for me to read beyond the 60% point, so at least this scathing critique won't give away the ending: to tell you the truth, i couldn't care less what happened to any of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: no wonder it comes in supermarket novel format...
Review: i read "cuba libre" because a friend left it behind after moving away from my city and i'd never read an elmore leonard novel, though i'd heard of him many times...it's no surprise that she didn't take this book along with her, since it is completely forgettable... this is the kind of book you would expect to find sitting between a package of cheez-wizz and the tabloids at the checkout counter in your local grocery store, and it is of about the same literary quality... the characters are totally absurd archetypes, the writing is about 5th-grade level and the use of the spanish language is downright insulting (because of all the mistakes, misspellings and the like)... how did such an interesting historical event get wrapped up in such a mediocre novel? i would just buy a history book on the origins of the spanish-american 'war' and would probably find it much more fascinating... in any case, it was impossible for me to read beyond the 60% point, so at least this scathing critique won't give away the ending: to tell you the truth, i couldn't care less what happened to any of the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Please try again, Mr. Leonard.
Review: Just because this novel is mediocre shouldn't discourage Elmore Leonard from settings such as Cuba in 1898. I'm a big fan of his tried and true stuff, yet I was chomping at the bit to read this new breed of Leonard. At times the novel is great, but I agree with another reviewer who wondered if Leonard had to meet a deadline: the tail end of the book is just awful. This Leonard work is best ignored. However, I hope ol' Elmore will try similar ideas in works to come.
Rating:
Summary: CUBA-STAN
Review: Larry Rochelle..., an author of DEATH & DEVOTION,...
CUBA-STAN
I'm getting tired of the War in Afghanistan: crazy situation, outrageous acts, stupid and ignorant terrorists. But Elmore Leonard captured Afghanistan exactly in CUBA LIBRE, some four years before we became entangled over in the land of the Stans. His book about the explosion of the Battleship Maine in a Cuban harbor tells us oh-so-much about Afghanistan. Warlords? CUBA LIBRE'S got them. Assassinations? Ditto. Plot-counter-plot? Ditto. Primitive living conditions? Check. Intrigue and a beautiful woman? Double-check and double-cross. Leonard creates a pretty scary story for ninety-five percent of his book. Then, in the last few chapters, he can't keep his head clear. Too many plots. Too much destruction. And when he must, really must, kill off his hero cowboy or the beautiful woman, Leonard can't do it, and CUBA LIBRE turns into farce. I didn't throw the book across the room in anger. No, I just sizzled in the 85 degree Kansas City heat, pondering Leonard's motivation and the Cuban-slash-Afghanistan weirdness. Really, if an author must kill the girl, he should go ahead and kill her. Leonard, I figure, was writing a tragedy but something inside him held back. I think it was his love of the weird and his obsession with happy endings. Or else he's from Afghanistan. Also recommended: HUEY LONG INVADES NEW ORLEANS (weird politics) by Gary Boulard THE ISLAND OF LOST MAPS (weird crimes) by Miles Harvey NEW JACK (prison weirdness) by Ted Conover
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Pedestrian
Review: Much-hyped, this latest book from Leonard only confirms my opinion that he's a decent genre writer, but little more. Set in Cuba, the book uses the Spanish-American War (starting with the destruction of The Maine) as its backdrop. The story itself is the usual Leonard stuff, a righteous cowboy bank-robber helps a buddy export some horses to Cuba, along with arms for the native insurgents. They soon run afoul of both the law, and the nasty sugar cane baron they are supposed to deliver the horses to. The sugar baron has a lovely young kept woman who falls for the cowboy, and they spend the rest of the book trying to hook up while getting pursued by various foes. There's also a "fake" kidnapping and ransom, which has a predictable ending. The historical milieu is pretty interesting, albeit rather heavy-handed in many cases and the Spanish are cast rather a shade too dastardly. There's a bit at the end where this newspaper guy delivers a lecture which is so unrelated to the story that it ought to be used as an example of how not to write historical fiction. I guess it's worth reading if you're a Leonard fan, others will get moderate mileage from it. I think the Coen Bros. have acquired the film rights to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Cowboy in Cuba
Review: The year is 1897. Steaming into Havana harbor past the wreckage of the battleship Maine, the cargo ship "Vamoose" carries cattle, a herd of horses under care of Arizona wrangler Ben Tyler, and hidden under the manure, guns for the Cuban insurgency. Fated by this reckless challenge to the brutal and capricious Spanish authorities in Cuba, Ben finds himself fighting for survival, as civil order gives way to war. It's a tropical Wild West story, masterfully told. Leonard is at the peak of his power as a writer. His characters are flawed, complex, and interesting, and the action fast-paced. As is often the case when a writer is in tune with his material, the reader learns much about the great events unfolding as historical context. Though I wasn't there then, this feels like Cuba and is a fitting celebration of the 100th anniversary of Cuban independence from Spain. In the audio version, Alexander Adams is superb, particularly with the gruff Spanish and Cuban accents.
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