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Djibouti
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Amazon Exclusive: Joe Hill Reviews Djibouti
The author of the critically acclaimed novels Heart-Shaped Box and Horns, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and Year's Best collections. Read his guest review of Djibouti:
In the spirit of Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writing, here are ten reasons why Elmore Leonard rules–a fact that has never been more obvious than in Djibouti, his 48th novel.
10. The babes. The heroine of Djibouti would be one Dara Barr, who has touched down in Africa to make a documentary about the booming piracy business and maybe win herself another Oscar. Dara is as laconic and unflappable as any of Leonard’s finest heroes (see: Hombre, Swag, The Hot Kid), with a creative and curious streak that marks her as special. Throw in an underwear model named Helene looking to make a married man out of a billionaire who likes to play C.I.A. agent, and you’ve got a book in which the gents are waaaaaay overmatched. 9. The bad boys. Creative writing teachers who want to show their students how to draft an unforgettable antagonist ought to tear out chapter 18 and pass it around. That’s where Leonard tells us the story of James Russell, a clever Miami lowlife, who reinvents himself as Jamal Raisuli, al-Queda bomb-thrower… all in 7 pages of breezy, economical characterization. 8. The talk. Plenty has been written about Elmore Leonard’s mastery of dialogue, and I don’t need to rehash it. Why bother, when I could just quote some of it? An elderly terrorist, jailed in The States, gets talking with James Russell:“What is it you hope to become in your life?”
“Famous,” James said. “I been looking at ways.”
“Become a prophet?
“I don’t tell what will happen. I do it.”
7. The walk. Everyone hustles in an Elmore Leonard novel; you can’t stand still and hope to score. From the slums, where life is the only thing cheaper than khat, to the clubs, where it’s easier to find a pirate than out on the open ocean, everyone is on their way up or on their way down… in a hurry.
6. The sound. Leonard famously said that if his sentences sound like writing, he rewrites them, but don’t be fooled. These sentences jump to their own dirty, hothouse jazz rhythm. There isn’t a better stylist anywhere in American letters. 5. The seduction. Dara isn’t just curious about piracy; she spends thirty days on a boat with 73-year-old Xavier LeBo, long enough to fall a little in love with her best friend, and wonder if the old dude can still get it up. Xavier bets her ten-thousand dollars he can. It’s the book’s biggest gamble; trust me, it earns out big. 4. More boom for your buck. A lot of the suspense in Djibouti revolves around a tanker filled with enough liquefied natural gas “to set off an explosion a hundred times bigger than the Hindenburg disaster.” It’s an atom bomb with a rudder and all it needs is a target. 3. The place. Leonard doesn’t beat anyone over the head with his research, but from Djibouti to Eyl to New Orleans (the three backdrops for this story), the details are crisp, unforgettable, and right. You don’t read Djibouti. You live there. 2. The pay-off. Everyone in an Elmore Leonard story wants one, but only the reader is guaranteed to get one, and boy do they, in a final chapter that seems inevitable, yet comes as completely unexpected. 1. The know-how. Let’s get to it. In the fifty-plus years he’s been turning out lean, loose, laid-back thrillers, Elmore Leonard has cast his indelible stamp on American crime fiction, inspired his peers, and spawned a thousand imitators. He’s the kind of guy critics describe as old school, but that’s missing it. Elmore Leonard isn’t old school. He built the school. (Photo of Joe Hill by Shane Leonard)
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
an exhilarating read, full of fun, energy, and offbeat ploys (John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES )
Classic no-holds-barred Leonard (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
An interesting change of locale for Leonard and a thrilling novel. (CATHOLIC HERALD )
Leonard is still the master of diamond-sharp dialogue, stylish prose and likeable, believeable bad guys. (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
Leonard tells the story with his usual swagger, and it might be an updated Casablanca. (EVENING STANDARD )
The dialogue fizzes, the plot twists right up to the final paragraph and everything and everyone is cool and sexy (THE TIMES )
A superior piece of pulp fiction. (Colin Waters SUNDAY HERALD )
Classic no-holds-barred Leonard (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
An interesting change of locale for Leonard and a thrilling novel. (CATHOLIC HERALD )
Leonard is still the master of diamond-sharp dialogue, stylish prose and likeable, believeable bad guys. (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
Leonard tells the story with his usual swagger, and it might be an updated Casablanca. (EVENING STANDARD )
The dialogue fizzes, the plot twists right up to the final paragraph and everything and everyone is cool and sexy (THE TIMES )
A superior piece of pulp fiction. (Colin Waters SUNDAY HERALD )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have been a fan of Elmore leonard for several years and read ALL his books. However, I am really disappointed in his last 2 Roads Dogs and Djibouti. Whilst thet retain some of his clipped dialogue and characterisation its all very clique'd and turgid. He seems to be writing a screenplay rather than a novel as we follow the action through the playback of a video camera. I know the old boy is 89 or something now and am afraid to say he seems to have lost that indefinable "thing" that made his books so great, unput downable and fun. Maybe its just me getting older? but I find it all rather nauseating and a pastiche of his previous work.Oh well it was good while it lasted. sorry elmore but maybe you should rest and enjoy your old age in quiet.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Have read virtually all of Elmore Leonard's novels over the years but this one just didn't grip me. The usual colourful characters and snappy dialogue are there but the plot is very one dimentional with no real surprises.
Elmore's novels are often slim on plot and rich in characterisation but this one just didn't do it for me i'm afraid. Enjoyed his previous two novels,which, despite being in his eighties were still excellent efforts from the great man.
One miss out of many,many hits in a long and distinguished career.
Elmore's novels are often slim on plot and rich in characterisation but this one just didn't do it for me i'm afraid. Enjoyed his previous two novels,which, despite being in his eighties were still excellent efforts from the great man.
One miss out of many,many hits in a long and distinguished career.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Some time ago,Elmore Leonard wrote a slight little book called "Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing," Rule 10 was "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." He'd have done well to heed that one when he was writing "Djibouti".
Moving away from his usual fictional haunts Detroit and Miami, Elmore spirits us away to the tiny East african nation that bumps up against Somalia, but populates it with his usual cast of well drawn, street savy hustlers, heroes and heinous characters.
This time we're rooting for Dara Barr, a documentary filmmaker from New Orleans, apparently based on director Kathryn Bigelow, ("The Hurt Locker", and the TV spin off of film version of "Out of Sight" called "Karen Sisco"). Barr is a departure from the Leonard norm. She's not a criminal or a law enforcement officer, she's not looking to score or takedown a ne'er do well.
Her sidekick is a 6-foot-6, 72-year-old black man named Xavier LeBo, and he's on hand to help her make a documentary about Somali pirates. leonard throws in a double-dealing Arab-diplomat type named Harry Bakar, a, possibly CIA sanctioned, Texas oil heir named Billy Wynn and his auburn-haired fashion model girlfriend, plus some terrorists bent on destruction.
So the book is set up for an elaborate web of cons, crosses and double crosses comic goofs and intrigue; "Djibouti," for all its "ripped from the headlines" themes, and unusual locations, is not such a departure from the Leonard template after all.
Leonard has done this sort of thing before, and he does it very well, but....and it's a big but..... "Djibouti" treads water for the first hundred pages or so as Dara tries to find out what her film is going to be about, and the result is that the story slows down to a snail's pace for pages at a time, stalling while Dara and her sidekick go back and forth with a weird series of conversations were they tell the reader about parties they went to and who said what to whom, instead of showing us!
I don't think it's that Leonard, who turned 85 recently, has lost his pzazz. Far from it, his last few books have been stellar reads, I think that with "Djibouti" he's tried to go for one stories but ultimately ends up doing what he does best. When "Djibouti" does finally kicks into gear, it's a fast, bracingly brisk read, and it feels like a different book. It takes some time to get going, and my advice is hang in there, you'll be rewarded with "Djibouti". The novel winds up being a first-rate Leonard offering.
Moving away from his usual fictional haunts Detroit and Miami, Elmore spirits us away to the tiny East african nation that bumps up against Somalia, but populates it with his usual cast of well drawn, street savy hustlers, heroes and heinous characters.
This time we're rooting for Dara Barr, a documentary filmmaker from New Orleans, apparently based on director Kathryn Bigelow, ("The Hurt Locker", and the TV spin off of film version of "Out of Sight" called "Karen Sisco"). Barr is a departure from the Leonard norm. She's not a criminal or a law enforcement officer, she's not looking to score or takedown a ne'er do well.
Her sidekick is a 6-foot-6, 72-year-old black man named Xavier LeBo, and he's on hand to help her make a documentary about Somali pirates. leonard throws in a double-dealing Arab-diplomat type named Harry Bakar, a, possibly CIA sanctioned, Texas oil heir named Billy Wynn and his auburn-haired fashion model girlfriend, plus some terrorists bent on destruction.
So the book is set up for an elaborate web of cons, crosses and double crosses comic goofs and intrigue; "Djibouti," for all its "ripped from the headlines" themes, and unusual locations, is not such a departure from the Leonard template after all.
Leonard has done this sort of thing before, and he does it very well, but....and it's a big but..... "Djibouti" treads water for the first hundred pages or so as Dara tries to find out what her film is going to be about, and the result is that the story slows down to a snail's pace for pages at a time, stalling while Dara and her sidekick go back and forth with a weird series of conversations were they tell the reader about parties they went to and who said what to whom, instead of showing us!
I don't think it's that Leonard, who turned 85 recently, has lost his pzazz. Far from it, his last few books have been stellar reads, I think that with "Djibouti" he's tried to go for one stories but ultimately ends up doing what he does best. When "Djibouti" does finally kicks into gear, it's a fast, bracingly brisk read, and it feels like a different book. It takes some time to get going, and my advice is hang in there, you'll be rewarded with "Djibouti". The novel winds up being a first-rate Leonard offering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fun rather than classic, immensely enjoyable nonetheless
Elmore Leonard probably understands his audience as well as any author. I guess he continues to write for them because he cannot think of a reason not to; he certainly doesn't need... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mick Read
Stick to the home turf
I totally agree with the guy who said that the first third of the book is somewaht turgid...but then the narrative finds its wings and flies. Read more
Published 18 days ago by martyjay
He's still got it - and still keeping us guessing
Djibouti is an interesting development of Elmore Leonard's style. I've read pretty much all his books and all the great ingredients are still here, dialogue, characters, plot... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Matthews
Not one of the best
The story is set in Djibuti with the central characters being a film producer and her camera man. They are attempting to make a film about the Somali pirates but also come involved... Read more
Published 1 month ago by James I. Wilson
Dull stuff
I adore EL's work but this was a dud and a half. Many glorious settings - all very colourful and lush but two-dimensional all the same. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Y
More twists and turns than a twisty turny thing
Just read the Joe Hill, "amazon exclusive" review of this book, and in its style and substance gives a better sense of what to expect from the book than anything I will write. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Aidan J. McQuade
My first Elmore
This was my first Elmore Leonard read. I have therefore to review it on two levels: the style he always writes in; and the book/this story itself. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Longshanks
Unstoppable Elmore
For the first 80 pages or so, I wondered if the octogenarian Leonard could still get it up - like his alter-ego hero, Xavier does in this wonderful thriller. Read more
Published 6 months ago by The Outsider
As good as it gets
Definitely one of his best,although I agree it takes a while to get going. It seems he is getting even better with age and although there is plenty of his trademark stuff,it still... Read more
Published 6 months ago by bucky
Bereft of Sound and Fury
Ah, Elmore Leonard! According to one review, Hollywood's favourite author. On the evidence of Djibouti, here's one author at least who can't accuse Hollywood of spoiling his books. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Steve Keen
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