Outcast

by José Latour

Book Overview

Elliot Steil, the son of a Cuban mother and an American-bo rn laborer living on the island before the revolution, is a down-on-his-luck schoolteacher in Havana. Like so many of his fellow Havanans, he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060184884
• ISBN13: 9780060184889
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

great

Outcast is a marvellous atempt to capture Cuban culture and history whilst simultaneously showing you the plight that many illegal immigrants have to go through when trying to cross the 90 miles of sea to get to the states, miami. I take my hat if to latour, as he builds suspense so to does he build up red hearings to fool you and presents some quite unexpected twists. Its genre is crime and his imagery is nothing short of amazing i have never felt so emersed in a book where i could actually see everything he was describing. Pick it up you will not regret it I know i havent.

A special suspense novel as well as a social commentary

In his forties, Havana high school teacher Elliot Steil is not a Marxist maniac. Perhaps it is his American father who abandoned Elliot and his now deceased mother over forty years ago or just his love for the relics of pre-Castro Cuba. His lack of demonstrated enthusiasm for Communism has cost him promotions he deserves over less qualified people. Everything abruptly changes for Elliot when American Don Gastner visits him with a chance to escape to Key West. Don insists he is an old war buddy of Elliot's father who now feels guilty for forsaking his family. Although under suspicion because of Don's visit and his lineage, Elliot agrees to flee. Instead of taking him to America, Don leaves Elliot to die in the waters off Florida. Somehow surviving the ordeal, Elliot begins his own investigation into why someone went to so much trouble to have him killed.. OUTCAST is an exciting look at the dichotomy facing Cuban-Americans and Cubans still living on the island. Elliot is a superb lead character who has one foot on Cuba and one foot on Florida as he arches over one of the longest 90 miles in the world. The early members of the support cast such as his Cuban neighbors, Don, and the flashbacks to his parents and life just before the Revolution are great depictions, but the villains seem weak in comparison. Though some awkward translation (book was originally written in Spanish) leads to ineffective language usage, readers will fully relish a powerful look at the Cuban scenario within a well-written amateur sleuth tale.Harriet Klausner

A Havana-Miami thriller I could't put down

Elliot Steil, a Cuban teacher managing to exist in contemporary Cuba, is suddenly confronted with forces that threaten his life. Author Jose Latour, a keen observer of the human condition, renders the bandaged passion of protagonist Elliot Steil as well as Martin Cruz Smith does his vulnerable but surprising Arkady.

What a book.

Wow! What a book. I usually don't like books written by foreign writers (other than English) and was suprised. It reads more like a thriller than a mystery. Yet it also explores the depth of its characters in the tradition of a "John D. McDonald" (Travis McGee novels). Still it is more. It is philosophical, introspective, and much of its language is poetic. A mystery with a lot meat.

More Cuban crime fiction!

It is so hard to find books by Cuban authors. This book was thrilling and I literally could not put it down. Embedded in the sociopolitics of Cuba and the US, this book gave me a refreshingly even-handed look at the shortcomings of both societies while maintaining an incredibly suspenseful (and unpredictable!) story line. A must read for anyone interested in Cuban literature or excellent crime writing.