Djibouti might be the most dangerous place you’ve never heard of.
Elmore Leonard should change that with his latest novel,Djibouti, set in the small nation on the Horn of Africa – a locale that marks a big departure for the dean of American crime-fiction writers.
Leonard, who will turn 85 on Monday, has been writing for 60 years.
He has produced 44 novels as well as numerous screenplays and children’s books. His works have been made into 21 movies, seven TV films and three TV series.
Leonard never adapted to using a computer, preferring to write longhand.
“I really enjoy the process of writing more than I do what comes after – even the celebrity,” he said in a Dispatch interview in 2000. “It’s the most satisfying thing I can think of doing.”
His characters usually live and die in Detroit, Los Angeles or another American urban center.
Djibouti (jih-BOOT-ee) is about the size of Massachusetts, with a population somewhat larger than the city of Columbus.
The country, independent for 33 years, is mainly a rocky desert lying at the junction of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where it has a strategic port. Djibouti is bordered by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Both France and the United States station troops there, largely to combat terrorism.
Somali pirates terrorize the Gulf of Aden, capturing ships and their crews and holding them for ransom; al-Qaida operatives roam at will, killing and plotting terrorist sneak attacks.
Leonard’s tale centers on Dara Barr, an Oscar-winning documentary maker, and her cameraman, assistant and confidant, Xavier LeBo.
Barr’s idea is to do a film on the plague of modern-day piracy.
The story is a confusing, colorful mix of characters with unusual names interacting and killing in unpredictable ways. There is a pirate who drives a Mercedes, an American billionaire armed with a 600-caliber (yes, you read that right) elephant gun, an al-Qaida agent who used to be a Miami thug and a Saudi diplomat with shady connections trying to make peace with the pirates.
“Djibouti, man, you can become anybody you want, long as you able to pay for it,” LeBo says.
Jama Raisuli, thug turned terrorist, is the most fascinating of Leonard’s new creations.
Raisuli recalls his sister telling him, “‘You pray for what you want, and if God likes the idea of you having it, he give it to you.’”
“He remembered thinking it might be true. The thing was, Jama never prayed for anything, and he always got what he wanted.”
The characters are intriguing, but the plot of Djibouti wanders. And, unlike those in most of Leonard’s other novels, the threads are harder to tie together.
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Source:- Columbus Dispatch
