Rum Punch book review

Way back in 1992, I first read Elmore Leonard’s best-selling novel, Rum Punch. Being a fan of Elmore Leonard, I expected to be entertained, and I was. Later in 1997, Jackie Brown, the film adaptation, was released. Surprisingly, I felt the film was even better than the book. Recently, while feeling nostalgic, I read the Rum Punch novel once again. Here’s our Rum Punch book review and book banter, two times around.

This review of the novel, Rum Punch, will not be a book report. I will not reveal any plot twists-and-turns, and will not reveal the ending.

Instead, I’ll talk about the colorful characters, some overarching themes, the writing style, and what I liked best about Rum Punch. In other words, this will be our Rum Punch book review!

A small-time gunrunner has to get his ‘hard-earned’ cash out of Jamaica and into Florida, the United States of America. And, with all the ‘pesky’ rules and regulations, and all the snoopy federal and state agencies watching him closely, that’s a difficult thing to do.

So, this gunrunner finds a middle-aged (over-the-hill) airline flight attendant (stewardess) to help him out.

But, before his big operation, which he code-named Rum Punch, begins, he and his low-life criminal accomplices wreak havoc and commit other criminal offenses against our otherwise civilized society.

How does this crime caper all end? And, will their crimes really pay off big? Well, that’s where the fun begins for the lucky reader of Rum Punch!

While the flight attendant, Jackie Burke, turned out to eventually become one of the main protagonists of Rum Punch, the earlier part of this punchy novel started out with Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara. So, that’s where I’ll start, too.

After the character’s name, I’ll include the movie star who portrayed each character in Jackie Brown, the 1997 film adaptation. The film was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. As far as I’m concerned, Jackie Brown was his best movie.

Because he’s a career criminal, Ordell Robbie should know better than to brag about his exploits. But he does talk too much, to almost anyone who will listen. He talks to Jackie Burke, he brags to Louis Gara, and he hints about how ‘bright’ he is to Max Cherry.

In the film adaptation, Ordell was a very dark African-American man (played by Samuel L. Jackson), but in Rum Punch, he is described as being a light-skinned, somewhat handsome man. Because of their good looks, women find both Ordell and Louis to be attractive.

As we learned in Elmore Leonard’s prequel novel, The Switch, Ordell Robbie is bright, but he is also very sloppy and dangerous when he dreams up his unlawful schemes. He is a menace to civilized society, and we would all be wise to avoid people like him, Louis, and Melanie.

In Rum Punch, I could empathize with Ordell, but at the same time, I thought he was a real sleazy, disreputable guy. He’s the guy you don’t want to have business dealings with, at least if you value your possessions and your life.

This is Jackie Brown, the movie adaptation of the brilliant Rum Punch! I love the book, but I love the movie even more!

Louis is also a career criminal—he’s been incarcerated for most of his adult life. He crossed paths with Ordell Robbie while they were hanging out in Detroit, Michigan.

Since their last Detroit caper, which failed miserably, they hadn’t seen each other until 13 years later, where Rum Punch picks up their story. This time, in Florida, Louis teams up with Ordell for a series of violent and poorly planned capers.

But their biggest scheme was to smuggle cash into the United States, with the help of Jackie Burke, a flight attendant.

In Rum Punch, Louis is described as a White man, but with a dark complexion. When Louis gets together with Ordell Robbie, they look like they could be the same race.

Unfortunately, Louis is also not very good at his criminal endeavors. He acts on his spur-of-the-moment ideas, and doesn’t think them through carefully. Because of that, and his violent tendencies, he can be very dangerous, especially when he’s teamed up with Ordell.

However, unlike Ordell, who tells a lot of lies, Louis is a pretty ‘honest’ guy. He often warned Ordell about Melanie and how he shouldn’t trust her.

And even with Max Cherry, who he used to work for, Louis was usually honest. Louis actually made it a point to be honest, especially with his criminal companions.

In Rum Punch, I could empathize with Louis, and I was able to understand why he made his poor choices. In fact, I kind of liked Louis, and felt sorry for him. He could have been a decent guy.

Jackie Burke is a flight attendant working for a lower-level, smaller airline company. She’s good at her job, and she’s been doing it for many years. But, her airline job doesn’t pay very well.

Throughout some of that time with the airline, she’s been secretly been bringing small amounts of cash ($10,000) into the United States from Jamaica for Ordell Robbie. Otherwise, Jackie mostly leads a law-abiding life, and doesn’t get into trouble or attract too much attention.

However, despite being a middle-aged woman in her 40’s, she still gets admiring glances from men—all kinds of men. Everyone seems to like Jackie, but it’s all because of her good looks.

Because of her age, though, Jackie is concerned that she doesn’t have any money set aside for retirement. And, she does not want to work as a flight attendant into her senior years.

In fact, she knows the airline would probably kick her out as she continues to age. So, she runs some money into the country for Ordell on the side, and picks up some spending cash for her trouble.

She’s a White blonde woman with a nice figure and pretty legs, and looks much younger than her true age. Therefore, she attracts Max Cherry, she beguiles Ray Nicolette, and she bewitches the younger Mark Dargus. And, she attracts the bad guys, too.

As the novel progressed, Jackie Burke became one of the principal protagonists, along with Max Cherry.

Unfortunately, I could not empathize with the Jackie Burke protagonist in this novel. For me, this character seemed like a stereotypical romance novel heroine. She just didn’t seem real to me, and that’s all I’ll say about that!

Max Cherry, played by Robert Forster, was so good in this scene. And Pam Grier was the perfect Jackie Brown. Both of them were vulnerable, and weren’t afraid to show themselves as they really were. This is a scene that was not in Rum Punch, but it was so good!

Max Cherry is the 57-year-old bail bondsman. He has lots of experience dealing with criminals, and feels perfectly comfortable when interacting with them.

This honest guy values his commitment to law-and-order, and believes in doing the right thing. He is a morally upright guy in the amoral world that surrounds him.

Max is married, but separated from his wife. So, naturally he becomes attracted to the single, attractive flight attendant, Jackie Burke, when they cross paths.

Slowly, they become closer, but Max always feels, in the back of his mind, that Jackie might be using him. Maybe she was, and maybe she wasn’t—you’ll have to read the book to find out.

I could really empathize with the Max Cherry character. And my empathy made me really fear for his life when he interacted with Ordell Robbie. There were some really subdued-but-scary, tension-filled moments in this novel as Max came face-to-face with Ordell.

Max Cherry was one of the principal protagonists in this ensemble cast, and he was one of my favorites from this novel.

Melanie was a tall, buxom woman, and affluent men attracted her. In addition, she abused drugs and alcohol.

Because of the way Melanie earned cash, she was not very honest. She had to lie, deceive, and cover-up as she connived men out of happy relationships and their cash. In other words, Melanie was a very good grifter, but a very bad person.

In the prequel novel, The Switch, Melanie had met Ordell and Louis, and helped them on a kidnapping caper. Later, in Rum Punch, Melanie had Ordell living with her part-time in her spacious, beach-side apartment.

In both novels, I could identify and empathize with the Melanie character. Ironically, despite being a detestable, dishonest human being, I appreciated her ‘honesty’ with Louis, and I liked the way she handled Ordell. At times, it was funny.

Ray Nicolette was the middle-aged ATF agent (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). In this novel, Jackie Burke knew that Ray was attracted to her. Unfortunately for Ray, she really didn’t like the guy so much. Instead, she had developed an infatuation for Mark Dargus, the young Florida-state law-enforcement official who was working with Ray.

Together, Ray and Mark Dargus were investigating and following Ordell. Their problem was getting enough evidence against Ordell to get him off the streets and lock him up.

Ray goes by the book, because he doesn’t want to jeopardize his case against Ordell. That’s why he and Mark need Jackie’s help—they want to use her to set up Ordell.

I liked and empathized with the Ray Nicolette partner. He was a good guy, and he was an honest person, even while surrounded by a criminal world that offered lots of temptations to do the wrong thing.

Ray Nicolette scares Jackie Brown, and Jackie never gets scared! Another superb scene, with the dialogue, some of it word-for-word, from Rum Punch.

In Rum Punch, Mark Dargus is a young (maybe 23 or so years-old) agent working for the the state of Florida. Together with Ray Nicolette, they are trying to nail Ordell and get him off the streets.

Because of his good looks, Jackie feels attracted to Mark, and considers him a good guy (and a handsome, attractive guy). I don’t know if that side-attraction added anything to the story, but it was there.

While I did empathize a little with Mark Dargus in this novel, he wasn’t a real compelling or interesting character for me. Instead, I thought Ray Nicolette, the ATF officer, was a much more intriguing character.

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Almost all of the main characters in Rum Punch were at a juncture in their lives—they had to admit that they were aging, and they needed a change in their lives.

Jackie Burke felt that she didn’t want to be a flight attendant as she aged into her 50’s and beyond. She felt she needed to make a radical change in her life, and that’s why she was moving cash for Ordell. That’s also a big motivation why she enlisted the help of Max Cherry.

And, as a 57-year-old bail bondsman, Max Cherry is bored with his job. Some of the things he had to do were repulsive and repetitive, and those mundane tasks took up a big chunk of his life. He was sick of it, and wanted out.

On the other hand, Ordell worried about his age, too. And he worried about his cash even more. How was he going to get his retirement cash out of Jamaica? And what if he couldn’t get it out, or was arrested while trying? And, he was tired of depending on untrustworthy and undependable accomplices, like Melanie and Louis.

For her part, Melanie was still relatively young and buxom, but her hard life of grifting and drinking and drug abuse had taken their toll. She was looking much older than her real age, and knew that she could not depend on wealthy men to support her all her life. Melanie needed a change, and Ordell’s cash might be the solution.

In all of Elmore Leonard’s novels, including Rum Punch, the author uses real-life dialogue to paint a picture of, and develop, each complex character. Many times, the dialogue is short and staccato-like, while other times, the characters ruminate on their predicaments.

The dialogue of each character in Rum Punch helped me almost immediately empathize with them. I could understand their emotions, and feel their frustrations, and it was all thanks to the author’s unique use of dialogue.

As some of the bad guys struggled with their own conflicting senses of morality, the storyline drew me deeper into their inner conflicts.

For example, Louis found it difficult to lie to his partners. And, the idea of taking someone else’s life really bothered him. These conflicting feelings created dramatic tension as the story unfolded, and he sank deeper into Ordell’s cash transfer scheme.

In addition, I was surprised that, even though Ordell did murder someone, he was also bothered about committing that horrific act. Unfortunately, when it came to saving his own ‘skin’, he quickly got over his moral qualms about taking a life.

As always, I loved the real-life dialogue that is in every Elmore Leonard book. The dialogue helps us learn about each character, and empathize with them, too.

I especially loved the swearing and the other down-in-the-gutter expressions that we might hear every day if we were in their world. And as we read the dialogue, we really are in their world!

In fact, the dialogue was so good in this novel, that the film adaptation used whole sections of dialogue word-for-word. I loved it!

I couldn’t empathize with Jackie Burke, who was one of the main characters. Even when I first read the book in the early 90’s, I could not believe that this Jackie character was real—she had too many stereotypical characteristics.

As the romance began to develop between Max Cherry and Jackie Burke, I was happy for Max. But, as the romance became more intimate, Max turned into a stereotyped romantic novel hero.

The romance was a stereotyped ideal, and I just didn’t buy into Max’s transformation in the bedroom. So, that kind-of ruined their relationship for me in this novel. Too many aspects of this intimate relationship didn’t sound right.

But, it didn’t ruin the writing enough for me to not like Rum Punch, because I did like it, a whole lot!

I believe that the Jackie Brown film adaptation was better, by far! The new Jackie Brown, played superbly by Pam Grier, was so much more believable and real.

Pam Grier became Jackie Brown, and Robert Forster became Max Cherry. Their romance was so much more believable, with so many good scenes of dialogue (taken word-by-word from the novel). It was so real to me!

In the movie, Jackie Brown was attractive, and all the men gravitated to her. But with Jackie Brown, the attraction was less about the looks and more about her demeanor. She had an indefinable, special aura about her.

I remember when Max Cherry first saw Jackie—she looked disheveled after being in prison. But Max could sense an indefinable aura around Jackie that really attracted him, at first sight. He had become enchanted with Jackie, and he didn’t even realize it. I loved it!

Max Cherry picks up Jackie Brown at jail. He can’t help himself, but he has become enchanted by Jackie. This dialogue was in the novel, and it is amazing!

Rum Punch was a great, great novel. And, if you love action that is true-to-life, with engaging, real-world dialogue, then this is the novel for you!

However, the film adaptation was even better, which is a remarkable thing to say. Jackie Brown was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and I think it was one of Quentin Tarantino‘s finest productions!

Thanks for reading our Rum Punch book review and book banter. If you’ve read the book, or if you’ve seen the movie, Jackie Brown, please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Content and photos by Doug Martin and Our Book Banter