Rating: 
Summary: Hiassen gets in some wicked licks
Review: I picked up Hiassen's "Sick Puppy" at random a couple years back, and then rushed right out and grabbed this one. Nitrous oxide has nothing on these two elevators. I haven't laughed so hard, so continuously, since P.G. Wodehouse ushered me into the presence of the immortal Jeeves thirty years ago.Hiassen's work seems to divide neatly into the early stuff, up through Skin Tight, which inhabits the same danger-ridden, darkly comic territory as Elmore Leonard, with similarly razor-edged dialogue; and the later stuff, which forms a genre of its own, savagely satirical farces that cast credibility and all sense of human decency and restraint to the winds in order to skewer every form of foible and malefaction. I love them both, but prefer the latter, to which "Native Tongue" squarely belongs. Here the targets range from Sea World to Disney to phone sex purveyors and their clients to fuzzy animal lovers to bodybuilders to birdwatchers. With his usual heaping helpings of lawyers, developers, politicians, and like members of the lower criminal orders. Not least among them, tied like Pauline to the railroad tracks of imminent extinction, those adorable blue-tongued mango voles. And you won't want to miss a single savory chunk of kabob on the master's shish. I notice that the reviewers all seem to like best the first Hiassen they happened to read, and I'm no exception. This one, "Sick Puppy", and his first entry , "Tourist Season", by me are the champs. But I suspect if you were to ask Carl for his favorite, he'd direct you straight here to his Cage au Voles, because this is the one where he got to lampoon the South Florida theme park - an excrescence so dear to his heart that he made it the subject of "Team Rodent", his only nonfiction volume to date.
Rating:
Summary: His best of many great books!
Review: I was given a copy of this book by a relative who knows Carl. I read the entire book on the flight home from Georgia. I have since read all of his books, enjoying every one. I have turned just about everyone I know into Carl Hiaasen fans. Simply put, this still remains my favorite book. A must read for anyone with a sense of humor!
Rating: 
Summary: Carl Hiaasen's Best, Funniest Book
Review: I've read all of his books and they are all rather similar, but I've enjoyed them. Native Tongue stands out as the best, or at least the funniest. It's loaded from beginning to end with ridiculous, over the top characters, situations, and images. It's no Moby Dick, but it made me laugh out loud
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: If you like scams and cons, warped characters and cynical heroes, you'll love ANYTHING that Carl Hiassen has ever written. His cast of zany characters, for example the one time Florida governor who walked away from his post to live off the land and chew on roadkill. If you are looking for a book that is a hoot, Native Tongue is a great place to start. There's plenty of action, clever dialogue, and tongue-in-cheek parodies of Disney World that will satisfy the strongest Southern Baptist Boycotter. This book will thrill chill and amuse you.
Rating:
Summary: Native to South Florida
Review: Native Tongue explores the relationship between people and the environment. Centering on the theme park industry in South Florida, the plot introduces many characters with different viewpoints about the environment. The hero is the voice in favor of saving the wildlife native to North Key Largo where the action takes place. Living vicariously through his characters Hiaasen and the reader are able to strike a blow against land developers. The plot takes on a basic "good guy vs. bad guy" scenario. The "bad guys" are played out as the theme park that is more interested in trying to make money through their fake saving of an endangered species and the construction of a golf resort adjacent to the park. The "good guys" are the natives of the area who are upset about outsiders coming into the area and destroying the natural beauty. And a few psychos are thrown in for good measure - even a former governor of Florida. Many times, attacks are launched upon tourists for being ignorant of the environmental concerns in Florida and just plain for being here at all. For example, when one of the characters sits in the mangroves and shoots a rifle at passing rental cars while the FHP trooper ignores it. Other times, the comedy falls upon the corruption of the politics and legal system in South Florida. Many of the jokes can only be truly appreciated by those of us living south of Lake Okeechobee. Added to his comedy is a political message. Hiaasen is attempting to warn Floridians of the danger of the tourism industry and to invoke them to take action. While he is not advocating the illegal and violent actions of his characters they are symbolic. Why 4 stars?: This book really deserves 4 and a half, but I can't do that. The story is wonderful and carries a great political message - one that I feel very strongly about. The jokes are hilarious if you are from the area. My only problems with the book are the language is a bit harsh at times and it may be out of context for non-Floridians. But, for local people this book is a winner.
Rating: 
Summary: Lagging and preachy, but it's still Hiaasen
Review: Native Tongue is a bit too preachy and a bit too boring for my tastes. I'm an armchair Hiaasen fan--he's a good writer, one of the better ones, but what seems fresh in Skin Tight and Double Whammy becomes recycled and dull here. Even characters are recycled, and not in a sequel-friendly way. And, of course, we can't have a true Hiaasen classic without a lot of heavy-handed anti-developer strains throughout. Still, the book is enjoyable and the characters descriptive, but the whole thing should be taken in a quick-read fashion--think of it as literary junk food.
Rating:
Summary: Laughs on every page.
Review: Native Tongue is a way over the top, hysterically funny satire of life in South Florida.
With incomparable skill, Hiaasen spins a whopper of a tale in which a grandmotherly but militant environmentalist fearlessly takes on a Mr. Francis X. Kingsbury, the very shady owner of a third rate Disney World wannabe theme park. It seems that Kingsbury's insatiable desire for real estate developement threatens to destroy the ecology of a segment of Florida's Atlantic coast.
Another character, the environmentally conscious Joe Winder (serving as Carl Hiaasen's alter ego) is an investigative reporter whose career is on the skids. In fact he has sunk so low that he now finds himself working in public relations at the aforementioned theme park.
This book is overflowing with delightfully funny characters both human and animal. For example, there's Pedro Luz, the steroid addicted chief of security who is impervious to pain and oblivious to the ravages his drug use is causing his body and mind. There's Joe's girlfriend, Nina, who makes her living in the phone sex industry. And not to forget Bud and Danny, two dimwitted burglars who are recruited to kidnap the two sole
surviving blue-tongued mango voles and live to regret the day they ever got involved in such an assignment. On the nonhuman side of the ledger can be found Dickie the Dolphin, a theme park attraction who unfortunately is prone to becoming amorous toward humans of either sex.
Skink, the reclusive roadkill eating ex-governor and state trooper Jim Tile, Skink's guardian angel are two recurring Hiaasen characters whose appearance in this book is most welcome and adds greatly to the fun.
Native tongue is a pricelessly funny satiric novel whose outrageous situations and off the wall characters are supremely entertaining. Moreover, Hiaasen's ear for dialogue is pitch perfect. This is one funny book. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely entertaining
Review: The book didn't make me laugh out loud like the critic quote's pasted inside the front cover say they did. It did get a good chuckle out of me but more importantly it kept my interest through the end. The strangeness yet believability of the characters and the situations where "if it can go wrong it does" keept me turning pages. I liked it enough that I want to give Hiassen another shot especially after reading some of the reviews on his other works.
Rating:
Summary: Bogs Down After a Good Start
Review: The first 50 pages or so are indeed laugh-out-loud funny. The next 50 are okay. But then it really bogs down, goes around in circles, starts repeating itself, and just gets dumber and lamer. Hiaasen is a great writer and humorist but he just ran out of steam and ideas on this one. By the end, you just want it over with. All in all, not among his best.
Rating:
Summary: My first Hiaasen
Review: The first book by Hiaasen I read. Loved it. Thanks to his books I don't have to visit Florida and frankly don't undrestand why pepole do... Is it maybe a possibility that Hiaasen has the same tatto as Francis X Kingsbury !!!
| 
