Tourist Season : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: In the beginning...
Review: This was the first whiff, the first rush, the first crush I had for Carl Hiaasen. This is still one of his funniest books to date and has an unbelievable cast of characters: Cuban revenge squads who can't make a bomb that works; northern immigrants who can't swim and an alligator named Pavlov that can't play bridge. Once you read this, you will come to know Hiaasen's style: the characters and the criticisms change but the format is usually the same and some of the characters reappear in other books. His books should be wonderful screenplays--he is as screenworthy as is Elmore Leonard--but the only screenplay made of a book of his to date that I know of is Strip Tease (all his novels have two word titles). Strip Tease had one inspired moment: casting Burt Reynolds as the lecherous Florida politician in the pocket of the Cuban sugar industry, but the rest of the film was a disaster, starting with Demi Moore. So since one doesn't know if any more films will be made of Hiaasen's books and since the only one filmed stunk, read, read, read and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: In the beginning...
Review: This was the first whiff, the first rush, the first crush I had for Carl Hiaasen. This is still one of his funniest books to date and has an unbelievable cast of characters: Cuban revenge squads who can't make a bomb that works; northern immigrants who can't swim and an alligator named Pavlov that can't play bridge. Once you read this, you will come to know Hiaasen's style: the characters and the criticisms change but the format is usually the same and some of the characters reappear in other books. His books should be wonderful screenplays--he is as screenworthy as is Elmore Leonard--but the only screenplay made of a book of his to date that I know of is Strip Tease (all his novels have two word titles). Strip Tease had one inspired moment: casting Burt Reynolds as the lecherous Florida politician in the pocket of the Cuban sugar industry, but the rest of the film was a disaster, starting with Demi Moore. So since one doesn't know if any more films will be made of Hiaasen's books and since the only one filmed stunk, read, read, read and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: An Ironic Delight That Makes Fun of Almost Everyone!
Review: Tourist Season is a great name for this book. We all know that the snow birds begin to arrive in Florida after Thanksgiving and stay until the snows have melted up north. Mr. Hiaasen adds another unforgettable meaning: It's like "hunting season."

Fed up with the destruction of Florida's natural beauty, plant life and animals, Mr. Hiaasen creates one of the great comic anti-heroes in crime fiction, Skip Wiley, who knows how to wield the public relations baton with skill . . . but with too much zeal, and not enough heart.

Many sections of this book would make outstanding short stories or novellas if separated from the rest of the story. The overall structure of the story is complex, multi-faceted in its purposes and cleverly ironic in its tone and details. Clearly, Mr. Hiaasen worked very hard on this book before publishing it.

The president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce ends up dead, slathered with sun tan lotion in a suitcase. Tourists also begin to turn up missing. The police decide that it's all unconnected, and not too important. That frustrates those who are doing the killings . . . and they seek to gain more credit for their wrong-doing. What is their purpose? Why, to persuade tourists to leave the state, never to return.

The book develops a number of interesting themes including how terrorists think that the ends justify the means, the situational ethics of the press and reporters, the way the police just want to be left alone . . . even when they aren't succeeding, and how some will be cowed into silence when even the most despicable deeds are done. As usual in a Hiaasen book, the book has lots of examples of corruption, blatant abuse of others for one's own self interest and struggles to do the right thing among the aspiring virtuous.

Normally, I would grade such a fine novel to be a five star effort. Two things prevented me. First, the book really rubs your nose into the tourist killings . . . far too long and in too much depth for my taste. Second, one of the characters has a chance to stop the mayhem and doesn't act. I wasn't pleased with how that transgression played out in the story.

The ending sequence is beautifully done and it's well worth reading the whole book just to enjoy this one section.