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Summary: One of the most interestingly funny books I've ever read
Review: What a great book! My emotions ran the gamut. I smiled, got angry, laughed, felt disgusted, and ended up smiling again. Some of the reviews are quite cute, they can't imagine characters like the ones Carl Hiaasen created actually exist. Turn on your TV set people! Watching real live people like Chub and Bode is the reason I prefer to read. I first read this book last winter, and have read it twice since. "Lucky You" is great fun - period!
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Summary: A great book for Hiaasen fans, or wannabes!
Review: Carl does it again! This is one great read, especially if you're on the beach here in Florida. Hiaasen's writing plays like a fast-moving drama in your mind. The pages fly by, and his style keeps the many threads of storyline clear. After you read this, search out the rest of his books. Better yet, take my word for it and order a half-dozen or so and bring 'em with you on vacation!
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Summary: ALTHOUGH I DIDN'T EXPECT TO LIKE THIS BOOK, I DID!
Review: I FOUND JOLANE LUCKS TO BE DELIGHTFULLY FUNNY AND WICKED. REVENGE WOULD BE THE ONLY THING ON MY MIND IF SOMEONE STOLE MY WINNING LOTTERY TICKET, BEAT ME AND MOLESTED ME. I'D HAVE MURDEROUS INTENTIONS ABOUT CHUB AND GAZZER. BODE AND CHUB ARE TWO OF THE MOST DISGUSTING CHARACTERS I'VE EVER READ ABOUT. I'M GLAD THEY ONLY EXIST ON PAPER. MY ONLY QUESTION IS HOW DID TWO FOOLS LIKE THEM EVER THINK TO GET THE VIDEO TAPE FROM SHINER? THE BOOK MIGHT HAVE BEEN A FEW CHAPTERS SHORTER, WITH A LITTLE LESS TIME FOR CHUB'S DEATH SCENE, BUT ALL IN ALL, IT WAS A GOOD READ.I ALSO ENJOYED TOM'S DIFFICULTIES WITH MARY ANDREA AND KATIE. WHAT A HOOT WHEN M.A. SEES TOM WITH THE TURTLE ACQUARIUM!
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Summary: A great book to get sucked into!
Review: This was my first Carl Haiisen book. Needless to say I will be reading the rest of his after reading this book! The author gives the charachter colour and life. You feel a part of the story, an outsider looking in. The way a great book should be. It reads quickly, which leaves you wanting more! A definite great read for anyone looking to read a story with action, romance, and a GREAT storyline!
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Summary: The Best Hiaasen Yet!
Review: My boyfriend and I are huge CH fans - we've read every book he's written. This was, beyond a doubt, his funniest yet. I've often read reviews that say "it made me laugh out loud" but this is the first time it's happened to me. I will agree with some of the other reviews that suggest you don't read this book unless you've got a good sense of humor because Chub and Bode are definitely not politically correct.
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Summary: Hiaasen did it again!
Review: I couldn't put it down. Though not as good as "Stromy Weather", "Lucky You" keeps you wondering what could possibly happen next. The characters are totally believeable. I unfortuanately know of people who come awfully close to most of the characters in "Lucky You". All I want to know is what's next from Hiaasen?
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Summary: Ed Asner brings the characters to life in the audio books!
Review: Audiobook version successfully captured the feel of this Hiaasen novel. Asner's voices for the characters worked well. We were captivated listening - and we both had read the book already. Highly recommend. Some foul language and racist themes would make this story inappropriate for young children.
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Summary: Unbelievable, with a weak plot
Review: Lucky You has decent characters, but a lousy plot. It's the first Hiaasen book I've read, and admittedly it may be my last. His two dirt-bag characters, Chub and Bode were the only interesting oddities in the entire book. Their intense rascism and hard to believe ignorance and stupidiy was funny in small doses. But half way through the book I found myself getting sick of even them: nobody can be THAT stupid and ignorant. The other characters in the novel I'll forget in about two days. Joylane Lucks was the main character in the novel: A black woman that wins millions in lottery money and decides to save some private wilderness property with her winnings. The thing is, she gets only half of the lotto money due to there being two winning numbers. But fourteen million is nothing to scoff at, and she doesn't. Bode and chub, the aforementioned redneck hillbillys, get the other winning ticket. But Bode isn't satisfied with just one measly ticket, he gets gree! dy. In order to get their wacko rascist militia off to a rousing start they need all the money they can get their hands on. We all know what happens next: They steal the ticket of course. Enter Krome, (I'll forget his name after this review is finished), a newspaper writer with a wife he can't get rid of and an editor he can't stand. He is assigned to do a story on Joylayne and her winning ticket, but somehow gets involved in the hunting down of the men that took it from her. The town that this takes place in is an odd and curious place where religion is taken very seriously , while at the same time is not taken very seriously at all. The town is full of religious sites and crazy people that will do anything for a buck: even put holes in their hands and feet, pretending to be a descendent of Christ himself! Oh, I forgot about the road-stain Jesus and the seven turtles with painted Apostle heads on their shells. A crazy town for sure! Hiaasen is stretching things! a bit here, but for those of you who like the ridiculous ! might get a few laughes here. Overall rating: A couple of the characters are sound, the plot stinks, but there is a couple of mildly amusing dialogues. Buy "Pronto" by Elmore Leonard or "The Caveman's Valentine" by George Dawes Green instead.
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Summary: Another fine release from the comic-crime-novel king
Review: When asked where he gets the ideas for his deliciously delirious crime thrillers, packed with murderous lowlifes, unscrupulous con men, and ingenious plot twists, Carl Hiaasen always says he just reads the articles in The Miami Herald, for which he writes a biting investigative column. Truth, it seems, may not be stranger than fiction, but it's equally entertaining. Hiaasen is hardly the only writer to take notice of the great material laying around Dade County: Florida breeds crime novelists as fast as it breeds criminals. But he's the class of the bunch-a riotously funny writer who, in bringing to life the various absurdities he sees and reads about, creates full-bodied, red-blooded characters and treats them humanely, even the bad guys. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Hiaasen uses no running characters, outside of a couple of supporting players who've made a handful of appearances. But he might as well, since his books generally feature the same basic cast: the reluctant hero, a journalist or ex-journalist working as or playing at being a private eye; a smart and sassy love interest; a gorgeous dame of questionable ethics; and, most memorably, a muscle-bound bad guy impervious to pain. Hiaasen's seventh solo novel, "Lucky You," follows the same basic pattern. For those who've enjoyed "Tourist Season" or "Native Tongue" or "Skin Tight," it's easy to slip into-indeed, a little *too* easy. Like the other books, "Lucky You" is a marvelous read, but it's OK to feel a smidgen of disappointment that the rewards aren't deeper; it just doesn't make you work hard enough. The story begins with a lottery drawing that makes the holders of two tickets very happy-$14 million happy. JoLayne Lucks, a black veterinarian with more brains and wit than most, wants to use the money to save an environmental refuge from becoming a shopping mall; Bode and Chub, holders of the other ticket, want to spend it to found a militia. When it occurs to Bode and Chub (a poacher and a counterfeiter, respectively) that they c! ould buy a lot more bunkers and assault rifles with the whole $28 million, they track down JoLayne and steal her ticket. For reasons too complicated to go into here, she insists on going after the thieves without the police's help. Along for the ride: Tom Krome, a journalist-make that *ex*-journalist-who impulsively decides that "chasing gun nuts through South Florida was better than writing brainless newspaper features about Bachelorhood in the Nineties." The basic plotline resolves about how you'd expect, with the usual amount of mayhem. JoLayne and Tom are stock Hiaasen heroes-bright, funny, a bit antisocial-and we like them just fine. But it's the settings and sidelights that make "Lucky You" well worth reading. Hiaasen's depiction of the primary industry of JoLayne's hometown-namely, the frauds and fanatics behind Florida's devotional-miracle industry-is priceless. He shows us everything from tour buses of suckers making pilgrimages (and giving donations) to a couple who display a fiberglass Madonna who cries Charlie-scented tears, to a man with self-drilled stigmata and a woman who watches over "the Road-Stain Jesus," a "holy splotch" on the highway. Then there's the look at the incompetent bigots of the state's network of fledgling white-supremacist movements, represented by the unshaven Bode and Chub, who share "a blanket contempt for government, taxes, homosexuals, immigrants, minorities, gun laws, assertive women and honest work." Hiaasen fleshes out the two with details to make any reader smile: For instance, Bode can't bring himself to utter the word *nigger*, since at age 12 he had used it and had his mouth promptly washed out with Comet and vinegar. This is, Hiaasen tells us, "a major handicap for a self-proclaimed racist and militiaman." Hiaasen keeps his focus tight, though-we don't meet any militiamen besides the two villains, nor any crooked faith-healer types outside of one small town. Only a few diversions distract from the central chase. And, for perhaps the first time, he overlook! s an obvious target: He aims not a single shot at the lottery itself, an insidious method of redistributing wealth upward that's well deserving of the rage that the author always directs at developers, tourists, and amoral politicians. No matter. Hiaasen harbors enough anger to fuel any number of novels, and South Florida shows no signs of getting boring.
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Summary: A fine, ironic adventure!
Review: This is the first Hiaasen novel I've read. My wife & I both enjoyed it immensely. It's a funny, ironic adventure with a deliciously satisfying ending. (If you have strong prejudices against any life-forms that aren't just like you, skip this one until you develop a sense of humor.)
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