Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read.
Review: This is one of those books, where the people are so incredibly real -- real feelings, real situations, real dialogue -- that you can read for hours without realizing the time has gone by. It's like peering into someone else's life. You spend the entire story feeling sorry for Abe, then, at the end there is the realisation that he is as crazy as the rest of them. It is a great "story". It's not a "Horror", "Action", "Mystery" or "Romance". It is simply a story that is told with ease. I understand that this is the author's first novel and I am waiting impatiently for more!
Rating:
Summary: Time to treasure.
Review: This novel is so delightful, I treasure every minute I read it. I don't want it to finish...
Rating: 
Summary: Baker's no Irving or Conroy
Review: Though compelling, The Flamingo Rising ultimately disappoints. The characters are mostly wonderful (read full of wonder, wondrous traits) and the story is interesting enough to keep the reader turning pages, but the author is too present, the omissions are disappointing, and the overall spirit of the work too preachy. Why does Abraham keep a house only for photographs? Because this is a novel, that's why. Why is a vicious dog allowed to live on a floor all by himself? Because this is a novel, that's why. Why is the use of bad language written ABOUT and AT rather than included in dialogue? Because this is a novel, that's why. Because we are allowed to know ABOUT the characters, but the author's own prudishness dictates that we not hear the characters. I picked up this book because of the promising quote from a critic comparing Baker to John Irving and Pat Conroy. Baker does not have the skill of either of these great writers. The only trait he shares, and it's a good one, is the ability to let the reader know exactly what is going to take place and still make him/her want to keep turning pages. I liked this book, but it left me somewhere between amused and perturbed. "Show, don't tell" is a lesson writers hear over and over again. Baker insists on telling us about anything he deems unessential or off-color. Show, don't tell, Mr. Baker. Or leave it out completely. And mostly, leave yourself out.
Rating: 
Summary: Potential, largely unrealized
Review: Upon release, Iowa writer Larry Baker's debut novel garnered an unusual amount of attention. Deservingly? Not really. It's a fun read that carries you along, but it's not all that good a novel. For every promising passage, a clunker brings you back to earth. The story's setting does lift "The Flamingo Rising" out of the ordinary. Baker introduces us to a man who, in the early 1950s, builds the drive-in to end all drive-ins on a square mile of Florida beachfront.... Baker's plot will remind some readers of Paul Theroux's great 1982 novel "The Mosquito Coast," another teenage boy's story of an eccentric visionary father who moves his wife and children to a remote location to build a landscape-dominating tower. But, though "The Flamingo Rising" has many charms, and a good deal of drama and pathos, it has little of the earlier book's sweep and impact. The key to "The Mosquito Coast"'s success is the mind-set that drives the narrator's father to extreme creations that only he understands. Here, we never get to know Abraham's father, and that's a shame. The smaller, internal stories sometimes carry more weight than the grand ones.
Rating: 
Summary: lush, exciting characters w/ a larger than life backdrop
Review: Vivid and amazing tale, though the abridgement (as always) is a bit lacking. The Korean born "twins", the biggest drive-in on the earth, a feud, a midget with a huge heart, a consummate screw-up, and a couple hot babes, together with coming of age, young love, the assassinations, and a Grand Finale you won't forget. As usual the reader took some getting used to - does an excellent job on voice changes, but just a bit mincing in some of the delivery - and ah am used to men with southern accents. Nevertheless, I fell into the story, noticed a few abridgement gaps, and even more when I read other readers' reviews of the story. Wished it had ended with the Handel fireworks music!
Rating:
Summary: Crawl into the Florida landscape of the '60s
Review: Vivid and amazing tale, though the abridgement (as always) is a bit lacking. The Korean born "twins", the biggest drive-in on the earth, a feud, a midget with a huge heart, a consummate screw-up, and a couple hot babes, together with coming of age, young love, the assassinations, and a Grand Finale you won't forget. As usual the reader took some getting used to - does an excellent job on voice changes, but just a bit mincing in some of the delivery - and ah am used to men with southern accents. Nevertheless, I fell into the story, noticed a few abridgement gaps, and even more when I read other readers' reviews of the story. Wished it had ended with the Handel fireworks music!
Rating:
Summary: Nostalgic and sweet...
Review: What good things can I say about Flamingo Rising that hasn't already been said? I completely enjoyed this story and was mesmerized by the innocent coming-of-age story by the narrator, Abraham. This novel is a quick read, chock-full of meaning and sweetness, and invokes a peaceful feeling of nostalgia for the bygone days when there was nothing more magical than a drive-in theatre. Flamingo Rising tells the story of the feuding Lee and West families in the 1960s. Turner West has built his funeral home overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Not long after, Hubert Lee builds his lifelong dream -- the world's largest drive-in theatre, an icon of life, happiness and merriment -- right next door to the funeral home. Their sparring is nothing short of funny and immature. But what happens later, the involvement of Turner's daughter, Grace, and Hubert's son, Abraham, is what really spark the flames. It's Romeo and Juliet with a twist! I urge everyone to read Flamingo Rising. The story is told through the eyes of the almost-50 Abraham as he reflects on his childhood and his coming-of-age. However, it is so much more than a love story between the children -- the drive-in employees are so much like a family, the relationship of the Lees and Wests are at times riotous, bittersweet and poignant. And the ending was totally unexpected and very moving. Larry Baker has created a sweetly atmospheric story and one that will stay with me forever. A feel-good, warm-in-the-belly kind of book. If you see a copy, grab it!
Rating:
Summary: Nostalgic and sweet...
Review: What good things can I say about Flamingo Rising that hasn't already been said? I completely enjoyed this story and was mesmerized by the innocent coming-of-age story by the narrator, Abraham. This novel is a quick read, chock-full of meaning and sweetness, and invokes a peaceful feeling of nostalgia for the bygone days when there was nothing more magical than a drive-in theatre. Flamingo Rising tells the story of the feuding Lee and West families in the 1960s. Turner West has built his funeral home overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Not long after, Hubert Lee builds his lifelong dream -- the world's largest drive-in theatre, an icon of life, happiness and merriment -- right next door to the funeral home. Their sparring is nothing short of funny and immature. But what happens later, the involvement of Turner's daughter, Grace, and Hubert's son, Abraham, is what really spark the flames. It's Romeo and Juliet with a twist! I urge everyone to read Flamingo Rising. The story is told through the eyes of the almost-50 Abraham as he reflects on his childhood and his coming-of-age. However, it is so much more than a love story between the children -- the drive-in employees are so much like a family, the relationship of the Lees and Wests are at times riotous, bittersweet and poignant. And the ending was totally unexpected and very moving. Larry Baker has created a sweetly atmospheric story and one that will stay with me forever. A feel-good, warm-in-the-belly kind of book. If you see a copy, grab it!
Rating:
Summary: Wacky Character's, Mad Dogs and Southern Gentlemen
Review: When Hubert Lee came back from Korean War he brought two babies with him, a boy for himself and a girl for his wife Edna. He picked them up at an orphanage and though not related, the children were born on the same day.
The story is narrated by Abraham Isaac Lee, one of the children, and Abe tells the story of growing up inside of the world's largest drive in theater with wit and style. Yes, I said inside of the world's largest drive it. Hubert bought land on Florida's A1A, on the way down to the Keys, and he built himself the largest screen on the planet. So large that boaters and shrimpers could see the movie from sea. And he built his house inside of that screen.
However Funeral Director Turner West saw the land first and envisioned a cemetery overlooking the ocean. But he only had enough money to buy enough land for his funeral home, the cemetery was going to come later. Sadly for Turner, is seems like later is never going to come, because not only did Hubert buy the land, he built his screen in front of the funeral home, blocking out Turner's ocean view.
So now you have a Sixties coming of age story full of unforgettable wacky and wacko characters that work in the drive in. Oh, I forgot to mention Turner's daughter Grace. Abe and Grace fall in love early and for years have to keep it secret from their parents. Romeo and Juliet the story is not. No humor like this in the great bard's tale, not like here.
And there is plenty humor here. You can't help but laugh when six-foot tall Alice, who works at the drive in, arranges to have Abe initiated into manhood, or at his sister Louise's crazy dog, who lives in the attic, always scratching the floor above Abe's head. Then their's the time they found the dead woman in the lady's bathroom. I could go on and on about this wonderful book, but I have to stop sometime. It should be enough just to tell you that Mr. Baker has filled his story with interesting and different Southern folk who will live with you long after the story is through. He has the south down pat, the Sixties too. I know, because even though I'm too young to have been there, my old dad isn't and he was there and he just loved this book and I think you will too.
Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
Rating:
Summary: A little bit of both
Review: When I was told to write an critique on the lastest book that I read, I was worried because I found that I couldn't really choose whether or not I liked the book. It has its good parts, like the way Baker gives you real insight into the minds of his characters, and its bad, the way he tends to dictate events. I enjoyed reading the book although it had its dull points there was always something in the next chapter to keep me turning pages.
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