Books: Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen (1995)

“Two honeymooners wake up early, make love twice, and brace themselves for a spectacle they won't be watching from the sidelines. A seductive con artist stumbles into a scam that promises more cool cash than the lottery. A shotgun-toting mobile home salesman is about to close a deal with disaster. A law school dropout will be chasing one Gaboon viper, a troop of storm-shocked monkeys, and a newfound love life, while tourists by the thousands bail from the Florida Keys. We're now entering the hurricane zone, where hell and hilarity rule.”

As a columnist for the Miami Herald, once again Hiaasen used his knowledge of reporting on the storm to highlight the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in South Florida for this novel. (It’s never named, the storm, by the way, but this book was released in 1995. The the storm happened in 1992, and features an unnamed Republican president that is probably George Bush, Sr.) It seems the aftermath of Hurricane turned out to be fertile ground for real-life corruption and incompetence in the construction industry and local and state governments. Hiaasen wrote several scathing columns about it, where he derided the industry's and government's apologists for describing Andrew as "the storm of the century," which seemed designed to excuse them from their own ineptitude by exaggerating the force of the hurricane.

As for the novel, it’s features (what I’ve learned only in reading handful of his titles) Hiaasen's usual formula: a confused female victim of the greedy jerk rescued by the "crazy" recluse and the caring, law-enforcement hero, along with some preachiness on greed, environmental protection, with a despicable villain (of which they’re many) named Snapper. It’s a good theme, I guess, and it’s clear only liberals will enjoy the tale. I mean none of the characters are without fault; all appear very easily swayed in breaking the law for a large payoff. Yeah, at times it was hard to care for any of them, even if most of them were cartoonish in nature. It also features the third appearance of Skink, AKA, former Governor Clinton Tyree, and Jim Tile, who both previously appeared in Double Whammy and Native Tongue.

Still, despite being a bit overlong, Hiaasen is a very clever writer with a twisted and dark sense of humor. In Stormy Weather, it almost works, because as you read, you take in the satire and how all the plot threads come somewhat together, but the author had an ax to grind and he takes no prisoners when pointing out corruption that seems live within the mud of Florida.  

Books: Native Tongue By Carl Hiaasen (1991)

“When the precious blue-tongued mango voles at the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills on North Key Largo are stolen by heartless, ruthless thugs, Joe Winder wants to uncover why, and find the voles. Joe is lately a PR man for the Amazing Kingdom theme park, but now that the voles are gone, Winder is dragged along in their wake through a series of weird and lethal events that begin with the sleazy real-estate agent/villain Francis X. Kingsbury and can end only one way.”

 

Native Tongue is another one of Carl Hiaasen's mix of hapless idiot criminals (who reminded me a lot of Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder gang), burnt-out losers, small-minded grifters, and slimy real estate developers –which appears to be one of the author’s biggest issues. As someone born and raised there, who works for the local newspapers, he’s seen a fair share of folks who see profit in destroying Florida’s natural environmental beauty. Sadly, like many coastal communities, there are always unscrupulous land developers who get in bed with crooked politicians who are out to screw nature for massive profits. Hiaasen also uses the book to poke fun at Walt Disney World, who attempted, and was much-lauded for (though ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to repopulate the now-extinct dusky seaside sparrow.

 

Joe Winder appears to be somewhat a Hiaasen stand-in, a good guy reporter out to save the state. I can see why folks of a certain political color probably hate the idea that Hiaasen casts himself as the hero, but the writer has been doing this for decades, long before he became a best-selling author of humorous fiction. The book also features the reappearance of former governor “Skink”, otherwise known as Clinton Tyree. After giving up faith in the political system he now lives in the Everglades, where he always wears a shower cap and an electronic tracking device he found on a wild panther. Also back is Deputy Jim Tile, Skink’s dear friend and the man keeping him alive and out of jail. Both appeared in Double Whammy.

 

The book is funny, despite the seriousness of Florida’s difficult association with migrant workers and the exploitation of Native Americans and their lands. It holds together fairly well.