Book Review - Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen
Category Book Reviews
It's been awhile since I had the pleasure to venture into Carl Hiaasen's world. His latest work, Nature Girl, is as strange and wacky as his other novels, but it didn't seem to have quite the edge that I've come to expect...
Normally I try and put a bit of a plot synopsis in the review, but doing that on a Hiaasen novel makes you look as if you're experimenting with drugs. :) One of the overriding plotlines involves Honey Santana trying to teach a telemarketer some respect and appreciation of life. Santana, who has problems with hyper-focus and music in her head, lures the unsuspecting guy to Florida with an "eco-tour" spiel. The reality is that she wants to get him isolated on an island out in the 'glades so that she can convince him to change his ways. Pretty basic, but it's the surrounding cast of characters that liven up the mix. There's Louis Piejack, Honey's former boss, who made unwelcome advances on her. The net result of that was an encounter with crabs that lopped off his fingers. The doctor messed up the reattachment surgery and the pinkie and thumb aren't in the right place. He's still obsessed with Honey and will do anything to have her. There's Sammy Tigertail, a Seminole who ends up with a dead tourist on his hands after an unfortunate encounter with a snake on a jet boat. He ditches the body but determines that he really needs to disappear in the Everglades to avoid prosecution. He ends up picking an island where two college couples are camped out, and one of the girls decides she wants to be Sammy's hostage. Problem is, Sammy doesn't want or need one... The telemarketer, Boyd Shreave, is a total loser who is having an affair with a co-worker who's trying to get rid of him. He's married to a woman who is rich, knows he's having an affair, and wants a private investigator to get ever-more graphic evidence of the liaisons before she divorces him. The investigator follows Boyd and his lover to Florida and Santana's eco-tour "vacation", where everyone (and that means *everyone*) ends up on the same island... Dismal Key.
From a recreational mind-candy perspective, I enjoyed the book. The characters are so bizarre and crazy that you never quite know what's due to happen next. What seemed to be missing here was the edginess of his prior work. Hiaasen has a number of soapbox issues related to Florida that seem to appear in all his work... anti-Disney, anti-development, pro-environment. While I don't look for a moral in his books, and I definitely don't share his anti-Disney stance, I still appreciate his convictions and the way he weaves them into the story. Nature Girl seemed to be a bit light on those elements, and the book lost a bit because of it. But would I read the book again if given the chance to do it over? Oh, yeah...
It's been awhile since I had the pleasure to venture into Carl Hiaasen's world. His latest work, Nature Girl, is as strange and wacky as his other novels, but it didn't seem to have quite the edge that I've come to expect...
Normally I try and put a bit of a plot synopsis in the review, but doing that on a Hiaasen novel makes you look as if you're experimenting with drugs. :) One of the overriding plotlines involves Honey Santana trying to teach a telemarketer some respect and appreciation of life. Santana, who has problems with hyper-focus and music in her head, lures the unsuspecting guy to Florida with an "eco-tour" spiel. The reality is that she wants to get him isolated on an island out in the 'glades so that she can convince him to change his ways. Pretty basic, but it's the surrounding cast of characters that liven up the mix. There's Louis Piejack, Honey's former boss, who made unwelcome advances on her. The net result of that was an encounter with crabs that lopped off his fingers. The doctor messed up the reattachment surgery and the pinkie and thumb aren't in the right place. He's still obsessed with Honey and will do anything to have her. There's Sammy Tigertail, a Seminole who ends up with a dead tourist on his hands after an unfortunate encounter with a snake on a jet boat. He ditches the body but determines that he really needs to disappear in the Everglades to avoid prosecution. He ends up picking an island where two college couples are camped out, and one of the girls decides she wants to be Sammy's hostage. Problem is, Sammy doesn't want or need one... The telemarketer, Boyd Shreave, is a total loser who is having an affair with a co-worker who's trying to get rid of him. He's married to a woman who is rich, knows he's having an affair, and wants a private investigator to get ever-more graphic evidence of the liaisons before she divorces him. The investigator follows Boyd and his lover to Florida and Santana's eco-tour "vacation", where everyone (and that means *everyone*) ends up on the same island... Dismal Key.
From a recreational mind-candy perspective, I enjoyed the book. The characters are so bizarre and crazy that you never quite know what's due to happen next. What seemed to be missing here was the edginess of his prior work. Hiaasen has a number of soapbox issues related to Florida that seem to appear in all his work... anti-Disney, anti-development, pro-environment. While I don't look for a moral in his books, and I definitely don't share his anti-Disney stance, I still appreciate his convictions and the way he weaves them into the story. Nature Girl seemed to be a bit light on those elements, and the book lost a bit because of it. But would I read the book again if given the chance to do it over? Oh, yeah...
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