Native Tongue is on of my favorites. Tourist Season is also excellent. If you are into bass fishing Double Whammy is a good pick. You gotta be really cynical. And a heads up, Florida, especially South Florida really is the way he portrays it.
I picked up Star Island last night in hardback (it’s the only one the bookshop had), so you can credit this post with one sale, at least!
DO NOT drink coffee or any other liquid… take it from me, firsthand experience, you are liable to burst out laughing and spit up all over the place…
Just ordered CH’s Omnibus: 'Tourist Season; Double Whammy; Skin Tiight. If it’s rubbish, Ill be sending one of you lot the bill.
Talking about ‘funny’, I’ve just started ‘Middlmarch’ by George Eliot. I’ve only read the first few paged and I haven’t stopped smiling/laughing. If CH is half as funny, you can relax about the bill.
Take care
Vic
Carl owes you about £4 now then, bayamo! You bought him 2 beers or - and this still weirds me out - 1 coffee.
not to far fetched that i can collect the beers… my mom still lives in miami, and i would see him in coconut grove, a neighborhood there… he also is a frequent visitor to an independent bookstore that i used to work at… next time i visit home i will look him up and show him this thread… hope you enjoy the books!
Carl dropped by the other day, he’s sat on the table now, next to our Bodsham’s ‘Fallen Angel’ and George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch. A bit of pushing and shoving goes on, I think…attention seeking, y’ know what authors are like.
I think we’re looking at both ends of the spectrum here. You’ve got the reporter’s brevity of CH at one end, and the gorgeous voluptuous wordiness of George, at the other. In the middle we have the delightful happy medium of Dave Hewson (Bodsham).
I’m already a Hewsen addict and every new page of Eliot’s writing is pure sensuous indulgence, so we’ll have to see what CH can do for me.
Take care
Vic
Chalk up another sale that Carl owes you for, Bayamo. I’ve just finished “Tourist Season” and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m currently in that glorious reader’s nirvana of having found a new author whose work I really like who has a long back catalogue to keep me busy!
He is one of those authors where you keep turning the page just to see what he comes up with next. And worst of all, if you spend any time in South Florida, it reads more like non-fiction. Things like what he writes about really do happen there!
That is quite possibly one of the most worrying things I’ve ever heard!
Florida is like a world on to itself. If I remember correctly Tourist Season has a story line about a Cuban militant and explosives? Well, yes, there was a time there where bombs were going off at travel agencies believed to be paying kick backs to the Castro’s, and radio personalities who were deemed “friendly” to the Castro regime also got bombed.
If you like gardening, lawn care, that sort of thing, Skin Tight presents a creative and – as far as I know – unique solution to the problem of dealing with weeds.
ps
CHEMO!!! He became a recurring character. He is in the last novel too, Star Island.
It would be great if a few more of Hiaasen’s novels were available on the Kindle. (You can tell what I was given for Christmas.)
Just started “Skinny Dip”.
Brilliant.
Glad you are enjoying it. I am a bit crunched for time time right now, but google “60 minutes, carl hiaasen” you should get a hit for an interview with him, where he shows the “file” of wacky news stories from South Florida where he gets many of his ideas. Also look into “Naked Came the Manatee” where he, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry and others did a collaborative effort on a novel.
i said hiaasen scans the florida papers for “story lines” and ridiculous events… here is a sample:
http://goo.gl/mqIuf
[i]Hair-raising blast at college as barber chair blows up
A barber chair at a cosmetology college blew up Thursday.
The cause of the blast and fire on the Deltona campus of Daytona State College is unknown, according to a report in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The explosion caused minor injuries to one person.
MORE FROM FLORIDA
One officer shoots another in the middle finger
One cop shot another in the middle finger Thursday as the partners were serving a search for cocaine and guns in Central Florida. - 9:49 AM ET
Man’s groin burned by bleach poured into his lap
A man’s groin was burned this week after his former girlfriend apparently poured bleach on his lap, police said. - Updated 14 minutes ago[/i]
If Hiaasen wrote that into his stories you’d think he made it up…
more fodder for the Hiaasen file…
[i]Man hit by flying mattress doing OK
NAPLES, Fla. – A tourist seriously injured when a mattress flew off a passing furniture truck in southwest Florida has been released from the hospital.
The Fort Myers News-Press ( newspr.es/HAz6Ip) reported Thursday that 50-year-old Igor Stacho is getting further treatment at a local rehabilitation center. His wife Katrina said he is doing well.
Stacho and a visiting friend were walking on a Naples sidewalk April 5 when the metal-framed mattress flew off the passing truck and hit him in the head. Reports said she he suffered a skull fracture and spinal injuries. The truck hasn’t been located.
Stacho, a construction contractor who lives in Maryland, was released from the hospital Wednesday.
[/i]
Read more here: miamiherald.com/2012/04/13/2 … rylink=cpy
Did you see the mini interview of Hiaasen in the NYT Book Review? If not, it’s here:
nytimes.com/2012/06/03/books … k_20120601
I was especially intrigued by his book recommendation for President Obama.
Steve
Great! The Sisters Brothers and The Monkey Wrench Gang - I want to read them!