The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 7 August 2001
by Carl Hiaasen
Twilly Spree is in an enviable position. Independently wealthy, he can afford the luxury of inflicting just revenge on the despoilers of his beloved Florida environment. Until now, these were just your run-of-the-mill litterbugs and illegal dumpers. Today, though, he runs afoul of Palmer Stoat, bigwig lobbyist for sleazy developers and other political manipulators all over the state. Now, Twilly has the opportunity to exact massive justice in the name of saving a small coastal island from despoilation for yet another golf course "community". I have little doubt that the author is using this book to indulge his own fantasies of revenge upon insensitive development of his state. Indeed, if this mind-numbing homogenization and flattening of the natural environment angers you, you will find several satisfying examples of revenge here. Twilly goes through complicated and imaginitive contortions to get Stoat to recognize his boneheaded insensitivity to the world around him. We get a pretty good picture of Stoat's character as the book opens upon his "hunt" of captive exotic animals on a "preserve" in central Florida. Throughout the book, Twilly and Stoat encounter characters of towering selfishness. There are developers and politicians, right-wing hookers and hitmen. The heroes are portrayed a little off-kilter and unseemly as well. But it is hard not to sympathize with their indignation. Hiaasen writes with entertaining wit and bitter sadness, scouring his targets. His love for the Florida coastline permeates this often twisted statirical tale. I don't think he would have to exaggerate much, when it comes to this subject, but this is an elaborately embroidered story of intertwining bad and good behavior. Innocent animals seem to be a kind of Greek chorus and a litany of victimhood in this book. They are bystanders, observers and agents of justice for or against whom all the events occur. If a gated country club "community" is your idea of paradise, this may not be your book, though you should read it anyway. If you lament sprawl all over this country, then this book will share a satisfying point of view.
Also by Hiaasen: [Strip Tease]