I was reminded about this book by the Trump/Mar-A-Lago discussion and can’t find more than a brief mention of it on the forum. I think it deserves more.
For those who don’t know it, Carl Hiaasen has written a number of humorous crime novels set in and (not very) obliquely commenting on politics and society in Florida. His latest includes the antics of an unnamed president with a base in a private club in Palm Beach and is dedicated to his brother who was one of the victims in the Capital Gazette mass shooting in 2018.
I read the book when it came out last fall and enjoyed it a lot, even though it was a bit too close to reality to really laugh at the insane president. But now that our real Florida based president has slithered back there in defeat it should be easier to stomach. What say ye? Who else has read it? Who postponed it because of Trump and forgot about it until now?
Love Hiaasen, especially his newer One Word Title books (CHOMP is my fave). You could say those are written for a younger audience, but I think all ages can appreciate his broad brush.
But I must admit, I have taken a break from any book/movie/show that hits too close to current (or just past) politics. I’ve got enough PTSD from the last four years…
I like a lot of his books but as someone (here) once said, they all kinda run together after a while. Quite a number of them are in the same universe, but slightly rearranged, so if you’re trying to keep track of who’s who, it’s not entirely consistent, at least not as I recall.
Fun fact, he also wrote Strip Tease. The book that the Demi Moore movie was based on. I recall the book being considerably, like really, really considerably better than the movie.
I think the problem for Hiaasen’s books as movies is that what’s a fun level of zany in a book is just too much for a movie. Although Strip Tease is less zany than a lot of the others.
Read it a while back. Fun - as all of his books are. But I think I read enough of them. They all seem quite similar. My enjoyment of him peaked a few books back.
Yeah, he kind of ran out of formula. I like his books, but I also had to take a break after awhile. Every so often I’ll grab a new one and they’re always a worthwhile distraction, but there is a lot of sameness these days.
I read it just before the election, that made it rather fresh, for sure. It was fun. He is formulaic, but it’s nice to keep bumping into the Governor. He still makes me laugh.
I’ve read a couple of Hiaasens in the past through my local library’s online lending library and enjoyed them. “Squeeze Me” sounds like some perfect light reading for right about now, in the dead of a Michigan winter. I just got on the lending site, and it was available, so I checked it out to my Kindle. Thanks for the rec!
So true. In Squeeze Me if he’d described any other notable figure the way he did our most previous President, he’d be outrageously and inappropriately lampooning them, making them unbelievable cartoon characters. In this book, the portrayal was weak stuff compared to recent events.