Dance of the Reptiles

November 11, 2013
Throughout his prolific career writing mysteries and young adult novels, Hiaasen (Bad Monkey) has continued to write straight journalism for the Miami Herald, in a weekly op-ed column exploring the weird scenes of Florida in general and Miami in particular. This selection from the more than 600 columns written during the 12 years since the publication of Paradise Screwed, Hiaasen’s second collection of newspaper work, will be immediately popular with his fans. The topics are familiar: “rampaging” visitors, for whom prescribes a special “Tourist Court”; the abuse and neglect of Florida’s waters; “the disastrous culmination of generations of lousy planning, worse management, and slimy politics”; and how government and business have made Florida “the poster child for America’s fiscal disintegration.” But a section of powerful essays on the Iraq war—especially the “daffy, disconnected mind of Dick Cheney”—show a deep anger about national politics that moves beyond his typical attitude of, “Of course it’s Miami. Where else?”

December 1, 2013
Miami Herald columnist and best-selling novelist Hiaasen (Bad Monkey, 2013, etc.) wages a relentless war of words against those who would despoil his home state and cheapen a nation: the greedy, the corrupt and the stupid. The author knows better than most Edward Abbey's dictum: Growth for its own sake, unrestrained, is the philosophy of the cancer cell. As Florida's population grows, taxpayers usually foot the bill not only for sprawl and environmental degradation, but also for every crackpot scheme heralding an economic boon. In this collection of his muckraking columns, Hiaasen employs a seasoned bullshit detector that is among the most acute in American journalism. He pillories everything from coastal development run amok to the folly of offshore oil drilling, from efforts at gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and Endangered Species Act to bungling by the Army Corps of Engineers. While dissections of decay dominate, also in his cross hairs are capital punishment, corporate welfare, "intelligent design," Medicare fraud, corporate lobbyists, manipulated elections, mortgage scams, legislative complicity in the exploitation of migrant workers, Vatican stonewalling on child sexual abuse, the National Rifle Association's disproportionate influence, feckless televangelists, a hyperventilating news media and, of course, the Iraq/Afghanistan debacle. Though he occasionally goes to the well once too often, Hiaasen, also a writer of satirical fiction, wields the facts, finely tuned outrage and an eviscerating sarcasm to potent effect. Were his broadsides not armed with solid reportage, these columns might begin to sound overheated--a scathingly anti-business, anti-Republican rant--save that he invariably dispenses scorn (or credit) where it's due, to whomever deserves it. Hiaasen is not so much unabashedly liberal as steadfastly sensible, his humor fueled by righteous dismay. If Florida is the poster child for a nation's fiscal and political disintegration, Hiaasen is the state's galloping knight (in)errant, slaying the dragons of ineptitude, arrogance and idiocy.

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January 1, 2014

In this collection full of sarcasm and humor, Hiaasen fights for Florida. He fights with words. Hiaasen wants something wonderful left of his home state for young people to experience. This compendium of his Miami Herald columns published from 2001 to 2013 details how protective the journalist is of his birthplace. His disputes are political, but he is in favor of Tourist Courts, where "hard core slob" visitors are punished for littering, ignoring speed limits, and disrespecting waitstaff and hotel clerks. As for politicians, Hiaasen has a lot to say about state leaders, taxes, and gun laws. His stand on the environment zeroes in on British Petroleum, manatees, dolphins, and alligators. National leaders don't escape Hiaasen's radar, either. He criticizes President George W. Bush and the Iraq War and President Barack Obama and the stimulus package. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Socitey of Newspaper Columnists and a Newbery Honor winner for Hoot, Hiaasen has also published 13 best-selling novels and four nonfiction titles, including Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World. VERDICT Hiaasen is a proud member of the Florida's writers group and is happy to tell tourists to go away. The reason for promoting the darker side of the state? The writers just want to enjoy the beauty for themselves. Recommended for fans of Hiaasen, satire, humor writing, and Florida and for those who appreciate fine journalism.--Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2013
This is the third collection of Hiaasen's op-ed pieces from the Miami Herald, following Kick Ass (2002). Known primarily for his mystery novels, Hiaasen also produces a weekly newspaper column, which often delivers blistering indictments of the people and policies that he believes ruin Florida. The reptiles of the title sometimes refer to actual reptiles, as in pythons and alligators. More often, the term refers to lobbyists, politicians, tourists, and environmental evildoers. The two- to three-page essays take direct aim at their targets ( Go Away addresses the tourists and new residents who are spoiling Florida; Drill, Spill and Kill very effectively goes after BP) and span the years 200112, making many of them, like the ones focusing on former President George W. Bush, literally seem like old news. Still, even after the fact, they are entertaining for Hiaasen's ability to awaken outrage and for his eye for oddity (the latter, of course, is a defining characteristic of his fiction). While this may seem like an unnecessary collection in this era of finding articles online, it is still, by turns, both hilarious and unnerving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)