I loved it, again, as expected, from start to finish.
Hiaasen is at once uplifting and cynical. Keyes and Garcia are the clear good guys, and nobody wants to see the beautiful, yet equally down-to-earth, Kara Lynn Shivers come to any harm. Bert and James are lovable too, and in the end, you are happy to see the Las Noches de Diciembre lose, but at the same time, Florida loses too.
Skip Wiley, we can assume, dies a bizarre but ultimately heroic death, trying to save a bald eagle from the dynamite of developers. I suppose for glass is half full folks, we can assume the eagle flies, and we can assume the death of Skip Wiley brings about some more publicity to the plight of Florida.
This is the only Hiaasen book in which the bad guys are the ones fighting to protect what is left of wild Florida. In his later efforts, the line between the good guys and the bad guys is clearer. I have to say I like the ambiguity. My guess is that in later efforts it was just too much for Hiaasen to kill of the people he was really rooting for. As a home grown Florida guy, Hiaasen’s views on the development of Florida are largely the same as Wiley’s, though his views of terrorism and murder differ.
I have several questions for your consideration.
Do you attach any symbolism to Viceroy’s demise on the same football field that was home to his past glories? It makes sense until you consider he doesn’t seem to like football or the Dolphins all that much.
Do you think Hiaasen, through his spectacular writing, has done damage to his own cause? Every time I pick up one of his works, it makes me yearn to be in the sunshine state, no matter how insane his criminals or how random and egregious the violence. Even through the greed and madness, Hiaasen’s love of the sunshine state is evident and contagious. I have spent a good chunk of my life in Florida, and though that probably has more to do with the weather and the availability of gamefish, Hiaasen’s works certainly contributed. Has Hiaasen inadvertently contributed to the demise of the Florida wild that he holds so dear?
To answer my own question, I would say no. The allure of Florida is strong with or without Hiaasen; nothing can be done by Hiaasen or Skip Wiley to stop people from coming. What could stop it are the developers and the greed-heads getting their hands on all of what makes it wonderful in the first place. Hiaasen has alerted his readers to the problem, and done a significant service by influencing Florida’s citizens and visitors to behavior more appropriately and be respectful of the fragile South Florida environment. When considering how to behave, everywhere, but particularly in Florida, everybody should ask himself or herself the following question: What would Hiaasen do?
In fact, that may be the first piece of official Guys Who Read merchandise: What would Hiaasen do? Bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc.
Finally, I would like to hear your take on the literary merit of Tourist Season. It is sort of a pop-literature book and genre, but with a message that is clearer, more important and more applicable than that of any of the other works the Guys Who Read have tackled so far. In my eyes this is clearly the best book of any genre we have read, and it pains me that nobody is rolling out Pulitzers and Nobel Prizes for my man Carl Hiaasen? What are your thoughts on that?
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