Patrick, I suggest that if you ever get around to giving Hiassen a second
chance, you give BASKET CASE a try. It's first person, and the POV
character is a former star reporter who's been relegated to writing
obituaries in hopes that he'll quit (after he's told the new, pipsqueak
publisher, son of the late legendary publisher to go fuck himself) without
being fired (for which he could both command a severance package and like
sue. The new publisher is lawsuit averse, as well).
I loved it. And Hiassen's experiences writing for the Miami Herald really
add something to this one, I think.
YMMV-
Brian
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 6:34 PM, Patrick King <abrasax93@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Sun, 8/17/08, Brian Thornton <bthorntonwriter@gmail.com<bthorntonwriter%40gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> Agreed.
> And although some on this list curl their collective lips at the notion
> that
>
> anything by Carl Hiassen might be "hard boiled," there are some here who
>
> think that his writing has been known to get there (at least as much so as
>
> stuff like Leonard's BIG BOUNCE), and certainly in works such as SKIN TIGHT
>
> (the girl gets fed into a chipper, for Christ's sake) and BASKET CASE (that
>
> fight in the kitchen with the frozen iguana is grimly hilarious).
>
> And you can't get much more "Florida" than Hiassen.
>
> It would be like not including John D. MacDonald's McGee novels because
> they got formulaic.;)
>
> ***************************
>
> My problem with Hiassen is not that he's not "hard boiled." It's that his
> plots are so trite and unlikely. I mean STRIP TEASE! Was there ever a more
> forced, unlikely set of circumstances in a novel? And the lead character,
> Erin Grant, is just so corny and predictable. After that book, I'd have a
> hard time giving him a second chance. There are too many great books I
> haven't read to waste time on a writer who thinks his readers are as
> conventional as his characters.
>
> Likewise McDonald. Those books just got so maudlin and sentimental, poor
> old self-pitying McGee. It must be so hard being a bachelor on a house boat.
>
>
> Patrick King
>
>
>
>
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