Dog days in Florida

DINNER at writer Namita Gokhale's house this last Sunday could have been straight out of a Carl Hiaasen novel. First, there was the matter of the hurled pipes by "a Chinese-looking woman". When interest in the matter quietened down, Meru and Shivani, the writer's daughters regaled the assembled company with stories about an assortment of characters who belonged in the pages Sick Puppy (Warner), Hiaasen's latest that I coincidentally happened to be completing over the weekend.

As with all his seven previous works of fiction, his latest novel is set in the state of Florida, a place inhabited by deranged hit-men, sex maniacs, litter bugs, crooked politicians, fixers, smooth-talking whores, and above all, foes of the environment. Enter Twilly Spree a man determined to take on those who degrade the environment, single handedly if need be. The novel opens with Twilly resorting to extreme measures against a litterbug named Palmer Stoat. Except it does not end there, for Stoat is a lobbyist, which means he has a finger in more crooked deals than you can shake a stick at. Twilly is particularly exercised about one such scam that proposes to sell off a pristine island called Toad Island, off the coast of Florida, to a greedy real-estate developer called Robert Clapley. A lot of people stand to make serious money from the deal besides Clapley and Stoat and the trail of corruption reaches all the way to the Governor's mansion. Twilly is determined to stop the destruction of Toad Island (which has been re-named Shearwater Island by the crooked developers). Given that he is as crazy as the bad guys (this is a Hiaasen novel, after all), it is clear he will stop at nothing.

And so the uproarious plot unfolds. The bad guys, and the good guys, including a memorable hitman called Mr Gash, whose favourite method of relaxation is to listen to calls made by dying people to the emergency police and rescue services (bootleg tapes of these are made available to Mr Gash and sickos like him for a fee), an amiable Labrador called variously Boodle and McGuinn (the "sick puppy" of the title), one of the wackiest characters Hiaasen has ever created, an ex-Florida Governor called Clinton Typre (a.k.a. known as Skink, Captain) who has now turned eco-terrorist, and an assortments of other lunatics, spend the five hundred and more pages of the book getting up to the most-inventive capers you are likely to read.

As the novel winds down, the bad guys come to satisfactorily gory ends, the good guys live to fight another day (but, of course) and another bit of Florida's rapidly dwindling undeveloped coastline is saved, at least in Mr. Hiaasen's fictional world. Along the way the reader has laughed himself, sick, been educated about the perils of environmental degradation, and been witness to ranks about crooked politicians, greedy realtors, stupid short-sighted businessman - all of which add to the numerous attractions of the novel.

Hiaasen has been compared, among others, to Dickens for his vast teeming novels, Waugh for his humour, Swift for his satirical ability, Hunter Thompson for the outrage he feels at the goings- on in contemporary America, Tom Wolfe for his ability to capture American society, Mark Twain for the enormous inventiveness he displays, and Elmore Leonard for his ability to write fun crime. That should give you some idea of how highly he is esteemed. But do not let that reputation deter you if all you are looking for is some great good fun. High brow or low, Carl Hiaasen is sure to keep you entertained.

DAVID DAVIDAR

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