Girls & Guys
Through the years at least three customers of the floating book shop have recommended Carl Hiaasen’s work. Finally, I put one aside. Born in Florida in 1953, Hiaasen, like so many successful authors, began as a journalist. In fact, he still writes columns for newspapers. His novels are described as comic thrillers. I just finished Nature Girl, published in 2006. It is a multi-character story set largely in the Everglades. They are an assortment of mostly oddballs and flakes. Two, a father and 13-year-old son, are normal. A stalker is beginning a psychotic break. The most interesting aspect is how they are all brought together. It is good story-telling, if a bit drawn out. The body count is very modest by today’s standards. My enjoyment was not as high during the final third of the narrative, although I was still very interested in the fate of the players. Fortunately, politics is at a minimum. All jibes are directed at Republicans. The segues into environmentalism are mercifully brief. Although the characterizations are out there, the action is grounded except for the appearance of ghosts in a young half breed’s dreams. There is a bit of interesting Seminole history along the way. Hiaasen is wise not to overdo issues he cares about and which many readers would like to get out of the way. The noble indians come off far better than the white man, as is the way in most modern fare, literature or film. 330 users at Amazon have rated Nature Girl, forging to a consensus of four on a scale of ten. I’ll go with three, the prose and dialogue being lively. The 304 pages read like considerably less. Hiaasen has been prolific, banging out at least 15 novels, six children’s books, six works of non-fiction, and three collaborations. Several have been best sellers, two adapted to the big screen.
Headline at foxnews.com: “Mexican government vows legal action against US in response to El Paso mass shooting.” Here’s a snippet from an article posted at FN on 7/4: “Mexico saw a record number of murders in the first six months of the year, with an average 94 killings each day.” In 2018 there were 33,341 murders in the narco state. Its population is 132 million+. U.S. population is almost 329 million. In 2017 there were 15,129 murders, and a 12/6/’18 NY Times headline reported an expected big drop in the total for 2018, for which I was unable to find any stats.
A Harvard professor called for the impeachment of President Trump immediately after the shootings, laying the blame on him. Now that it is known that the Dayton shooter is a supporter of his colleague, Elizabeth Warren, does he believe she should resign from the one course she teaches at the Ivy League school, and the senate, and that she should drop out her negative campaign for the nation’s highest office?
Here’s a headline from FN to lift the spirits: “French inventor successfully soars over English Channel on hoverboard.” And here’s a pic of Franky Zapata, who completed the 22 mile trip in less than 22 minutes. Tres bien, monsieur:
My thanks to the Braniac Brothers, who dispatched their home attendant with a delivery of several weighty tomes; and to the woman who donated six awesome music bios; and to Arthur, who bought Alcatraz Most Wanted: Profiles of the Most Famous Prisoners on the Rock by Cory Kincade, which has a picture of Al Capone on the cover; and to Ira, who purchased a pictorial on hardcore self defense; and to the Quiet Man, who took home two bootleg DVDs, a beautiful illustrated version of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield designed for kids, and two graphic novels from The Killer series by Jacamon and Matz: Modus Vivendi and Fight or Flight. Here’s a panel from the former:
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