You have to say this about Carl Hiaasen in general, he delivers.
Well there may be many literati critics here and there who would go on to suggest that he remains within a genre, that his stories are entirely regional in nature and therefore we can safely overlook him and his talents. Who wants another book about corporate greed, government corruption and one or two ordinary people who have had enough and deciding to take a stand? Old hat, dear boy.
These snooty literati would probably have dismissed Raymond Chandler as hopelessly unoriginal in his subject matter.
Carl Hiaasen is a regional writer. His topic and characters are mostly about Florida. It is the state where he lives so naturally he would write about it. In fact it is his native, no-nonsense, unsentimental view of his home state that is one of the endlessly charming attractions about his stories. You want authenticity, you got it.
How can you possibly stop writing about greedy private sector interest and accompanying government greed? It is a gold mine of stories and it continues to feed our endless appetite. Hiaasen knows the turf well, having been a journalist and being at close quarters with oily politicians and their cozy business partners. Greed, corruption, misuse of power and willful stepping over the line: all traits of a politician we endlessly salivate over. And this being Florida, Hiaasen delivers by a boatload (pun intended!).
Skin Tight, his third novel, was published in 1989. It is a story about a plastic surgeon who hires a professional hit man to bump off a former investigator from the state attorney's office. Four years earlier, the investigator, Mick Stranahan had been assigned an apparent kidnapping case.
A young college girl had disappeared after going in for a nose job at the surgeon's clinic. The surgeon and the duty nurse had sworn that after surgery, she had stepped outside to catch a bus. She had not been seen since.
A TV investigative journalist, clearly a spoof on Geraldo Rivera, is snooping around the cold case, after being tipped off by the money hungry nurse. The nurse in turn points the finger to to Stranahan as likely to stir up trouble for the good doctor if the case came back to life. The doctor hires a mob hit man to take Stranahan out.
This starts a chain of event that leads to the solution of the mystery and a humorous ending. This include the most inept replacement killer in the history of the universe, a man nicknamed Chemo because he looks like he's going through cancer treatment. In return for killing Stranahan,Chemo seeks payment in kind- plastic surgery to reconstruct his face.
Crooked cops and corrupt politicians, greedy doctors and property developers, inept but screen hog of a TV journalist, affluent men and women who prefers to go under the knife as tribute to their vanity- you get the dark side of sunny Florida. But there are bright spots too. A hermit of a hero who reluctantly gets involved after an attempt in his life. A beautiful TV producer who has to double as a journalist because her idiot of a TV star does not know a thing about investigation. Throw in a couple of honest cops and you have the side that is not quite on the side of angels but would not like to be on the other team either. Your basic good guys.
Uproariously hilarious, this is a vintage Hiaasen piece. A writer's early works are usually choppy- makes perfect sense since we hope that s/he is trying to find his/her voice. But no such case for this one. Looks like Hiaasen knew what he was doing the moment he started writing novels. One can only admire the craft of a writer for so long- but I don't mind stretching out the time. It is definitely worth it.
If you want a funny book that would make you laugh and a story that has suspense, atmosphere, high drama, a little bit of romance and three dimensional characters as well as beautiful Florida in the background, you should give Carl Hiassen a try.
And definitely you should try Skin Tight. I assure you, it is worth the loss of a good night's sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment