Nature Girl

The latest novel by Carl Hiaasen is very familiar to his readers--once again the setting is south Florida (this time it's in the Ten Thousand Islands of the southwest part of the state) and has characters that fall in two categories--the true and good, and the venal, boorish or stupid. The greatest pleasure in his books is that the latter, unlike in life, get punished.

The plot of the book is kicked off when Honey Santana, a resident of Everglades City, gets insulted by a telemarketer. Since she is a woman who has long been on a crusade to try to fight back at those people in the world who are inconsiderate of others, she creates an elaborate scheme to track the man down and lure him to her by promising him a free "ecotour" into the Everglades. Meanwhile, she is being harassed by her ex-boss, who pawed her inappropriately.

Intertwined into this is a second plot involving Sammy Tigertail, a half-Seminole Indian who is hiding out after a passenger on his air boat dies of a heart attack. He ends up hooking up with a college girl and all of the characters, including Honey's ex-husband and son, end up on a place called Dismal Key, where mayhem takes place.

All of this is like snack food to Hiaasen readers, but I must admit that he seemed to be just going through the motions this time. As annoying as telemarketers are, I'm not sure the punishment fits the crime in this case. Regarding the character of Tigertail, he does have some interesting things to say about modern Indians, who are now reaping the benefits of casinos. Tigertail thinks this is selling out, and it's an interesting debate. But the writing is a bit off here, with most of the characters not ringing true (the college girl that latches onto Tigertail seems to be a Penthouse-letter writers' fantasy) and it's very hard to keep track of the comings and goings of everyone during the very long lead up to the climax.

If you are new to Hiaasen, I'd recommend starting more toward the beginning, with Skin Tight, Native Tongue, or Strip Tease. Nature Girl is tepid in comparison, with some mild laughs but not nearly the bite.