Star Island

Carl Hiasen's latest gleeful romp through the dark underbelly of South Florida is Star Island, named for the enclave of celebrity homes in Miami Beach. Hiaasen, who writes these novels about the venal and stupid that rape the land and collectively bring down the I.Q.s of Americans, takes a dim but hilarious view of scoundrels, and uses a handful of upright characters to see good triumph, which so rarely happens in real life.

The fish in the barrel of Star Island are particularly easy targets: paparazzi, talentless fame whores, and the ethically bankrupt real estate developers, who Hiaasen specializes in. His main characters are "Bang" Abbot, a loathsome paparrazo who has an obsession with a singer, Cherry Pye, who bears more than a striking resemblance to some unfortunate young women of today, such as Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. Hiaasen takes particular delight telling us how lousy a singer Cherry is, and what a promiscuous drug fiend she is, but there's also a certain empathy for her, as the real villains are her greedy parents, publicists. and record company executives, who care more about her image than her health.

Abbott is Hiaasen's insight into the sordid world of the paparazzi. He managed to win a Pulitzer Prize, though by ethically dim methods, and now rarely bathes and has no compunction about the havoc he wreaks on people's lives. He conspires to kidnap Cherry so he can get a photo shoot with her, which he is sure will make him famous. Instead he manages to kidnap her double, a struggling actress named Anna DeLuisa, who is the book's morally courageous heroine. She, by happenstance, has made a friend in Skink, a recurring Hiassen character, the former governor of Florida who had a nervous breakdown and has lived off the land in the mangrove swamps for over 20 years.

Another returning character is Chemo, a bodyguard and hit man who first appeared in Skin Tight. He has a damaged face from a chemical peel gone wrong, and after a barracuda bit off his arm, a prosthetic weed whacker attached to his stub. Chemo, after getting out of jail, went into real estate. He has little sympathy for anyone, but has occasional glimpses into humanity: "Remorseless by nature, he nevertheless found himself thinking of all the poor fuckers he'd conned into buying ARMS--now shattered and broke, their only sin trying to score a decent house for their families. The all-American dream! And here's some dumb chick with a voice that sounds like a sackful of starving kittens--filthy rich, and about to get richer. So much for divine order, Chemo thought bitterly."

Hiaasen essentially has written the same novel several times, but that doesn't lessen my enjoyment of them. Characters always have some weird twist--Cherry's publicists are fraternal twins who had plastic surgery to make themselves look alike (Hiaasen has a particular fondness for extravagant plastic surgery--he once had models who were cut to look like Barbie dolls). Even extremely minor characters get backstories, like an NBA player who has a problem crashing Jaguars and pulled his groin not on the court but having sex with his realtor on a diving board.

The most satisfying thing about Hiaasen is his humorous sense of outrage, and that there is the divine order that Chemo is looking for. In Hiaasen's universe, justice is served. For example, Skink strikes out at a corrupt real estate developer by shoving a sea urchin down his pants, which results in some very bloated and painful testicles.