Fever Beach: A Novel; Carl Hiaasen, author; Will Damron narrator
After listening to only about 15 minutes of the book, I recommended it to a friend, however, after continuing to listen for almost two hours of it, I was sorry I had. I simply had to abandon it. The brand of humor, for me, is neither laugh out loud or even chuckle a little. It is sarcastic and feels like it would be insulting to anyone who is not progressive or on the extreme left of left, as it mocks every right-wing or conservative subject it brings up. Everyone on the right is painted as pretty much a white supremacist who is ignorant, dishonest and sows discord. The vocabulary tends to the profane. It made me cringe. Perhaps the author really believes that those on the right are obsessed with obscenity; I do not, so I am not comfortable reading this, even as a spoof. It does not seem to be satire or burlesque, but instead seems disdainful and supercilious. Even if it continued and then mocked both sides equally, the vulgarity and writing style alienates me. If this is your cup of tea, by all means read it.
Briefly, from what I read, the novel takes place in Florida. The main character, Dale Figgo, puts on airs, acts like a big shot with a nasty mouth. He uses foul language to appear strong, excuses his erratic and violent behavior, can’t spell and often mispronounces words attempting to sound smarter than he is. He is generally presented as a weak kneed, immature young man afraid of his own mother, as well. He was rejected by white supremacist organizations, like the Proud Boys, because of the things he did, but he continues to hate Jews, Blacks, etc., likes the Nazis, and would love to start a civil war. He rents a room to a recently divorced Hispanic woman, Viva Morales, who tattles on him to his mother. She works for his mother who works for a company called the Mink Foundation. They fund Congressman Clure Boyette’s latest scheme. When Viva meets the Congressman, he patronizes her, marveling that she speaks English so well, to which she replies that her family has been in the country for generations. On her plane flight to Florida, she sat next to the independently wealthy Twilly Spree. He tracks her down through the New Yorker magazine she left behind. He wants to apologize for pretending to be an author when she mistook him for one. He had been trying to engage her in conversation, and she had replied rudely to him. She was in no mood to speak to him because she had recently been divorced and had basically been cleaned out by her disreputable husband. However, when Twilly calls her, she practically invites him on a date over his protestations.
Congressman Clure Boyette supposedly supports right wing causes, but he hypocritically lives a different kind of life. He is unfaithful to his wife, as well. When he meets with Figgo, in a kind of illicit Asian massage parlor, where both use the same woman as a masseuse, who is neither Asian nor licensed, they chat. He encourages Figgo to start his own right-wing organization and says he will promote him and funnel money to him from his own organization, an organization that funds his schemes. He gets the ill-gotten gains from his pompous wealthy supporters. The Mink Foundation is one of them. The latest scheme of the Congressman involves a real estate deal that will use child labor by taking advantage of the grey areas of our legal system. He will grow richer. Dale Figgo took the Congressman’s advice and money and gathered a group of miscreants to form the white supremacist group called the Strokers for Liberty.
Figgo busies himself disseminating hateful flyers and posters with his hateful right-wing, white supremacist messages. One day he picks up a hitchhiker and physically attacks him for no apparent reason. He then engages him to help pass out the heinous and hateful messages in his car. The messages share their space with a sex toy, a blow-up bottom half of a woman. Figgo works for the company boxing these toys. When an old man objecting to his flyers approaches his car, he drives into him when his bear spray can is empty. He then leaves the scene without calling for help for the wounded man. The hitchhiker is horrified. He escapes and calls 911 using a priest’s phone to report the accident. He does not want to be traced.
Enough said, I think you get the picture, it can only get even more confusing and possibly more outrageous for me, but for others it might be more engaging.