Summer Reads '13 continues with fun & guns in the sun. Because nothing says summer quite like a white supremacist getting high off pepper spray after being stranded in the Florida Keys.I picked this up after reading Adam Gopnik's article in the New Yorker about the rise of Florida crime fiction: "In the Florida novel, moralizing or minimalist, weather matters most. As one Florida crime writer suggests, in Steve Glassman's fine study-cum-interview collection, "Florida Crime Writers", when you have two characters together in a Florida book you really have three: a man, a woman, and the weather.""Weather matters most"! I needed no further persuasion. My reading moods, much to the amusement and mockery of so-called "friends", are entirely guided by a concept that might be thought of as pathetic fallacy: I want my books to reflect the weather. When it's summer, I want to read about sunny climes aka NO RUSSIAN MASTERS. Anyway, up until now, the closest thing I've gotten to the genre was reading Dave Barry's utterly forgettable "Tricky Business" out of some misguided sense of loyalty formed from having read his syndicated column since childhood. Thankfully, I found "Lucky You", which was written by Carl Hiaasen (also a Miami reporter like Barry) to be much more enjoyable. Lucky me!The novel follows the misadventures of two white supremacists who have just won the Florida lottery but can't leave well enough alone. The rednecks, who are shoo-ins for winners of the Darwin Awards, can't bear the idea of sharing the $28 million prize with a third winner, who turns out to be a black woman named JoLayne Lucks (cue groans) and they set out on a truly pointless mission to rob her of her uncashed ticket. The rednecks are a dangerous combination of stupid, incompetent, and paranoid (they've stockpiled a cache of machine guns to protect AmeriKKKa) but JoLayne isn't the type of person to give up easily and she subsequently teams up with an ex-reporter to get her ticket back.There's a lot to like about this book. The bad guys are a blast to read about; they're idiots of mind-blowing proportions. They use stolen Visa cards (which can obviously be tracked) to eat at Hooters...multiple days in a row. They discuss various conspiracy theories, one of which involves NATO stormtroopers planning to invade the U.S. from their base in the Bahamas. Hiaasen, writing in a wry, fast-moving prose, completely nails these two losers.Unfortunately, the heroes are less interesting (my favorite character ended up being a level-headed Hooters waitress). JoLayne is a pretty great character, alternatively tough and charming, but she's also clearly being written by a white dude who's not entirely sure how to handle all the race stuff. The ex-reporter, Tom Krome, is utterly boring and reeks of wish fulfillment from Hiassen's end (good looking reporter with a shitty editor! Wants to do real reporting, not just fluff pieces!) I actually preferred Krome's hapless editor, who is involved in a weird suplot involving turtles and JoLayne's hometown of Grange, a town where everyone is hustling in the miracle business (e.g. creating road oil stains of Jesus Christ). The novel goes on too long, branching off into dozens of increasingly annoying subplots involving mob bosses and ex-wives.
This was a fun and laugh-out-loud book populated with plenty of 'characters'. I have only been to Florida once, so I can't comment on the veracity of this portrayal of Floridians, but I can't see how someone can make up this kind of weirdness without a grain of truth behind it all. Under the levity, there is a very serious undercurrent. Two white supremacists who are so busy blaming blacks, Jews, Hispanics, gays, and other undesirables can't look in the mirror and see that they certainly could do much better at being upstanding citizens themselves. Everyone else is a scapegoat for the disappointments they have with life, and never can they take responsibility for their own lives. While I found their antics funny, there is a part of me that was really dismayed at the intensity of their hatred for people who didn't look like them or live their lives their way. Most importantly, hatred for manufactured reasons that make no sense. As unlikable as Bode and Chubb were, I really liked JoLayne and Tom, although they were no less quirky. JoLayne is an animal-loving vet tech with a history of bad romantic choices that she leverages as a lottery win by playing her age at which she broke up with each one every week. Tom has spent four years trying to divorce his wife who has been evading him because she doesn't want to be a divorcee. Tom gets sent to a small town to investigate the lottery win and ends up volunteering to help JoLayne to get her lottery ticket back.The romance was well-integrated into the story. It starts out as respect and friendship and a romantic entanglement progresses sensibly. Along with the romance, this was a fun sort of caper, on-the-road read as JoLayne and Tom pursue the fellows who have beaten her up and stolen her lottery ticket, as well as wreaking havoc across the state of Florida. Hiaasen gives the reader some really strange characters, and along the way, I found myself getting sucked into this story, rooting for JoLayne and Tom, scratching my head over the psychology of such flagrant bigotry as evidenced by Chub and Bode, and enjoying the Florida local color.I've read another book by Hiaasen, but it was a long time ago. I'm glad that this book reminded me to add him to my roster of authors to pick up in my reading adventures.
What do You think about Lucky You (1999)?
JoLayne Lucks stops by the Grab'n'Go to play the same numbers she's played every week for five years. Each lotto number marking the age at which she dumped a tiresome lover.....well they finally come good for her & she wins the jackpot! Unluckily for her she's not the only winner that week & the prize is to be shared with Bode Gazzer & Chub who aren't prepared to share! Cue some mad cap antics after Bode & Gazzer steal JoLayne's winning ticket but JoLayne's not the kind of gal to give in easily & hits the trail after them. Helping this damsel in distress is journalist Tom Krome, who has problems of his own. He's desperately trying to divorce his estranged wife but she's doing her best to avoid being served. Tom's ex-girlfriend has decided to confess their affair to her jealous husband & he has his own plans for Tom. Throw into the mix Bode & Chub's military plans, a hooters waitress & some holy turtles & you get the amusingly absurd "crime" tale that Hiaasen excels at. While I didn't laugh out loud I will admit to one or two (rather unladylike) snorts - great fun ;o)
—Plum-crazy
Unbelievable characters. Out-of-this-world relationships. Fictitious fiction. Farcical, funny, sophisticated. All such adjectives have been and are used to describe Carl Hiassen's books. All are accurate. This author continues to produce unique, and very entertaining novels. Never mind that most of us have never met, don't know, and never will meet people like those who swirl through the pages of this novel. Yet, most of us can point to specific traits in certain individuals we do know which are identical, or closely parallel, those of each of Hiaasen's characters. That is just one of the high levels of intelligence on which this novel exists. In Florida, JoLayne Lucks wins the lottery. She holds one of two winning tickets for a $28 million pot. The other ticket is held by a couple of dim miscreants who don't wish to share the pot. When JoLayne is robbed of her ticket, she turns for help to a newspaperman, the most ordinary of characters in a novel filled with odd and unusual characters. Thus begins a saga that takes these miss-matched protagonists from one end of Florida to the other. Along the way, we are invited to sample just about every good or evil aspect of life that Florida has to offer. A fine, wonderful, novel that will hold readers attention from first to last, and is so richly textured as to invite more than one re-reading.
—Carl Brookins
This was a hilarious read! What do you get when you cross a street smart woman, a savy(if a bit burned out reporter) with a couple of bumbling, obnoxious self-subscribed Aryans? Chaos! JoLayne Lucks, just won the Florida lottery. Now she has just got to hang on to the ticket long enough to claim the winnings. Chub and Bode has won the same lottery and set off on a madcap adventure with plenty of beer filled episodes to ensure that they are the only ones to claim the ticket. Tom our erst-while reporter has his own problems, he has agreed to help Jolayne, but he also has an exwife that refuses to be served divorce papers and an ex-lover's husband that is determined that he should pay the ultimate price for being the better lover. Trust me, if you need a laugh this book will provide it and you will never look at bicycle tire patches and unicorns in quite the same manner. Pure awesomeness!
—Keri
