Customer Reviews

Dream State: Eight Generations of Swamp Lawyers, Conquistadors, Confederate Daughters, Banana Republicans, and Other Florida Wildlife

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a superb book, fusing political and personal history, official culture and its trashy underside to evoke a state that always manages to be more bizarre and more banal than you thought it was. Among much else, this is the best thing I've read about the great election scandal, and it's right on the nail about alligators, oranges and Miami Vice too. A deeply necessary book for anyone venturing into Florida, and a consolation for those who can't, who may understand it just as fully if they stay at home and read this voluptuously intelligent book.

This book is actually three books in one: A personal family history, a general Florida history, and current Florida event editorials. Overall, it was an enjoyable trip through the anecdotal history of America's most um...culturally diverse state.

Diane Robert's family history is one that most people wish they could write. Going back some 10 generations (she is lucky to be able to trace back that far) for stories. You might as well give up keeping track of all the relations in you mind. As she described it, a written version of her family tree would cover the floor of a small apartment.

When her ancestors were not available during a particularly important point in Florida's history, she provides a description of events that is a stew of fact, anecdote, illustration, and rumor to make it colorful for the reader.

On the downside, when describing current events in business and politics it is clear that her political leaning is Democrat. Even though I may agree with her, this point of view may turn off some more conservative readers. My advice is, get over it, you'll still enjoy the rest of the book.

This was an entertainment read, however, Diane does make one key point at the very end that most of us can learn from, and that is history is written by those it serves. An event may have occurred one way or another or not at all, but the way it is relayed to others will serve the purpose of it's author.

People have been ordained for writing things less divine than this book -- I know, I'm one of them. This visionary, confessional lightning-bolt of a travelogue/history/expose of Florida is enough to make a pan-handler of anyone. I used to be a real bishop before I went freelance, and it's journalism like this that made it worthwhile. I love this book more than I love the anhinguas at Wakullah Springs. Alligator in the water; people back in the boat. Someone should write a book like this about every state in the union -- funny, wry, percipient, luminous, rueful -- and then bomb them all, slowly, and with love. Meanwhile, enjoy the best book about Florida ever written, and squeeze my oranges.

Great book, esecially if you want to learn about the real Florida. I was born and raised here, several generations, and learned many things I never knew, was enlightened about many things I knew a little about, and recieved answers to things I had wondered about for years. I was also disabused of a few misconceptions. It is a very witty and entertaining book. I was sorry when it ended. She gives no slack to anyone, even her relatives, perhaps especially her relatives. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Florida. Carl Hiassen Fans should enjoy it, as a non-fiction tie-in.

This book is simply a must read -- historical and very humourous to boot -- for anyone interested in Florida history from pre-White-People to White-People invading and essentially exterminating the Native Americans to Election 2000 and Election 2002.

Diane is an excellent writer, having regularly -- over the years -- written for the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times and the Florida Flambeau (the now semi-defunct independent newspaper based on the FSU campus, but served the community as a whole). And a commentator on National Public Radio.

Her writing style, content and humour have always been superb. I don't know how better to put it: Read this book!!!!!!! You'll be glad you did!

Martin Dyckman (now retired from the St. Petersburg Times), Rick Flagg, Michael Moline, Michael McClelland and many other journalists worked at the "Flam" at one time or another.

The personal anecdotes and hilarious observations make this a fun read all the way through. If you dislike leftist political humor by people such as Michael Moore, Jon Steward, etc... this book might not appeal to you. If all history books were this funny our kids would not hate social studies classes as much as they do!

Having just read Vanishing Florida by David T. Warner, I was anticipating another look into a native's perspective of old Florida. While Warner's book was engaging, enlightening and entertaining, this one was not. It was mostly a dry historical perspective of the author's family which wasn't that interesting.

I never did like Florida. Reading a book about this place would never have entered my mind, but while visiting a Floridian cousin, she gave me a copy as a going away present. When I eventually got around to it, I found it very enjoyable. It was quite interesting learning about the history of this area, and her writing style drew me in. Perhaps the author's less-than-glowing assessment of Florida is what hooked me, but just the same I read it cover to cover. It left me with more of an impression of what the real Florida is, not just Mouse Land and the Transplant Coasts. Though I'd never, ever want to live there, I enjoyed this book.

The only part of this book worth reading is the first part about the Bush Gore election. After that this was a jumbeled mess. I think the author never quit smoking what she started at Florida High.

Up front let me disclose that I get a heapin' helpin' of Diane via our local paper, where she contributes noisy tirades and rants about Western Civilization in general. So my opinion is biased...against her. Like Diane, my people are from Tallahassee going back to the very beginning, and before that to the Spanish Period at Amelia Island and St.Augustine. And like Diane I descend from the Roberts' Line; so we're probably cousins....as are most people with Tallahassee roots.

Diane's writing reminds me of my father's Aunt Jimmie. Like Diane, she and her heirs protest their association with the Old South (especially slavery) but you couldnt loosen their grip on the inherited silver service and china and crystal that slavery paid for (with dynamite!). Both are proud as hell for descending from aristocrats and money, and both are deluded in believing that anyone takes their protests seriously. I mean, this is what her book is about. On the one hand she asserts her equality & fraternity with the unwashed masses then discloses how she wipes her ass with monogrammed linen. To paraphrase my great-grandmother, herself a Tallahassee belle: Diane, we always love you, but we dont always love how you translate yourself.

Like her newspaper articles, her book is a noisy jumble of loose associations and tangential thoughts.