Customer Reviews

The Florida Keys: A History & Guide

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

She really gives us her unvarnished, informed opinion, and as a result my "expectations have been managed." Along with quite a bit of scathingly critical comments, some of which could be the subject of libel suits it would seem to me (did the publisher's attorneys vet this book?), she tells us about the places and activities she can honestly recommend.

I have another guide written by a local (can't remember her name, but she wrote "Postcards from Paradise"), and although not a chamber of commerce booster book, it is nevertheless more positive than this book. For example, a particular park is described as a littered hangout for druggies and anonymous homosexual trysts by Williams, but given a strong recommendation by the other writer. What is the truth?--I don't know, but I feel better having a range of opinions rather than the tourist bureau party line. And Williams's book is entertaining in itself, even if you're not going there, mixing history and the local antics of the year-round denizens in with the reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions.

I have found this book to be very helpful but I am l waiting on the new edition to come out in June, 2000 before purchasing. The eighth edition is great, however, many chances have occured in Key West since the hurricane in 1998. Many of the older guesthouses have been remodeled.

I travel to the Keys quite often and this is the only guide I use. The 1997 edition was the third edition that I have bought. GREAT BOOK!

Joy Williams is a great fiction writer, someone who sees our culture's absurdities with heart intact. She sees the Keys the same way.

The author used to live in the Keys at least part of the year. She might still. This guide is how a very smart local would see it, and is thus invaluable. It's not a complete listing of every restaurant and every hotel. It's a select listing of just the ones you need bother with and a few references to the ones you need skip. It's a fabulously succinct history and cultural guide. Some of the sentences will make you laugh out loud.

As Joy points out, the future of the Keys is bleak. They're nothing but a bunch of nasty rocks hanging in a beautiful sea anyway. There's not long until builders have squeezed somthing onto every nothing. And as the Everglades die much of the ocean around the Keys does too. Since I've been going there much of the reef has died and remains a bunch of fossilized coral lying on the bottom like scattered bones (pollution and careless boating and scuba diving are much to blame). She's just right when she says that the opening of Cuba would make the Keys a mere depot. Might be the best thing that ever happened to Key West. There would be fewer T-shirt shops perhaps. And how in the heck do they keep building huge hotels in places that used to be water?

Nevertheless, there's no place like it. You should take this book with you when you go.

This book is a well written book first, funny, insightful and at times critical, and then its a guide book. If you only take one book to the Keys take this! You'll learn more about this fascinating part of the world than you could imagine, history, geography, flaura and fauna - but most of all people - from the lawyer, counsellor B who jumped off the tower of the Holiday Inn in Key West, and henceforth remembered as No Bungee B to the many writers who have lived there: Hemingway, tennessee Williams, etc. Its my all time favourite:- and I live in England!!

My first visit to the Keys was in 1985 and it sure has changed in the last 14 years. Williams paints a pretty poor picture for the future of the Keys, but her gloom is overshadowed by the humorous insite and historical events she describes. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book but wish she shared a bit more about the "off the beaten path" places to explore. What a great book...I've read it twice and refer to it whenever I'm down there.

I enjoyed the author's comments about the Keys very much. I felt that she was a just a tad too cynical or negative at times for my tastes, but on a second read, liked her approach even better than on my first read. Passages were so amusing that my boyfriend and I read them out loud to each other. The picture she paints for the future of the keys is a slightly depressing one, but more than likely realistic. I sincerely hope that on some points, her predictions are off. I truly enjoyed the details of the book and have an appreciation not only for the Keys that I didn't have before, but also for the author and her writing style as well.

Read a three year old version last year before we went down to the Keys. It was so detailed that when we went to different places I knew what they looked like before we got there. I now have this new and better issue and I have really enjoyed it. We are on our way to the Keys again! A must to have!!!!!!

Joy Williams is a great fiction writer, someone who sees our culture's absurdities with heart intact. She sees the Keys the same way.

The author used to live in the Keys at least part of the year. She might still. This guide is how a very smart local would see it, and is thus invaluable. It's not a complete listing of every restaurant and every hotel. It's a select listing of just the ones you need bother with and a few references to the ones you need skip. It's a fabulously succinct history and cultural guide. Some of the sentences will make you laugh out loud.

As Joy points out, the future of the Keys is bleak. They're nothing but a bunch of nasty rocks hanging in a beautiful sea anyway. There's not long until builders have squeezed somthing onto every nothing. And as the Everglades die much of the ocean around the Keys does too. Since I've been going there much of the reef has died and remains a bunch of fossilized coral lying on the bottom like scattered bones (pollution and careless boating and scuba diving are much to blame). She's just right when she says that the opening of Cuba would make the Keys a mere depot. Might be the best thing that ever happened to Key West. There would be fewer T-shirt shops perhaps. And how in the heck do they keep building huge hotels in places that used to be water?

Nevertheless, there's no place like it. You should take this book with you when you go.

This book gives you the ins and outs of the keys along with great history tidbits. I look forward to going to the keys this summer and finding the points of interest discussed in this book. A definate yes!

This book should be considered a well-crafted novel with the Keys as its characters. It can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates good writing regardless of whether or not they plan to visit the Keys.

That said, it also contains a wealth of practical information for the discriminating visitor.