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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh Out Loud Hilarious! I read it twice!, June 27, 2000
Tim Dorsey's "Florida Roadkill" is hands down, without a doubt, one of the funniest novels I've read in years! I was laughing by page two! The narrative is fast-paced and top notch. The plot is devilishly multi-layered and engaging. Mr. Dorsey populates his delightfully demented Floridian world with the most whacked out collection of loonies ever assembled. Serge A. Storms is a character that readers will remember for some time. Mentally unbalanced and a font of trivial pursuit-esque knowledge. Coleman, Serge's sidekick, is a whack-a-loon of the highest caliber. There's a seen involving Coleman, an almost successful bank robbery and a poorly hidden dye-pack that had me laughing till my sides hurt. Clearly a scene that could easily be adapted for the big screen by the Farrelly brothers! The supporting cast of nut-jobs really flesh this novel out! To name but only a few....Sharon Rhodes. Johnny Vegas. The Riders of Eternal Doom, Sunshine Chapter. Fred McJagger and his beleaguered residents of Vista Isles. Mo Grenadine. And let's not forget the world's worst drug cartel! Throw into this mix a suitcase with $5 million in cash and you get a novel that's some bizarre emulsion of a Monty Python sketch, Clerks, Pulp Fiction and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"! The inference that this novel is remiscent of Hiaasen is a very nice sentiment and well deserved. However, Tim Dorsey is a writer of his own unqiue style of prose and humor. I EAGERLY await "Hammerhead Ranch Motel"!
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dam* good and very funny..., October 16, 2001
To those who think Tim Dorsey isn't in the same league as Hiaasen, Shames or Leonard and the rest of the ilk....I think you need to seriously develop some taste. You want to talk about "borrowing" from Hiaasen? Then read "Big Trouble" by Dave Barry. As much as I love Hiaasen, and have read almost every one of his books, his approach thesedays is so extremely color-by-the-numbers, that you can see what's coming from about 20 miles away. Dorsey stands on his own and he does it incredibly well. With nods of the head to Hiaasen and even Barry (they do a "cameo" in this book), this book is its own creation. It owes very little to the other authors. This book has many twists and turns, and it's fantastic to see how these characters get what's coming to them. There are many times that what is going on in the story is just laugh-out-loud funny. Contrary to some of the short-attention-span readers below, you DO care what happens to these characters. They DO come to life and make you feel as if you almost know them. Having lived in Tampa, as well as South Florida before, maybe this is a humor that is best appreciated by Florida folks. Maybe there's something that's lost in the translation on its way to other states (Virginia and Oregon, I'm looking in your direction.) A word of "caution" I suppose is in order. Not to give away the ending of this book, but, it just ends. It ends with an old-fashioned radio program ending such as: "Will our hero escape the death trap?" or "What will become of?" Yes, no perfect-wrap-it-up-in-a-pretty-bow style "EPILOGUE" endings so famous with Hiaasen and ripped off by Barry and Shames. Perhaps some kudos are in order for creative marketing skills, I don't really know. Having said that about the ending, the story continues and is picked back up in "Hammerhead Ranch Motel." So, my advice, buy both of these books to get the complete tale, or you will be just left wondering. You want some Florida authors that make Hiaasen (again, even as much as I love him), Shames, Barry, and Dorsey, seem like school children? Look into James W. Hall and Randy Wayne White. They are truly gifted and epitomize literary skill. If overall wackiness is your genre, look further into anything by Christopher Moore. Enjoy it for good writing, great humor, and a entertaining story. If you're constantly reading line by line, looking for things similar to other authors, get a life. You have far too much time on your hands if that's the case. If it is the case, think about this, someone (and I won't name names) said that all fiction is styled directly from "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." Put that in your pseudo-intellectual pipe and smoke it.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It took a while..., August 1, 2008
This review is from: Florida Roadkill: A Novel (Paperback)
...for me to finally get into this story. Having read only one Hiaasen book which was too miserable to remember I had sworn off the Florida Fiction genre forever. Then I discovered Laurence Shames. His tales, while somewhat over the top at least provided a cast of characters that one could relate to. When I came across Dorsey after completing the Shames catalog, I figured why not? The prologue; a number of disjointed scenes without explanation was a great way to lure the reader in, fast paced, all action. Why were these characters thrown into such outlandish situations? What was the common thread that joined them together? Obviously the answers would come in the chapters ahead. The unfortunate part for me was that most of these characters were more like caricatures. Everything about them was so bizzarely ridiculous, yet shortly after the halfway point everything suddenly fell into place, starting with four latin thugs holding a corporate office hostage in search of the CEO who has indirectly absconded with a hefty sum of their money. Rather than quaking in fear, the hostages assault them with questions. >> One of the employees raised his hand. "This isn't school! We don't take questions." "How do you smuggle cocaine?" "I saw it in the papers that they call you the Keystone Cartel" "Do you Hide it in your underwear?" "Do you swallow balloons with tiny strings that come up your throat and are tied to your back teeth?" "You should get a running start and run right up to the border and throw it really hard." The leader raised his arms to get the room's attention. "OK we gotta leave now. Nobody move...and count to ten thousand. What's that state you say to count slow?" "Mississippi," One of them answered. "Mississippi, that's it. Let me hear all of you." The staff: "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi" The Mierda cartel sprinted for the elevators. It was here when I realized this story echoed one of my favorite movies of all time; "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," the tale of a bunch of unlikely characters all in search of a fortune that doesn't belong to them. Florida Roadkill primarily revovlves around Serge A. Storms; a psychopathic killer who has stopped his medication. His obsession with Florida history is both heartwarming and captivating. Dorsey has a way of intertwining what I assume are real historical facts that are fascinating while letting this yarn spin completely out of control. By the end of the book, you're out of breath both from the chase and laughing so hard, you can't wait to get to the next installment. Stick with it. The payoff(?) is well worth it.
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