Customer Reviews

Gator A-Go-Go: A Novel

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Beyond the pristine confines of Disney World lies a strange land of steamy tropical heat and mayhem known as Florida. Florida is known for alligators and funny writers who also bite. Tim Dorsey, like Carl Hiaasen, writes wickedly funny novels.

This one involves the witness protection program, a group of students on spring break, and a criminal family headed by Madre which contains her favorite "son" Guillermo. No mother ever a had a more polite psychopathic murderer in the family. The criminals are after one of the college students and the FBI is after the criminals.

With an informant in the ranks on either side, it looks like a toss up as to which will win and the only certain losers are innocent bystanders who become the collateral damage of this conflict.

The wild card in this gamblers deck is Serge A. Storm, a psychopath of many talents and his untrustworthy sidekick, Coleman. Coleman has only one talent but it is a huge one: the man knows how to party and parties without a safety net.

When he is not inventing Rube Goldberg contraptions to slaughter people who have ticked him off, like the guy who honks in traffic or the dude who does not stop for school buses, Serge is filming a documentary on that great Florida tradition, spring break. Naturally he falls in with the college students who are being stalked by the crooks and takes matters into his own hands, executing (in every sense of that word) vigilante justice.

It's bad, gruesome and wickedly funny. I downgrade from five stars to four partly because the beginning with numerous abrupt scene and time shifts was hard to follow but mainly because of the scene involving Serge's Garage-Door Guillotine device. That's a pretty nasty thing for an innocent homeowner to come home to...this book is only recommended if you think THAT type of violence could be funny. If you do, you're probably a) from Florida or b) twisted by modern civilization. I like this book. I don't like that I like it, but maybe the point is: it made me laugh a lot, for a long time and like I haven't laughed since I was kid laughing at the jokes that adults disapprove of.

Pick up a book by Tim Dorsey and you immediately start to share it with those around you. You probably don't share the plot, characters, or dialog, but by laughing out loud, you are allowing others to share in the craziness of the book. Gator A-Go-Go, the latest novel from the mind of Tim Dorsey, takes the reader on a historical tour of Spring Break in Florida with the most unusual tour guide, serial killer Serge A. Storm and his faithful, inebriated sidekick, Coleman.

Every year, students flock to Florida for that rite of passage known as Spring Break. Among the hundreds of thousands of students, Serge arrives in Panama City to film his documentary on Spring Break. Also in Panama City is a group of killers looking for one particular student and the FBI, attempting to protect the student. Through a series of wonderful coincidences, the student, and his friends, fall in with Serge and Coleman. Traveling with Serge, the student is as safe as he can be. Although just being with Serge tries your sanity and patience. Coleman, usually outside of his element in most of Serge's adventures, finds his place in life. What is better for a hard core party animal like Coleman than Spring Break? He is totally in love with all things Spring Break and reaches mythical status with the college students as he shares his secrets of hard core partying. The backdrop of Spring Break also provides ample opportunity for Serge's particular, and peculiar, brand of justice.

Gator A-Go-Go is a departure from Dorsey's previous Serge novels. For one, he brings Coleman to the forefront in much of the novel. Usually used for (more) comic relief, Coleman is presented much more in this novel, providing the reader with a much better character than in past novels. While he is still very much drunk or stoned (or both), seeing him interact with the students provided the reader with another side to him. He is not just a drunk or stoner, he is actually articulate and extremely knowledgeable. Although his area of expertise is not a popular one in the general population, when he is surrounded by the right crowd, he really comes alive. The other area where this novel differs from previous Dorsey novels is in the relationship Serge has with his younger charges. They do not know much of him, and he does scare them with what we see as "normal" Serge, he is fiercely protective of the people in his entourage. It comes as a surprise to the reader to see this aspect of Serge's character. Usually, Dorsey presents Serge as disengaged from most aspects of his environment. In this novel, Serge is much more focused on the safety of the students, and, when he realizes the reason for the attention of the FBI and the killers, he makes it his mission to resolve the problem. While this novel stays within Dorsey's successful formula, regular readers should find it a much more enjoyable novel due to his characterization of Coleman and Serge. Of all of his novels, Gator A-Go-Go is probably his best for long time readers and an excellent introduction for new ones.

After a Miami crime gang ruins his Spring Break by targeting a snitch's son, Serge A. Storms and his equally drug-addled and alcohol besotted best friend, Coleman, aim to track down the gang members and take them out while doing a springbreak travelogue.
I've read all of Tim Dorsey's novels and loved every one of them. More laugh-out-loud hilarious romps than any other author I've come across. inane humor and some graphic violence, wrapped up in some weird and original plots that come together perfectly in the end, make this one of the most entertaining talents I look forward to reading. Awesome. Keep it up.

Given the sheer number of novels satirizing the state of Florida, it must be even stranger down there than is here in New Jersey. Dorsey's series as built around the characters Serge and Coleman. The former is a serial killer in the Dexter mold (that Florida thing again!) He only kills people who "deserve it," and the latter a perpetually stoned sidekick. Together they traverse length and breadth of the state, exploring the state's trivia and expunging a few crooks in the process. This book is centered around the yearly migration of students to Florida's beaches for spring break, a ritual that is certainly ripe for ridicule, like the "bennies" that decamp to the Jersey shore during the summertime. While is could be stated that he is only going for the low hanging fruit, the book does move briskly and those who aren't put off by a nonchalant attitude toward violence may find a few laughs.

I'm a big fan of Carl Hiassen, but never read anything from Tim Dorsey, even though he's always popping up in my recommendations. Got Gator a Go Go, and wasn't sure at first. It seemed kind of gruesome and there were a lot of different storylines going on that I couldn't quite keep straight. Kids in New Hampshire going on spring break. Some guy who does parking lot surveillance in Massachusetts. A girl getting kidnapped. Spring training in florida. Another guy, Serge, who seems to be a bad guy, but is kind of funny so can't be all that bad, making a documentary on the history of spring break in florida, and in his spare time he seems to be thinking up imaginative ways to kill people who don't pull over for fire trucks. A producer filming Girl Gone Haywire at Spring Break. Then there's Madre, who seems to be running some kind of crime ring, and her kids, who go around killing people in less imaginative ways than Serge.

After the first few chapters I swore I needed some kind of cliffs notes to keep everybody straight.

But somehow, over the next 300 pages, the stories all come together. And how they come together is where all the fun, suspense, and action is. Honestly, I woke up two hours early this morning just to finish this book because I knew I wasn't going to be able to get through the day not knowing who was good, who was bad, and how it ended.

Oh, and it's supremely funny, and the humor just comes out of the blue and catches you completely off guard. I snorted more than a few times.

Highly recommended if you like mysteries, laughing, weird characters, tons of storylines, and double-crossing informants.

Heather Teysko
Creator of the Renaissance English History Podcast
[...]

This series i think has been taken as far as it can go. I know the publisher will not let the author right a book without Serge and Colman, and that is too bad. All of the laughs are gone from this series and all we are left with is familiar characters do what they have done in all the other books. Unfortunately it is not only not funny anymore, it is not even entertaining.
I would recomend you skip this book and start at the beginning with Florida Roadkill, and stop at Atomic Lobster.
Tim, please write about something other than Serge and Colman. Don't be the last to know when it is time to hang it up (HELLO JIMMMY BUFFET I WONDER IF YOU ARE LISTENING)!

I have been curious about this series of Tim Dorsey novels for quite some time. They always have such wonderful titles, interesting covers, and unique descriptions. But somehow, I just never got around to reading them. So when GATOR-A-GO-GO became available, I immediately grabbed it. And I am really glad that I did. Although it was a rough start, I am glad I persevered. GATOR-A-GO-GO is twisted, madcap mayhem from start to finish.

GATOR-A-GO-GO is the latest in an apparently long line of novels featuring Serge A. Storms, a loveable, psychotic killer and his perpetually high sidekick, Coleman. This time, they are loading up their classic Dodge Charger with video cameras and doing Spring Break. Serge, a lover of all things Floridian, has decided to make a documentary of the history of Spring Break, traveling from Panama City, the current Spring Break hot spot, back in time to Dayton Beach, and then Fort Lauderdale, the cradle of it all. As he travels the Florida hot spots, Serge provides nonstop, whiplash lessons in Florida history, while meting out his own outlandish and deadly brand of justice...but only to those who deserve it. Along the way, Serge actually saves lives, protects Florida landmarks, and has a rollicking good time doing it all.

If you have never read a previous Serge A. Storms novel (as I have not), you will find GATOR-A-GO-GO a bit hard to get into. At a breakneck pace, the author throws out multiple story threads, in both the past and the present, in multiple parts of the country, with multiple characters. It is very difficult to figure out who is who, what it what, and who is doing what to whom. However, if you can hang on and get past these first few chapters, GATOR-A-GO-GO eventually settles down, and takes you on red hot, wide-eyed, ROTFLMAO journey. I am going to guess that if you start earlier in the series then it will make sense faster, but I really have no idea. (I DO intend to find out, however.) GATOR-A-GO-GO is shockingly hilarious, wonderfully irreverent, and quite a riot. Hysterically naughty!

I have to say, GATOR-A-GO-GO has me hooked. I will most definitely be looking for Serge A. Storms novels, both past and future. A crazy, loveable psychopath with a strict moral code and a bizarre sense of justice. FUN!

For those who like their crime novels wild. wacky, peopled with outre characters, and laugh-out-loud funny, stand in line for GATOR A-GO-GO. Tim Dorsey's at it again with his inimitable take on farce and zingy one-liners as he relates the latest adventures of Serge Storm. Now, if you thought Spring Break in Florida could be riotous just wait until Serge joins in.
This is Serge's 12th starring role in Dorsey's books - an unlikely hero if there ever was one. Highly intelligent? Yes. Quirky? To the max. A killer? Unfortunately the answer is in the affirmative - completely losing it when someone honks incessantly after he pulls onto the road shoulder for an emergency vehicle.

Nonetheless, this time out he's making a film about Spring Break so, of course, he has to do some research. At the wheel of his `73 challenger Serge (with Coleman in tow) is headed for Panama City Beach. Once there he'll find a gaggle of college kids bent on a bacchanalia, including Andy McKenna, the object of an FBI search and in the cross hairs of a Miami crime gang's gun because his father, a former gang member, entered a witness protection program. At the head of the crime gang is Juanita, called Madre by all. She's a maternal figure in a red and white checkered apron "slightly plump at sixty, hair always up in a tall, dark bun with streaks of gray." Her prowess with an electric carving knife is something else.

Now, we've all heard of guardian angels and Andy certainly needed one. But Serge? Yep, Serge makes himself the guardian of Andy and other like minded young fellows, which is where the real fun begins.

More merry mayhem from Dorsey - enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

GATOR A-GO-GO couldn't come at a better time. It's January, temperatures are barely breaking the single digits, the sun is but a memory, and the front yard is buried under snow --- even in Louisiana. That means it's time for another Serge A. Storm tale from Tim Dorsey.

Serge A. Storm is fiction's most likable and prolific serial killer. His stomping grounds are the square miles inside the boundaries of the State of Florida, the land he passionately loves. His targets consist of the rude, the obnoxious, and those who would otherwise despoil his beloved state. And his methods of execution --- well, I'm not even going to attempt to describe how he does it. Suffice to say that his devices never fail to be lethal and always give the victim a (slim) chance to escape alive, if not unscathed. Coleman, Serge's sidekick, is a hoot as well, always in search of the ultimate high as a counterpoint to Serge's strict sobriety.

GATOR A-GO-GO finds Serge attempting to film a documentary about everything. Yes, everything. Fortunately, he maintains focus just enough to concentrate on the American ritual known as Spring Break. Part of the attraction of these novels has always been Dorsey's penchant for incorporating factoids about the Sunshine State into the storyline. He continues the practice full-tilt in GATOR A-GO-GO, including the how, where and why of how Spring Break began and the changes in locale it has experienced over the course of the decades, as well as a clear-headed (or not so much) look at the flora and fauna populating the beaches. But the party doesn't really begin until Serge and Coleman show up. When they do, they cross paths with a group of college students from New Hampshire, one of whom is being hunted by a crime gang.

Andy McKenna was barely five years old when his family was taken into the witness protection program; now, with their cover suddenly and irretrievably blown by an act of kindness, the crime gang that should have been brought down by the elder McKenna's testimony is out for revenge. At first, Andy is blissfully unaware that anyone is after him; when he learns he is being pursued, he doesn't know who to trust. Never fear --- he is now under the protection of Serge A. Storm.

Darkly and wonderfully hilarious, GATOR A-GO-GO functions not only as an emotional respite following a session of snow shoveling but also as a triptych for things to see and places to go in Florida, both on and off the beaten path. And if you have sampled Dorsey's work before and perhaps found it a bit too manic, you should check out this book. While it remains Dorsey's wont to jump around a bit chaotically at the beginning of his tales, he has continued the practice, instituted a couple of novels ago, of (barely) reining himself in, so that the plots, once and always convoluted and over the top, are a bit easier to follow and much more enjoyable. And for added fun, GATOR A-GO-GO is --- believe it or not --- a flip book: you can watch an alligator at the bottom of the page slowly rise up and devour the title repeatedly as the book progresses.

Oh, and that Florida trivia. In addition to everything you wanted to know about Spring Break, GATOR A-GO-GO also contains the secret of what got which Florida rock music icon on the path to stardom, a wink and a nod to various movies filmed, and --- most significantly of all --- reveals the source that Serge utilizes for all his obscure Florida information. You're going to have to read the book to find out what it is, but I'll warn you in advance that its website is a real time bandit.

Anyone who has ever stepped foot in Florida, either on an interminable family vacation or in the drunken haze between college semesters, will love GATOR A-GO-GO. It's the best of Dorsey's lot thus far. Go for it.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

This is a comfort book-one of those that you can just sink into and let go of life. Perfect when you need to hide from the world.

Serge and Coleman are insane, possibly offensive and truly live in their own demented world.