Customer Reviews

Hot Damn!: Alligators in the Casino, Nude Women in the Grass, How Seashells Changed the Course of History, and Other Dispatches from Paradise

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

 

 

Mid-afternoon yesterday UPS brought me my latest Amazon order.
On top was Dr. Hall's "Hot Damn!"

I devoured it in two sessions.

These thirty-nine essays are insightful, poignant, thoughtful, humorous, heartfelt and a joy to read.

The compositions are such a delight that I will now go back and savor a couple of them daily. Each one is most relatable on a multitude of levels.

You do not have to be Floridian to enjoy these essays---but if you are, many strike a most responsive chord.

Seldom do I stray from the mystery/thriller genre, but like "Seabiscuit," "Hot Damn!" reads like a novel.

"The Hardy Boys" chapter alone is worth the price of admission.

This is exhilerating writing that makes you feel good. Do not miss it.

Hot Damn!

This man can write. He can write fiction and he can write about Florida. These 39 essays are the superb refections of an interesting mind at work, at play and once, afraid for someone he loves. If you remember and liked John Kennedy's statement about how close the chemistry of our blood is to sea water then you will love Hall's "We swim in the amniotic fluids of our earth, as we swam so long ago like blind fish in the womb." (From Touchy Feely)
I like his crime novels. But if you like Florida, particularly the Florida Keys, or evocative writing, or walking with an exceptionlly observant mind through interesting times, then you will appreciate this book of essays.

As per the intro the author says these are a collection of several years worth of essays he wrote for the Miami Herald and Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. They are enjoyable and provoking -running the gamut from outrage to tender reflections. My favorites were the ones on addiction to TV news and the boat trip out to the strange redneck island past Sanibel-Captiva Islands. To paraphrase John D. MacDonald - some Good Old Stuff.

There is at least one essay here that will move you. At least one will make you laugh. And many more where the pages fly. It is always interesting to find a different work by an author you admire. Time well spent and enjoyed. And a promise to be at a book signing if one is in my neighborhood.

My relatively low rating refers strictly to the marketing methods used to promote this book. The title and blurbs suggest this is a collection of wild tales from freaky Florida. They are actually touching and thoughtful, even poetic essays from someone who lives there, finds it beautiful and takes the bad with the good. Ironically, more than one of the essays pokes fun at publicists and marketing types.