Customer Reviews

Kick Ass: Selected Columns of Carl Hiaasen

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The novels of Carl Hiaasen are darkly comic visions of the hell that greed and overdevelopment have created in much of south Florida. This book, a collection of his newspaper columns for the Miami Herald, reveals much about the origins of that vision. In these columns Hiaasen emerges as a fierce, intelligent and tireless critic of corrupt politicians, thoughtless overdevelopment, hypocracy and human stupidity generally. These columns, some about local Miami politics and crime, some about Florida and some about the state of America generally, all contain elements of clear thinking, bitter humor and genuine indignation. His choice of subjects shows his eye for irony and the columns can be read both for information and for his humorous take on the subject.

Like Molly Ivens, who can speak the truth and make us laugh about things that are probably worthy of tears, Hiaasen manages to ease the pain of much that he reveals in the columns by recasting it as comedy. He makes us laugh first, and then leaves us with troubled thoughts. Makes me wish he wrote for the Washington Post. The citizens of D.C. could use a good laugh at much that goes on. We just don't have a Carl Hiaasen here to do it justice.

Reading this book won't make one want to move to Miami, but it will make one want to read more Hiaasen. Always a pleasure.

Many of us enjoy CH's humorous novels, but will we non-Floridians enjoy reading his Miami Herald newspaper columns? What pleasure can we get from reading about the arcane politics and goings on in a city far distant from our own home?

Quite a bit actually. You see Miami seems to be a very strange place, and Mr. Hiaasen uses his formidable talent to poke fun at the poor city's innumerable peccadilloes. He considers Corruption in Politics to be one of the town's main industries, and gives us a lot of drug smuggling; indifference to the environment; tourist murders; locking up clowns; swimming in waters contaminated with fecal matter. Laughing at Miami's problems might even help us temporarily forget similar problems in our own hometown.

As they often say, truth is stranger than fiction. And often funnier, I might add. It's good Carl Hiaasen...and you really get your money's worth. It's no slim tome of essays; there are over 200 columns reprinted here giving us 450 pages of chuckles.

I know what you are thinking: I'm not a Florida resident. Why should I care about what some newspaper columnist wrote about a local scandal in the Miami Herald in 1987?

There's a lot more reasons for buying this book than you'd expect.

If you appreciate Hiaasen's "fiction," you'll love to read about the fountain of avarice and corruption from which it came.

If you are at all interested in the reality of politics and society in this country, this book will give you an eyeful.

And if you do happen to be a Florida citizen--or even a Florida visitor--you'll be well-served to get a synopsis of South Florida history as witnessed by Carl Hiaasen in the 15 years (and counting) that he's served as one of the Herald's most acerbic, witty, and controversial voices.

There was a brief stage in my college career when I hoped to get into newspapers. Unfortunately, I'm a very slow writer. I would sweat bullets over remarkably simple stories, and my editorial prowess was equally dubious. It was at that time I discovered Carl Hiaasen and his remarkably subversive novel, TOURIST SEASON. His author's bio indicated that his newspaper setting was drawn from authentic experience -- he was a columnist for the Miami Herald.

Unfortunately, the web was just in its infancy, and access to Hiaasen's newspaper writing was apparently one of the few exclusive benefits of living in South Florida. KICK ASS turns out to be just the sort of collection that I had been craving for many years.

KICK ASS does not disappoint. It begins with a nifty introduction that provides a smattering of biographical information on Hiaasen, as well as a context for the subjects and tone of his columns. Hiaasen clearly resides in a longstanding tradition of muckraking American journalism, and I mean that in the best possible way.

This is no mere sampling of his work -- there are more than 200 columns here, organized by topic, and just about every one of them meets the mandate stated in the title of the collection. Hiaasen has a passion for the environment, consumer protection, crime control, and good government. His portrait of a Florida reeling after the flood of growth and development of the last three decades is even starker than the one in his novels. Speaking of the novels, it is also fun to see where he "lifts" some of his ideas for the things that happen in his books. The overamorous dolphin of NATIVE TONGUE appears in KICK ASS as well.

If there is anything to regret about this book, it is that the topical organization often generates confusion for the reader when certain figures re-occur. Some of them almost develop a roguish charm. After all, us non-Floridians don't have to live with the direct consequences of local corruption. A little wrap-up to let us know how some of the notorious figures and controversies ended up would have been nice. I always hated that device at the end of his novels, but it would be perfect for a collection like this.

As a lifelong resident of Florida (albeit a ninetten-year-old one), I have seen Florida at its best and worst. Hiiasen's columns represented in this book illustrate the "politics" and people of a great but confused state. If you live in Florida, have visited, or even have heard of it, this book will both amuse and depress you, as is the nature of the state. Everyone will identify with the outrage Hiiasen evokes over the disregard of the envirnment, the sham of politics, and the overall life in Miami, and indeed, all of Florida. This book will remind readers of what Marjorie Kinnan-Rawlings and Marjorie Douglass once experienced in Florida, and tells both the good and the bad of what has happened after a hundred years of exploitation If you want a non-stop laugh and a big dose of reality, read this collection - it's one of the best books in print right now.

Sidenote: I also wrote this review for "Paradise Screwed" b/c it's the same book, just different selected columns.

If you've ever read a Carl Hiassen book (or Tim Dorsey for that matter) and you wonder where he became so cynical, or where he gets his outrageous ideas from, read this book. Taking only the best of his newspaper columns, this book gives little glimpses into the absolute mess that was Miami/South Florida in the 80's/90's. Taking on anything from connected land developers, to cartel-backed politicians, to prostitute employing evangelists.

Each column is 1 to 1.5 pages in length making it the perfect length to read here and there, or big bites at a time. If you're a fan of Carl Hiassen, try this book not for Hiassen's opinion, but just for the shear knowledge of ludicrisiosity he imparts.

This book is; to borrow another Hiaasen title a real Hoot. He is without a doubt not only informative,and thought provoking but he does it while leaving his readers in stiches. I think he shows a genuine affection for the idiots he writes about

I've never set foot in Florida, but I can't get enough Carl Hiaasen. I've read every single novel he's written and I have to say his columns are just as worthy a read.

From the opening column of the book (Carl Hiaasen's Florida Stress Test) to some of the more serious writings (the group of prostitutes he talks to, the crumbling county health building) Hiaasen writes it all with a razor-sharp flair and zeal that can't be matched. You know this guys just loves going to work every day.

Who else would refer to the newly elected mayor of Miami as a "pernicious little ferret"?

Keep them coming, Carl. I'm waiting on Volume 3.

Carl Hiaasen's savage wit has brought him fame and fortune, but what makes his work resonate beyond the mere telling of jokes is that he truly cares about Florida. That gives his non-fiction work the power to provoke as well as amuse. He's not afraid to tell the truth about the folks who want to pave Paradise.

If you're interested in reading more about Florida's environmental woes, check out a book that Hiaasen himself calls "an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what's left of this precious place": Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (Florida History and Culture)

I couldn't believe the stories that Carl Hiaasen told in this book. Corruption and greed without ramifications seems prevalent in Miami.

If it wasn't true, you would think that the author had made up the amazing things that he writes about.

Being a selected amount of his Miami Herald articles, the author has chosen articles that have a certain theme but the problem I found was that although he is (as always) very readable and engaging, the repetitiveness of some of the stories wore on me a bit.
I enjoyed the book though.