Customer Reviews

Roadside Florida: The Definitive Guide to the Kingdom of Kitsch

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

 

 

"Roadside Florida: The Definitive Guide to the Kingdom of Kitsch" by Peter Genovese is a real ride through the old highwayland of Florida. Rather than cashing in on all of the bigger attractions that most people have heard of, Peter gets in and really digs out some lesser heard of gems of true kitsch. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the pictures are great, and I'm not going to get into context because I don't want to give any of it away.

If you have a fondness for the tacky and the uber commercial monuments that serve as testaments to America's fondness for anything either big and/or outrageous and definitely trashy, you're going to like this book. It looks at all those roadside attractions from the old days that are still kicking around as well as modern day behemoths that are currently sucking people in. Humongo gators, retro architecture, eye catching monstrasities----they are all in this book.
Needless to say any state that could spawn a Wikiwatchee, Cypress Gardens, Disney World, or Sea World, can have some pretty freaky (yet inspired) minor nods to crass commercialism. Florida is just loaded with kitsch and this book has a pretty good cross-section of the best and funniest.