Customer Reviews

Smokeout

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

 

 

I have read Date's two previous books "Final Orbit" and "Speed Week" with each being better than the previous. After reading Smokeout, I can only wait for his next novel to arrive.

Smokeout is a high paced book that picks up more and more momentum as the story continues. The nonstop action made it hard to find a point to put down the book. Date's development of his characters and situations is such that I felt like I was in the Florida capital at the scene of the crimes.

I would not have believed that the story line in Smokeout was based on fact if I hadn't heard NPR's Fresh Air 11/9/00 interview with Date. If you have 15 minutes and the patience for NPR to launch the file, it really is worth listening to.

I highly recommend Smokeout as a read for the New Year.

Once again, S.V. Date, with brilliant wit and flawless style, captures the essence of those who make up Florida's political and social scene. As he did in "Final Orbit" and "Speed Week," here too he creates characters that are more like caricutures of those who impact Florida politics. This is all done with his usual stylistic brilliance and entertaining plot twists.

This book is excruciatingly bad: forced, predictable, obvious, and riddled with cliches, most of them about Florida. Providing I had a relatively competent dentist to do the procedure, I'd rather have a couple of teeth drilled than read this book all the way through. And yes, I am over the age of 13; is the author?

Featuring abjectly corrupt politicians, a loco hit man and a corporate CEO practicing business the way Attila intended, "Smokeout" is furious fun, especially for those who've had the, ahem, pleasure of seeing the Florida Legislature up close. It mostly reads like a true-crime book because much of what's in the plot is akin to what happens everyday in Tallahassee.

The only time the fast-paced, inventive yarn strains credibility is when it finds a few laudable types trying to do the right thing amid the population of bumbling bottom feaders. Readers will be rewarded with enough laughs to not care.

S. V. Date's funny madcap farce about the sleazy Florida legislature is a sure fire hit. Very funny from start to finish. A quick read; once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down.

This is the worst book I have ever read. The Florida newspapers who have given it positive notice are all standing up for a colleague. Beware! This is no Hiaasen! It is impenetrable, obvious and not at all funny...I bet the other reviews by "readers" here are publicity people.

A key vote coming up soon for the Florida legislature will determine whether individuals can sue big tobacco companies. The Sunshine State power brokers from lobbyists to concerned citizens to CEOs merge in Tallahassee to twist the arms of the politicians.

Especially concerned about the state bill is Bartholomew Simons, CEO of tobacco giant Roper-Joyner Holdings (RJH). He wants the bill killed and tosses money around to ensure it happens. Bartholomew also is panicking because an infamous memo with his signature that makes RJH and the industry look like serial killers is loose and if the opposition gain possession of it his career is dead. With sexy lobbyists offering their wares for support, Tallahassee looks like a den of iniquity where morals mean nothing instead of a college town capital. On top of this mess, the media seeks scandals even if they have to serve as catalysts causing a headline or two.

SMOKEOUT is a wild, almost out of control satire on the incestuous triangular relationship between big business, the media, and holier than thou politicians. The story line is amusing and never drops under a hundred miles an hour on the accelerator even with the interstate gridlocked as much as the legislature. No one including the nearly extinct honest citizen escapes S.V. Date's ironic look at Florida politics.

Harriet Klausner

This book with its wild antics of the Florida legislature is especially appropriate now since the entire country has watched Florida politics at work in the presidential election. It's a quick, fun read, and gets more and more outrageous as you go along.

Many commentators have often pointed out that the difference between fact and fiction, is that fictional stories have to eventually make sense. Unfortunately, this book falls short in that category.

Yes there are some funny scenes and funny dialogue, but the story about sinister politicians and tobacco executives just falls apart at the end.

Date has been compared to other political authors who can be humorous (Carl Hiassan) but it's a poor comparison. Hiassan is funny because he can slip in the unexpected. Every once in awhile one of his characters acts out of type. Not so in this book, every tobacco executive is evil and every politician has a nefarious hidden agenda.

I am sympathetic to the anti-tobacco cause, but Date is so ham-fisted about the issue in this book. Let's face it, people live their lives in various shades of gray and not black and white. Some of our heroes have bad habits and secret lives and some of our villans can have a soft positive side. The problem with this book and everything else I've read of Mr. Date is that you can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are only sentences after being introduced to them.

Date's certainly got the amorality of Tallahassee politics captured here, but frankly his big-government-should-control-every-aspect-of-your-behavior politics is what ruins this book. Hiaasen's novels make it clear that BOTH sides, all sides of politics are immoral. Date's attempt to hijack the Hiaasen style for a narrow political purpose make this novel not art, but propaganda. Moreover, I didn't even laugh once. If you or I had written this, instead of a well-connected reporter, it would never have been printed--and shouldn't have been.