Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Basket Case
Book Review: A lot of fun
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my first Hiaasen book. I love his writing style, but the "all's well that ends well" Hollywood ending was a let-down.Book Review: Amusing and irreverent
Summary: 5 Stars
While protagonist Jack Tagger Jr., 46, solves an aging rock star's murder, he also tries to pry out of his mother the truth about his own dead father. This, and his job as obit writer for the Union-Register, a Florida newspaper, have made him morbid. Jack is also at loose ends romantically. Although these themes (newspapers, the music business, and a death-obsessed obit writer looking for love) could be dispiriting in another writer's hands, here they are woven together light-heartedly. The novel is well plotted, with amusing surprises fairly achieved, and the outer and inner quests mesh and hold the reader's interest. The novel's characters are incisively drawn and appealing, and Hiaasen is good at dialogue. Jack grows in the course of the novel, avoiding the fate of the cynical reporter to which the "hard-boiled" fictional genre would condemn him. Since the novel is essentially comic and life triumphs over death, in the dénouement good wins everywhere, and even the Union-Register is saved. The novel is sentimental -- Hiassen's crime fiction is not hard-boiled but soft-boiled. The novel is replete with ironies, the chief of them being, perhaps, that the truth is too complex and too compromising to be told in newspapers, though newspapers exist to publish the truth. "Basket Case" is written in the first person, and we see everything from Jack's perspective. Now and then Hiassen artfully conceals what Jack knows, adding to the suspense of the narrative, and Jack's limited perspective helps motivate surprising twists of the plot. Minor characters are well-drawn and interesting, though there are not that many examples of local color or vignettes of Floridian life. The city of Miami is never named, though it is implicit, and there is surprisingly little about local institutions, either; rather, the book features regional culture and contemporary Americana. The style is irreverent and contemporary, an expression of his protagonist's -- and, no doubt, Hiaasen's -- character; he has a taste for the burlesque. The novel sends up the newspaper business, but this serious subject is never developed for more than two pages at a time and takes a back seat to humorous entertainment. It is said, though, that Race Maggad III is a caricature of Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight-Ridder when it owned the Miami Herald.Book Review: Below par for Hiaasen
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading Skinny Dip and Skin Tight, I tackled Basket Case. I had to force myself to finish it and often skimmed pages at a time to get through it. Predictable from the start. Certainly not Hiaasen's best work. I'm not giving up on the author, though, just being more careful about which books I read. Plan to read Stormy Weather next.Book Review: Darkly funny and wildly entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
Other than "Team Rodent" I had never read a Hiaasen novel until this one. I had always heard good things and had listened to him compared to many of my favorite authors. Last night I read Basket Case (actually I finished it... I started it yesterday). Now that I have finally read a Hiaasen novel, I must say, I absolutely loved it.
First, it takes place in my home state of Florida, which I miss immensely so it was nice to be back there, if only in my mind. Second, Hiaasen is an extremely intelligent writer, I have read many "Humorous" books that border on insulting in the implausibility department when it comes to straining for a laugh. Hiaasen never crosses that line. The story is first and foremost and the writing style is smart, witty, and simple to read. You never have to go back and re-read a line to figure out what he was saying, and you are also never insulted by the childishness.
The characters are interesting, funny, charming, likeable, quirky and most of all, extremely human. I never doubted these people, heck I think I've met them before. The plot is interesting and plays out like a mystery... you find yourself really rooting for our leading man Jack Tagger. The book follows Jack, a once rising star in the newspaper world who shot off his mouth at the wrong time and was reassigned to the demeaning world of obituary writing. He now suffers from neurosis that come with the job... an obsession with death, mainly his own and how old he'll be when it happens. Up until now it has destroyed relationships and forced his career to dwindle to almost negligible. Then he covers the death of Jimmy Stoma, ex rocker and musical bad boy. Very quickly he decides that there is something strange about the death and the old reporter in him stirs.... And begins stirring up trouble.
The rest of cast of characters includes:
Emma, Jack's editor and possible love/hate interest
Juan the Cuban Sportswriter and Jack's best friend
Cleo - the dead rocker's wife and aspiring pop diva
Janet - the dead rocker's sister and arch enemy of Cleo
Carla - Jack's ex-girlfriend's daughter and club scene master
The crew gets even larger and more interesting... Colonel Tom is by far my favorite scene in the book, but I won't go into detail, you just have to read that one for yourself. In the end the book is darkly funny, engaging, and fairly high speed entertainment toward the end when everything starts hitting the fan. I know Tim Dorsey is often compared with Hiaasen, but in reality there is no comparison other than the setting of their books. Dorsey is extremely over the top while Hiaasen is firmly grounded in reality... albeit a strange and demented reality, but a believable one none-the-less. I would compare him more with Vonnegut (minus the sci-fi aspect) than Dorsey, Pratchett or Gaimen.
Book Review: Deliciously funny
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the fourth Hiaasen book I've read and it's my favorite yet. It also tops the list for my wife. The obsessive compulsive focus on headlines and age of death add a nice touch, and the insider perspective on the newspaper business blended with a great narrative about the sleazier side of the music biz made this a wonderful read.
I had to look up Hiaasen after this to find more and wasn't surprised to find he does work at a Florida newspaper and has done investigative work. It didn't surprise me much to find that he works with and is a friend of Dave Barry. In his own way I think he's funnier and also covering more serious moral ground.
I'm a big fan of Elmore Leonard and the comparison between him and Hiassen is sometimes obvious but Hiassen does a much better job of character background with obscure trivia and is a lot funnier. What I think I like the most is his dark humor.
I've seen references to Hiaasen's comedic timing as the key to his work and I'd have to agree. He leaves you hanging at just the right point then comes back around to sew up loose threads with a zing much the way an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm does.
I'm noticing a lot of redundant themes in his books (Florida developers, eco saviours, blundering crooks, newspaper guys who are more like cops than the cops are) but so far they remain fresh from book to book with little details and distinct plot lines and arcs that make Hiaasen my favorite author.
There's clearly an auto-biographical element in many of these books, and this one in particular seems likely to draw on that. His web site notes that "Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida, including his own bosses." Apparently a lot of the inspiration for his works come from real life stories in the Florida news. I'm ready to order one of his books of his old news columns to get a better sense of that side of him too.
Jimmy Buffett has picked up options for film rights on one book and Mike Nichols is working on another. I'm hoping this one gets picked up and makes it to the screen someday. Somebody send a copy of Basket Case to Quentin Tarantino, he could have a lot of fun with this one.