Sick Puppy
by Carl Hiaasen

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780446604666
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Book Reviews of Sick Puppy

Book Review: "Somebody's got to be angry or nothing gets fixed. "
Summary: 4 Stars

Twilly Spree, the "hero" of this novel, makes an entrance into the tale by tailgating Palmer Stoat, a lobbyist and litterbug (among other, unredeemable personality traits). Twilly is out to teach Stoat a lesson--trying to change his sociopathic behavior. Stoat, however, seems not to have learned, not even in kindergarten, how to behave in society. No matter how extreme Twilly gets (and he does get extreme), Stoat remains clueless.

Hiaasen demonstrates a truly enjoyable sense of the outrageous and improbable. In order to explain a forest bulldozing engineer's bent towards destruction, he spins the following: "Krimmler's antipathy toward nature was traceable to one seminal event: At age six, while attending a Lutheran church picnic, he'd been bitten on the scrotum by a wild chipmunk" (p. 292). Yet another character, Mr. Gash, enjoys layering audio tapes of 911 calls over classical music. Then there's Mr. Clapley, who carries Barbie dolls with him, and the hooker who only prostitutes herself for registered Republicans. All these characters pale, however, against Skink, the ex-governor who lives in the wild, dining on road-kill and preying on Florida's despoilers.

If there is any redeeming value, beyond twisted humor (isn't that in and of itself redeeming?), in this book, we find it in a short speech by Skink to Twilly, who he has begun to mentor:

"Son, I can't tell you what to do with your life--hell, you've seen what I've done with mine. But I will tell you there's probably no peace for people like you and me in this world. Somebody's got to be angry or nothing gets fixed. That's what we were put here for, to stay p_ss_d off" (p. 457).

It's easy to finish the book, and go on to the next. After all, it's only fiction, right? I grew up in the San Bernardino Valley. Back then, orange groves ruled the land. Now, only a few remain. Developers are planting survey stakes in the hills where my friends and I used to build our fortresses and catch poison oak. It's not just Hiaasen villains who despoil the land, it's real life developers and politicians--destroying farmland and wilderness to make a fast buck, leaving the rest of us trapped in ever more gridlocked rush hour traffic.

Maybe, between books (or even book reviews), you can find the time to check out your local conservation groups, and do a little something to throw a monkey wrench at the Stoats, Artemuses and Clapleys of this world.

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