- Paperback: 9999 pages
- Publisher: Pan; 6 edition (7 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330322362
- ISBN-13: 978-0330322362
- Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 3.5 x 18 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 233,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Tourist Season for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
'He may well be the funniest writer working in America today' Independent
Book Description
Nobody took any notice of the first victim. He was from out of town, probably took a dip when he was drunk. The second victim DID make waves. The head of the city's Chamber of Commerce found in a suitcase with a toy rubber alligator lodged in his throat. now that was headline-hitting, bizarre even. In Carl Hiaasen's violently funny first caper, reporters, cops, politicians and a very hungry crocodile do a danse macabre round the Everglades that makes Miami Vice look like Play School...
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As another reviewer mentions, Tourist Season was Carl Hiaasen's first novel, published back in 1986. As such it sets the template for most of his subsequent works. There's the cast of off-beat characters, the twisting, convoluted plotting and the focus on the damage being done to Florida's environment by rapacious unchecked development.
As with many debut novels however, all these ingredients aren't distilled down into the deceptively smooth product that later Hiaasen novels would become. For example there are plenty of odd-ball characters on display but they don't all work that well. One of the strengths of some of Hiaasen's later novels is that even the bad guys, means, crazy and/or stupid as they often are, will be entertaining company. In Tourist Season I struggled to warm to Skip Wiley or any of his henchmen. Brian Keyes, the book's nominal hero, also failed to jump of the page for me and remained an insubstantial figure.
The plot too lacked the finesse of Hiassen's best work, remaining jumpy and episodic throughout. As a black farce it just about worked but there wasn't tight, screwball pacing and plotting of books such as Basket Case or Skinny Dip. The tone of the novel also felt inconsistent. Wiley and his cohort are painted as a genuinely unpleasant and murderous group, responsible for the nasty deaths of several entirely innocent people, yet at times the book seemed almost sympathetic to them and their cause.
Finally and most damagingly I found that what really let Tourist Season down was the scarcity of genuine laughs to be had whilst reading it. Hiaasen isn't an author of laugh out loud novels but most of his books that I have read have prompted chuckles and genuine amusement. Tourist Season however, failed to raise more than the odd smile. Unlike many of Hiaasen's later books Tourist Season lacks the warmth necessary to offset the violence and examples of human greed and folly on display.
Its also worth pointing out that, twenty-four years after it was first published, Tourist Season feels very much like a period piece. The Florida it portrays, if you have any familiarity with the place, really no longer exists. Nor does the journalistic world that features so centrally in the plot. This makes the whole book feel somewhat anachronistic and robs the satire of some of its bite.
This is probably one for Hiassen fans only. You can see in it the foundations for later, better novels but as a reading experience in its own right Tourist Season is somewhat lacking.
As with many debut novels however, all these ingredients aren't distilled down into the deceptively smooth product that later Hiaasen novels would become. For example there are plenty of odd-ball characters on display but they don't all work that well. One of the strengths of some of Hiaasen's later novels is that even the bad guys, means, crazy and/or stupid as they often are, will be entertaining company. In Tourist Season I struggled to warm to Skip Wiley or any of his henchmen. Brian Keyes, the book's nominal hero, also failed to jump of the page for me and remained an insubstantial figure.
The plot too lacked the finesse of Hiassen's best work, remaining jumpy and episodic throughout. As a black farce it just about worked but there wasn't tight, screwball pacing and plotting of books such as Basket Case or Skinny Dip. The tone of the novel also felt inconsistent. Wiley and his cohort are painted as a genuinely unpleasant and murderous group, responsible for the nasty deaths of several entirely innocent people, yet at times the book seemed almost sympathetic to them and their cause.
Finally and most damagingly I found that what really let Tourist Season down was the scarcity of genuine laughs to be had whilst reading it. Hiaasen isn't an author of laugh out loud novels but most of his books that I have read have prompted chuckles and genuine amusement. Tourist Season however, failed to raise more than the odd smile. Unlike many of Hiaasen's later books Tourist Season lacks the warmth necessary to offset the violence and examples of human greed and folly on display.
Its also worth pointing out that, twenty-four years after it was first published, Tourist Season feels very much like a period piece. The Florida it portrays, if you have any familiarity with the place, really no longer exists. Nor does the journalistic world that features so centrally in the plot. This makes the whole book feel somewhat anachronistic and robs the satire of some of its bite.
This is probably one for Hiassen fans only. You can see in it the foundations for later, better novels but as a reading experience in its own right Tourist Season is somewhat lacking.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not my first of his books but his first and in my view the best. Very funny, with some great characters and some good plot twists.
His "lets save Florida" is still relevant while the heroes and villians are more ambigious than is commonly seen.
Great ending too.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are riding a plane coast to coast or out to Maui or the Virgin Islands then take along a copy of Carl Hiasen's "Tourist Season". You will enjoy the cast of characters come tumbling straight out of a Florida hurricane's whirlwind. The plot twists and turns like a current thru the Everglades. And watch out if you think you know what is going to happen next, because you really don't!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Someting a little bit different
One of the hardest novels to write is a good comedy crime thriller. The balance between the serious nature of crime and the comedy element is hard to achieve. Read more
Published on 30 July 2009 by R. Shear
Tone Deaths
Keyes is an ex-reporter turned PI whose usual cases has him sitting outside a motel spying on a cheating lover. Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Sam
Highly Entertaining
This is the Carl Hiaasen we know. He turns his black comedy and satire as it relates to the ever current problem of the influx of people to South Florida. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by M. A. Ramos
One for Hiaasen fans
I started reading Hiaasen with SKINNY DIP, which is definitely his best so far. I didn't realise that TOURIST SEASON was his first novel until after I had read it it and was... Read more
Published on 25 Dec 2006 by P. Dickinson
First of a long line of brilliance
Tourist season is Carl Hiassen's first novel, the point he makes in this book and in all his books is very very simple: Florida Stinks. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2002 by "b_m_whitley"
Bizzare almost black humour that will keep you reading
Thouroughly enjoyable book for those who like a "who dunnit" but you knowing who dunnit but wonder how the bad guys will end up, Will good over come evil?? Read more
Published on 16 Jun 1999
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
