Nature Girl

Author: Carl Hiaasen
ISBN: 978-0-446-58175-2
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: January 22, 2008
Why I Read This Book: I always like a little Hiaasen.
Number of pages: 304
File Under: Comic novel

Comments: I read this book on a trip back from Denver on Delta, in an ice storm. So the flight to Atlanta turned into a flight to Huntsville for more fuel. As we taxied out of Huntsville the back of the cabin filled with smoke and the Captain announced that we should not worry about the smoke, that he thought it would be okay, and that we should push on to Atlanta. The swift cabin attendants slipped into the bathrooms and disabled the smoke alarms. Nature Girl provided a necessary distraction.

I picked up the book at the Denver airport and had it finished before I got home the next day. Carl Hiaasen books are like chips. They are definitely crisp, salty and sure to provide a certain taste sensation with every crunch. However, you can eat too many so it’s best to keep the Hiaasen readings at least nine months apart. Read two in a row and you see the same patterns and quirky behavior in the new characters brought to each book.

Nature Girl has a library card listing of “Manic-Depressive Illness” as one of the subject tags. That’s because of Honey Santana. She has a precocious teenager (Fry), a not so estranged hunk of an ex-husband (Perry Skinner), and she has a tendency (common enough) to stay off of her medications for longer than prescribed. A crass cold calling phone solicitor rings during dinner and sets Honey off on a wandering wacky scheme to teach the telecommunicator a lesson about ecology, life and civility. He had called Honey a “dried up skank”. The solicitor is a philandering baboon at home in Texas and must be lured to Florida so Honey can carry forth her plan to even the score.

Honey’s son gets a hint that something is up when he comes home from school to find his mom painting the trailer to look like an “Eco-Lodge”. The telemarketer is reeled in with a promise of a weekend vacation in Florida. He brings his not so enamored and bored girlfriend. The two of them are tailed by an earnest private eye who is retained by the telemarketer’s wife to get close up coitus pictures. Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail who is a man wrestling with alligators and his heritage, kidnaps a zonked out college girl on spring break in the Ten Thousand Islands National Refuge in Florida. A Mr. Piejack is of the opinion that Honey only wants him so he follows Honey, the telemarketer and the girlfriend in their kayak eco-adventure. All of the characters end up on Dismal Key for the climax to this cleverly written and entertaining tale. The story is packed with local Florida color and has an ending we all root for. No one gets it as close to perfect as Hiaasen in depicting the characters of our state. He has a great mix of scenes and careful story development. Our sympathies lie with Honey. We all want her to prevail in her scheme to set the world right by making sure the telemarketer never disturbs another family’s mealtime. Good book with a good ending. Thanks Mr. Hiaasen, keep them coming.