Title:
Squirm
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Our summer reading selection for the sixth grade was
Squirm by Carl Hiaasen. Billy Dickens is a teenager living in Florida - exact age never quite clear. He's not old enough to drive legally but he does have a bagging job at the grocery store. So, 14 maybe? Wildlife is his passion, especially snakes. He collects them, wild ones. His family is quirky to say the least. Mom moves house frequently so as to always be near a bald eagle's nest. Dad disappeared years ago but has suddenly turned up again - in Montana. The quest for a relationship with his father is the main narrative driver.
I've seen Hiaasen's books around for a while but this was my first time actually reading one. The book was fun, though less artful in prose than I had hoped. Hiaasen earns high marks for being topical: conservation, Native American quality of life. But character and relationship development are over-simplified. Moral superiority and poetic justice anchor the landscape. Not much subtlety or nuance. I long for the E.B. Whites, the George Seldens, the A.A. Milnes of yesteryear...
Squirm was pleasant enough but I doubt I will seek out Hiaasen's work again.
Sounds great, I am starting Romain Gary's book today☺
ReplyDeleteSounds fun. I hope you'll share your thoughts on it.
DeleteNice review. Not sure I'll check it out, but I've made a note of it.
ReplyDeleteToi! It's been a while. Great to hear from you.
DeleteSeriously, give this one a pass. There are better books out there.
I love the word "conservation".....I should read it...may be
ReplyDeleteOne used to hear it more, like in the '80s before ozone layer, greenhouse effect and global warming became the buzzwords.
DeleteMy wife loves Hiassen, and we've met him. He tells great stories.
ReplyDeletePossibly, your issue here is that you read one of his teen books. Maybe you should try one of his adult novels.
Perhaps I will. Thanks.
DeleteCool that you've met him.
My wife says try 'Striptease'; it's probably his best.
DeleteWe vaguely bonded over the similarity between Louisiana and Florida. Same kind of swamps and same kind of people. heh
On to the wish list it goes.
DeleteNoted humorist Dave Barry (who, frustratingly for me, seems to be slipping away from the public consciousness) seems to have liberally borrowed from Hiaasen's playbook. I haven't read Hiaasen himself yet, but I love Barry's versions.
ReplyDeleteI love Dave Barry. His book on Japan is quite possibly the single funniest book I've ever read - spot on, too.
DeleteFunny thing about that one. I ended up giving both copies I had away, the second time because I temporarily forgot that this was the book I'd had duplicate copies of. So I ended up having to get another copy. Good to hear that it's actually accurate, too!
DeleteI read it before I went as an adult. Much of it is probably dated now but his basic impressions of the culture were pretty accurate.
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