Basket Case

Carl Hiaasen

Read May 2003

Having enjoyed Hiaasen'sTeam Rodent, it was hard to resist sampling his fiction. The good news is that it's exactly what you'd expect. The same zany characters, the same tropical swampland, the same state of gentle rottenness, told in his inimitable, snappy style. This is not cerebral fiction, but it is entertaining. Along the way, Hiaasen gives some insight to the workings of newspapers, and does what he does best—namely, rant—at their owners' excesses. When, the day after I began reading the book, my mother mentioned that a Dayton, OH doyenne had recently died, my immediate thought was, "What headline would Jack Tagger compose?" I'd say that counts as grabbing my imagination.