Carl Hiaasen - Basket Case

Pros: Classic Hiaasen! The guy appreciates all the absurdities of life. Awesome piece of writing!

Cons: a tad predictable in places

The Bottom Line: Quirky, hilarious characters, great settings, a mysterious diving death, a band called the "Slut Puppies" and an obituary writer obsessed with his own mortality. You can't go wrong!

Review: I first read Carl Hiaasen about a year ago when an editor I work with raved about his stuff. (Don't worry, I don't work for Hiaasen's publisher!) I had told this editor friend that I'd been bass fishing quite a bit during the summer, and he told ...

Pros: Hysterical, entertaining, well written

Cons: Some may not like the wordiness or the effort it takes to read it.

The Bottom Line: I loved it and have already recommended it to others.

Review: Other than "Team Rodent" I had never read a Hiaasen novel until this one. I had always heard good things and had listened to him compared to many of my favorite authors. Last night I read Basket Case (actually I finished it... I started it yesterday). ...

Pros: Generally funny, typically wacky Hiaasen characters

Cons: Above mentioned characters

The Bottom Line: Probably his best novel since Striptease, Carl Hiaasen offers up another pleasant little satire about corruption in the media.

Review: Many among us who read a large number of books, reviewers and non, tend to have that one embarrassing type of book or author we love to read, but is admittedly not the high-and-mighty "quality" fiction we want people to believe we spend our time reading....

Pros: Humorous writing that almost always hits the right note, vivid characters.

Cons: The mystery isn't much of a mystery.

The Bottom Line: Humor, rock stars, reporters and a fight with a frozen lizard as the weapon...what more could you want?

Review: How can you not love a book that revolves around a rocker named Jimmy Stoma and his band, The Slut Puppies? The most recent book by Florida novelist and newspaper columnist Carl Hiaasen (Striptease, Sick Puppy, Lucky You) is a cracking good novel...

Pros: Funny satire of the music industry, great characters.

Cons: Represents a departure from previous Hiaasen concerns.

The Bottom Line: Basket Case is a humorous, fun page-turner with sleazy characters and enjoyable satire.

Review: Carl Hiaasen is a South Florida writer who has developed a pretty large following over the past 10 years or so. He has written 8 humorous novels and a short treatise on the Disney Corporation and how it's harming Florida as much as it's helping it. He...

Pros: Absolutely hilarious! Multiple interwoven plots that actually resolve in the end.

Cons: The humor may not be everyone's piece of cake.

The Bottom Line: Incredibly funny, entertaining, well written and original.

Review: When I heard of this novel, I believed that I had never read a previous book by Mr. Haisson. In fact, I didn't even think I'd heard of him until I saw Matt interview him on the Today Show. Then I found out he was a contributing writer to the book Naked...

Pros: Hiaasen fans will find this new novel consistent with his earlier writing style.

Cons: Not quite as funny as earlier novels.

The Bottom Line: Buy it, read it over the weekend, and laugh. But don't count on laughing so hard you cry.

Review: I'm a Carl Hiaasen fan, so I eagerly snapped this new Hiassen novel up at Costco for $14.99. I read it cover to cover in a weekend, and did enjoy it, but didn't find it to be quite as funny as some of his earlier novels.

In Basket Case,...

Pros: Scathing look at pop music "culture" and celebrity

Cons: Sometimes way over the top

The Bottom Line: A funny, rocking read ... sad to think that American pop "culture" has deteriorated even further since then (Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, anyone?)

Review: I picked up Basket Case after reading about it on Amazon.com and look forward to reading more of Carl Hiaasen's works. Basket Case combines the gritty world of rock and roll and the recording industry with a pinch of romance, whodunit ...

Pros: The usual Hiassen satirical insight

Cons: The payoffs take longer than usual to arrive

The Bottom Line: First-time readers should be solidly amused; Hiassen vets will wonder why the laughs don't come more quickly.

Review: Basket Case offers Carl Hiassen's usual satirical look at unlikely lowlifes. But unlike most of his other novels, it's a pretty long slog until you reach the funny stuff.

Unlike Hiassen's other fictions, Basket Case is told in...