Carl Hiaasen is a funny writer whose novels tell tales of people losing touch with real values amidst the monstrosity that is modern South Florida. I previously read and wrote up his Double Whammy and Native Tongue though looking back on the reviews I think I like Skinny Dip best of all. Maybe he’s got the outer stuff, the collision with humanity’s inhuman attack on nature, down well enough know that his characters and plots get more attention.
At the start of Skinny Dip, Joey Perrone is on a cruise to celebrate her second wedding anniversary with Chaz. Or so she thinks until the last night when, despite a light rain that’s keeping everyone else inside, he urges her to take a walk out on the back (stern?) deck with him and he picks her up by the ankles and tosses her over the side. Into the drink. Not looking good but, of course, she manages to survive until Mick Stranahan, an ex-cop now living the solitary life on a tiny little island, rescues her.
By this point, though, Chaz has reported her missing with a cover story designed to misdirect the search and rescue teams as well as any copy who might think her disappearance had anything to do with him. The rest of our story is how Joey and Mick attempt to drive Chaz nuts as police detective Karl Rolvaag (who yearns to escape back to Minnesota) picks at the pieces from his own angle.
Plotwise, things end up more or less as you’d expect. This is not a bad thing, though, because Hiaasen only uses plot as a framework to expose the foolishness, insecurity and self-delusion that clouds so many minds from finding happiness. Joey, for instance, despite having a substantial pile of inherited money convinced herself that Chaz loved her and was worth marrying despite plenty of warning signs, Chaz has slid through life on a haze of good looks, sexual prowess and charming lies and Nick, well Nick has six ex-wives. We get mirror characters scattered throughout that illuminate other paths, such as Joey’s brother Corbett who spent his inheritence on a sheep farm in New Zealand and Chaz’s mistress Ricca shows us something of an anti-Joey, plus other well-drawn actors such as Rolvaag, Red Hammernut and Tool. Maybe especially Tool, one of the best drawn, most interesting barely thinking muscle men I can recall.
recommended, lots of fun
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