Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Hiaasen's latest madcap romp across southern Florida presents an apocalyptic panorama of the region in the wake of a storm much like Hurricane Andrew. Transforming a suburban sprawl into a lawless frontier, the hurricane puts on a collision course a demented cast of tourists, scam artists and eccentrics: New York ad exec Max Lamb, who decides to spice up his Orlando honeymoon by taking his bride and his camcorder into the teeth of the storm; Skink, the swamp-dwelling former Florida governor (last seen in Native Tongue) who kidnaps Max in an effort to teach him to respect the land; Edie March, a seductive grifter who hatches a half-baked personal-injury scam with the help of Snapper, a sadistic ex-con; and Augustine, the altruistic son of a jailed drug smuggler, who juggles skulls to relax. Also mobilized are a mob enforcer with a penchant for crucifixions, a voodoo-practicing building inspector and a number of menacing escaped animals. In his sixth novel, less a straightforward thriller than a sprawling slice of life, Hiaasen dexterously resolves his many subplots, uniting the principals in a climactic chase across the swampland-while adding sting to his perpetual theme: the unrelenting depredation of Florida's cultural and natural heritage. 200,000 first printing. (Aug.)
Library Journal
Take one devastating Florida hurricane, a New York couple on their honeymoon, a skull-juggling but sensitive guy, one former governor turned Everglades hermit, two small-time con artists, a corrupt building inspector, two state troopers, a hapless insurance agent, and what do you have? The recipe for Hiaasen's (Native Tongue, LJ 9/1/91) sixth novel, a delightful romp that is by turns hilarious and moving. These strange characters maneuver through a broken landscape as if born to it, and the author's control of both style and narrative keeps the novel from slipping into silliness. The crimes plotted are minor aspects of a fiction that explores the intersection of the grotesque and the human. Buy wherever good fiction is read. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/95.]-A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
From the Publisher
Hysterically funny.... Hiaasen at his satirical best.” —USA Today
“[A] mordantly hilarious, black-humor thriller.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Insane ... amazing.... Wonderful.... A great read.” —The Washington Post Book World
“Bracing, bawdy, howlingly funny.... Everybody gets his just desserts, and you get the delight of reading about it.” —Cosmopolitan
“Raucous, scathing but never mean-spirited, Stormy Weather goes a long way toward securing Hiaasen's place as America's premier satirist.” —People
“A delight cover to cover. If only you could buy a ticket to Hiaasen's Florida. Animatronics be damned.... Hiaasen infuses his novels with justice.... What you can't anticipate is how much fun there's to be had getting here to there.” —New York Daily News
“Caustic and comic ... Hiaasen is a funny fellow.” —Time
“A satisfying romp.... Bitingly effervescent.... Few writers in the overcrowded crime fiction arena can match Hiaasen’s deft, economical portraits, his ability to click the shutter on a character’s most revealing moments.” —Newsday
“Another fiercely funny tale in the Hiaasen cannon. Even while provoking gales of laughter, it takes dead-aim at despoilers of the environment and the greed-mongers out to make a buck off devastation and destruction.... Hiaasen is himself an accomplished juggler of plot lines.... Stormy Weather would be terrific reading during a hurricane, taking your mind off all those oak trees doing the wave outside your window. But don’t wait until then.” —Orlando Sentinel
“[A] hilarious, satiric thriller ... by a master of skullduggery in high and low places.” —The Buffalo News
“A delightful romp that is by turns hilarious and moving.” —Library Journal
“Sinfully madcap.... If you’re not laughing by page six, you need a complete checkup.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Madcap.... Sprawling.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
