Strip Tease

If you consider yourself to have a twisted sense of humor then you will love this book. I read it and laughed out loud. I thought they should make a movie out of it... then I realized they did. Do not hold the Demi Moore movie against Carl; to much book for a little movie. I saw an interview with him and he showed the pile of newspaper clippings from Florida from which he gets his inspiration for his books. The people he writes about are based in fact. Florida is a scaring yet funny state.

Anyone who has ever traveled to south Florida has probably noticed an abundance of establishments offering entertainment by nude or partially unclothed women. Carl Hiaasen takes the establishment of the strip club as the center for his hilarious look at the ways that men and women manipulate each other, and how politicians get away with murder. Although Mr. Hiaasen notes that the story is all fictional, he does remind the readers that the accounts of topless creamed corn wrestling are based on fact. The central puzzle behind this book's story is how an intelligent, hard-working staff member of the FBI ends up as an exotic dancer in a strip club. That's a tale that will unfold in all its gory detail as you laugh your way through this hilarious book. As the book opens, a bachelor party on the eve of the wedding goes horribly wrong. As the groom clutches onto the unclothed Erin Grant at the Eager Beaver, a wild man jumps onto the stage and begins belting the groom over the head with a champagne bottle. In the ensuing mess, the wild man escapes. As his car speeds away, it turns out that the attacker doesn't even know what he did . . . and doesn't want to know. Since the attacker is local Congressman David Lane Dilbeck, it looks like he'll need a political fixer to help him out. But some things cannot be fixed as easily as others. And the trail of deception heads off in a totally unexpected and deadly course. The targets for satire are mostly among the patrons, managers and bouncers of the strip clubs as well as those who try to help them take advantage of others. But there's also a very mixed up husband who you will never forget. This book could have easily slid into a sort of quasi-pornography but Mr. Hiaasen rigorously steers away from any tendency in that direction. Instead, the story is relatively chaste considering its subject matter. I love books with memorable, well developed characters. Strip Tease has several. Erin Grant is one of the most original and inventive heroines that you will ever read about. Her husband is one of the funniest criminal incarnations you can imagine -- a unique portrayal of stupidity in action. Her friend Shad is a highly nuanced man of muscle and intent to protect, with a very hard head. As usual, Mr. Hiaasen's best comic genius is for those we would normally not come close to in real life . . . but who act as best they can according to a code of honor. The best character though is Al Garcia, a policeman whose family vacation is interrupted by his children finding a floater from south Florida in Montana. Without jurisdiction, he finds a way to solve the murder and right the wrongs . . . as best he can. The whole family gets into the action before the story is over. It's a nice counterpoint to all the sleazy people in the story. Although it will seem obvious where the story is probably going, Mr. Hiaasen is so inventive with his detailed plot development that you will find yourself racing through the book wo

It's been awhile since i read this book and i was very surprised that there was no review for it. Typical Hiaasen, those who like Hiaasen will enjoy this one, laugh out loud funny at times. Do not compare this to the Demi Moore movie in any way or form since this is so much better.

The reviews of the movie made from this book generally panned the stupidity and "unrealism" of the characters. Those who took this route were badly off-base if they didn't read the source material. For if I am ever to write about, Carl Hiaasen is going to be my inspiration. This is a novel where beautiful women are naked for most of the story. Yet it is not an erotic tale, and those wanting to pursue it as a book you would hide in the dresser would be misguided. For this story deals with the BUSINESS of taking one's clothes off for a living. Because it's all business, it's not erotic, even though it explains the erotic attraction of the industry. But this is not to say it's still not terrific reading. I've read several of the author's works. He has a style where practically every sentence drips with a cynicism that only slightly skewers reality. Practically every character has flaws, as we all do, but it's those flaws that become the dominant part the character, and therefore fodder for a delicious literary dissection whenever they appear in the plot. Even a "good guy", like Shad the bouncer, is a felon who is planning to scam society, and is willing to punch out anyone in his way. The only one to escape this torment is our heroine, Erin, which I find the only slight flaw to the story. As the poor mother given the shaft by society, and "forced" to earn her living this way, she's just a little too perfect as a human. She gets away with too much just by basically demanding it, and it would have been nice to see her nailed in a comical way, also. The story would have been great with just the story of mom having to earn her living this way, but what makes it superb is how the author injects just the right amount of social commentary into this stories. When the average person thinks of Florida, where his books are based, they often don't stray beyond Mickey the rodent. They don't think about how developers are trashing much of the fragile beauty of the state. They know about how industry is pouring tons of pollutants into the Everglades. And when they put sugar in, well, everything, they don't WANT to know the exploitation of people, the land, and entire countries that goes on to get the stuff to your table, and for letting us know this, Carl Hiaasen is my literary hero.