Star Island

This is another book that I found at the used book sale in Maine. I had never read any Hiaasen before, but I'd seen other of works in stores and online and it had a bright cover. What could go wrong?

Title: Star Island
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Format: Paperback

This book was a struggle to get through.I sat down with it, and breezed through the first hundred pages in one sitting. I found myself thinking, "wow, this is so easy to read, it takes no thought at all." Yet after that initial session, I found myself very reluctant to pick the book back up. It wasn't the familiar hesitance about finishing a book I love and never want to end. After some reflection I realized this resistance was due to the fact that Star Island is just not a particularly good book. I had made the fatal mistake of coming up for air, giving me time to think about what I had read and would continue reading.
The major flaw with the book is that it is too self indulgent by Hiaasen. It appears that throughout the book he'd have an idea, and think "this is hilarious" and put it in. Then he would realize that he should have introduced it earlier on, and would half-heatedly edit a paragraph or two to justify the inclusion. It just made it seem it all seem like lazy writing aimed more at gags than at well developed characters or a thoughtful plot.
His characters received a similar treatment. It became clear that Hiaasen had radically altered aspects of the characters personalities to allow for some joke he thought of 200 pages into the story. All the main characters are caricatures will no depth or thought put into them. There is a weak attempt at juxtaposing nearly identical physical characters with mostly different characters, but this is poorly done as well. On top of the poor treatment of his main characters, Hiaasen would also randomly add characters as one offs for the sole purpose of moving the plot along. These were undeveloped and lazy tools that where anything to experience.
Finally, the book also lacked any form of subtlety. One can only read about a fat man being called gelatinous or jello-like and how air-headed a bimbo is so many times before it becomes painful and deleterious to the story. Hiaasen came off as a poor man's Christopher Moore. I'd recommend readers steer towards Moore instead because though his work is also flawed, it is much less self-indulgent and frustrating to read than Star Island.
2/10