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Quasi-mystery teenage adventure gives laughter and hope
Book Review
By Derryll White
Hiaasen, Carl (2014). Skink – No Surrender.
Carl Hiaasen has been a front-runner for years. No matter whether it is his columns in the Miami Herald, his adult novels such as ‘Bad Monkey’ and ‘Star Island,’ or his books for younger readers such as ‘Hoot’ and ‘Scat,’ Hiaason always puts Florida and the protection of the environment first. He carries on the message first laid out in the 1950s by John D. MacDonald – greed and avarice do little for our world or our state of mind.
In ’Skink – No Surrender’ the author takes an outstanding old reprobate from his adult novels, ex-Governor of Florida Clinton Tyree, also known as “Skink,” and presents him as a force of nature. This is a tightly-woven, caring story for teenage readers that has lots of comedy, some heart-breaking moments, and insightful comments on the state of our current world. Richard’s cousin, Malley, is abducted. The quest begins, through Florida’s Everglades.
Aimed at teenagers, this novel is an adult read as well. As we strip more of the earth’s resources, make more natural habitat vanish, Hiaason’s subsidiary story line of the “Lord God Bird” takes the reader closer to Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ and John Muir’s ‘Wilderness Essays’ and ‘A Passion for Nature.’ The ivory-billed woodpecker may be extinct, or not, but the author helps the reader imagine the loss of magic that extinction embodies.
Yes there are perils, both on the internet and on the streets, and Hiaason makes those real for the reader. But this quasi-mystery teenage adventure also gives laughter and hope to everyone. Carl Hiaason is not to be missed by the avid reader.
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Excerpts from the novel:
SELF – My father used to say that you live most of your life inside your own head, so make sure it’s a good space. Easier said than done.
EVIL – One time I asked my father, who was super-laid-back, if he believed in evil. We’d been watching the TV news when an awful story came on about some guy who went to a crowded movie theatre and started shooting everyone, people he’d never met before, even kids. The place looked like a war zone after he was done. The lawyer for the shooter said he had severe emotional problems (which was, like, no kidding), but in my mind that didn’t account for how and why he devised a plan so awful and cold-blooded.
And I remember Dad mulling over my question for a few moments before saying that true evil was rare, but, yes, it was real. He also said that it didn’t occur in any other species besides humans, and I believe he was right. Violence and brutal domination exist in the animal world as a means for survival, not as sport or sick amusement.
DEPENDENCY – We get so hooked on being connected 24/7 to our friends, our playlists, our Tweets and Instagrams, whatever. The battery in our smartphone dies and it’s like somebody shut off the oxygen to our brain. Where’s my charger? I can’t find my stupid charger! Mom, drop everything and take me to Radio Shack!
That’s me. I’m definitely attached to my phone. Malley always gets crazy stressed whenever her parents confiscate hers, which happens on a regular basis due to her acting like a smartass brat. Without her cell she’s unbearable, mean as a moccasin.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
