Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book is vintage Carl Hiaasen, which is to say, it is excessively crude, insulting, and generally offensive while also being witty and amusing political commentary. Here a bunch of right-wing white supremacist losers, mostly rejects from the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, form a group called the Strokers for Liberty. Thin as it is, the plot revolves around the Strokers being funded by some rich white supremacists through their local bribed congressman to influence the upcoming election and, more importantly to the funders, create a fake charity along the lines of Habits for Humanity that is actually a plot to get a patch of land cleared and approved for development. Needless to say if you are familiar with Hiaasen, the book is a sort of stream of consciousness tale of crazy bungled idiocies. The Strokers get their tails whipped by a bunch of drag queens. Their leader, Dale Figgo, was at the January 6 insurrection but mistakenly smeared feces on the statue of a confederate general thinking it was a U.S. President. Figgo and his crew are mostly derailed by a rather unambitious trust fund baby named Twilly and his girlfriend Viva, who also happens to be Figgo’s tenant, both of whom are appalled at the politics and stupidity of the Strokers. Hiaasen can be funny at times, but I am so put off by his crudity and lack of any credible plot that I can’t give this a high rating. I only read it because it’s a choice of my book club.