Carl Hiassen Squeeze Me

 Carl Hiassen Squeeze Me

It reads like an over-the-hill name-dropping slightly redneck Crazy Rich Asians meets I Feel Bad About My Neck. It's a tongue in cheek fictional story using easily recognizable political figures as a backdrop for a story that spans more and more crazy, but, which surprisingly, does not make it any less believable. 

That's part of the charm of using such an easily recognizable figure as a plot point. We, the reader, can see how point A leads to point B which leads to point C and so on and on. Crazy begets crazy. Foolishness leads to other foolishness. 

As usual, Carl Hiassen gives the reader a fun, easy read with his usual dry humor and biting wit. 

This was a recent book, published in 2020, and within it are tidbits that make it memorable to these pandemic years. These little nuggets pop up occasionally, treats that make me wonder - in twenty (thirty, forty) years when a reader chooses this book, will they read this part and even understand it? Or will we as a society, as a world, be in a different place and the reader will think 'What? What does that even mean?'?

Like this quote: 

"Later, he and 18.4 million other Americans would watch the viral YouTube video, almost all of them wondering why the President of the United States was holding a Bakongo tribal fertility mask over his face, how he had come to choose such an unusual artifact, and whether it was a safe alternative for an N95."

If that don't scream 2020, I don't know what does.