Sick Puppy
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This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2008) |
| Sick Puppy | |
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 1st edition |
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| Author(s) | Carl Hiaasen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date | February 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0679454454 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC Number | 41565087 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3558.I217 S53 2000 |
| Preceded by | Lucky You |
| Followed by | Basket Case |
Sick Puppy (2000) is a novel by Carl Hiaasen.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Florida's corrupt governor, Dick Artemus, pursues schemes to line his pockets and those of his rich entrepreneur backers at the expense of the environment. His schemes have always foundered in the past, but he has high hopes of a plan involving Toad Island, virtually uninhabited except for innumerable tiny toads. A former drug smuggler-turned-developer, Robert Clapley, plans to bulldoze the island and turn it into Shearwater Island, with high rise condominiums, a golf course and a massive new bridge to the mainland. He hires Palmer Stoat, a lobbyist, to expedite the project.
By random happenstance, Stoat incurs the wrath of Twilly Spree, an ecoterrorist. Spree obsessively pursues a path of retribution after seeing Stoat litter, and tracks him back to his Fort Lauderdale residence where he and his wife Desirata live.
Artemus, in an effort to avoid the Shearwater Project being tainted with violent death, seeks out and locates ex-governor Clinton Tyree, who vanished about 20 years ago after a short and unsuccessful (but honest) term of office and is said to be hiding out somewhere in the remaining wilderness of Florida. Artemus knows Tyree will be unsympathetic to his situation, and resorts to blackmail. Clinton's disturbed brother Doyle is still on the governor's payroll as the keeper of a lighthouse that has not been in use for years. Artemus advises Tyree that his brother will be tossed out on the street if he doesn't locate Spree.
Clapley's death leaves the Shearwater project doomed without financial backing and only a few people show up at Palmer Stoat's funeral. Meanwhile, Twilly Spree and Clinton Tyree are driving along the highway towards Tyree's wilderness when they see another group of litterbugs throwing lighted cigarette butts, empty bottles and other rubbish out of their speeding car. They immediately agree the they have to teach them a lesson.
[edit] Characters in "Sick Puppy"
- Twilly Spree — college dropout, millionaire, protagonist
- Palmer Stoat — lobbyist and political fixer
- Desirata Stoat — Palmer's wife
- Robert Clapley — drug smuggler, now real-estate developer
- Dick Artemus — Florida governor, politician
- Clinton Tyree — Former environmentalist governor of Florida.
[edit] Major themes
Although some of the themes of the novel may suggest an autobiographical element the author himself shrugs off at least one aspect of this parallel. A main character Twilly and himself both had attorney forbears who lived in Southern Florida, but the development in this area came as a surprise to him and his attorney father and grandfather.
| “ | Now you have land use attorneys whose job it is to get around master plans and zoning restrictions, and they make good livings off finding loopholes or making loopholes so people can build something where they weren't intended to build it. A good example is Key West. . . . They live off the Hemingway mystique, they trade on the Hemingway mystique, constantly. If Hemingway were alive, he'd take a flame-thrower to Duval Street, and that's the truth. Fifty T-shirt shops? Give me a break.[1] | ” |
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Sick Puppy has been reviewed well and one example describes Hiaasen's skills thus.
Hiaasen is best known for serving up heaping helpings of just desserts [sic]. His bad guys are the baddest, and his good guys are anything but the Dudley Dorights of popular fiction. How does Hiaasen come up with his new means of doling out justice to the terminally greedy? Just when you think, "they'll never get out of this mess," he devises a plan, and they're off and running.[2]
Other reviews praised the novel's harder edges.
Sick Puppy is ultimately as unforgiving as nature's order. The characters are not likeable. There is no redemption or apology. But that's Hiaasen's design. In the end, we are treated to one of his favorite devices, the epilogue with thumbnail descriptions of the fates of many of his characters. Some of the scoundrels prosper, some don't. There's the sense that there is more work to be done. Sure, Hiaasen himself may not be ready to kidnap the dogs of unregenerate litterbugs or clobber drunken jet skiers, but it's the thought that counts.[3]
[edit] Read on
- Many of Hiaasen's other novels are quite similar in tone and subject-matter, for example Tourist Season or Skinny Dip.
- T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel A Friend of the Earth is a slightly more serious treatment of ecoterrorism and ecotage.
- Henry Adams's novel Democracy discusses similar politics during the late 19th century.
- Twilly Spree reappears in Hiaasen's newest children's book, Scat
[edit] Cultural Influence
- The title of the book inspired the name of Australian rock band Sick Puppies
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ MacDonald, Jay Lee (January 2000). "Carl Hiaasen takes a bite out of crimes against the environment". First Person Bookpage. http://www.bookpage.com/0001bp/carl_hiaasen.html. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ^ Shea, Roz (2006). "Sick Puppy review". Bookreporter.com. http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0446604666.asp. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ^ Schmutterer, Martin (2000). "Sick Puppy review". Curled Up With a Good Book. http://www.curledupwithagoodbook.com/puppy.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
[edit] References
- Hiaasen, Carl (February 2000). Sick Puppy. Alfred A. Knopf.
[edit] External links
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