Sick Puppy by: Hiaasen, Carl
hardcover | 341 pages | ISBN:0-679-45445-4
Year Published:1999 – Knopf | Tidewater Price: $35.95
Sick Puppy is not a book to be taken seriously. It is the story of a wealthy, iconoclastic eco-terrorist – Twilly Spree. Spree, having witnessed a wanton act of littering by Florida lobbyist Palmer Stoat, decides to exact revenge on Stoat for his disregard of the environment. Spree engages in an ever-escalating series of punishments of Stoat that begin with burying his car in a mountain of fresh garbage and end with the involvement of an aged somnambulent rhinoceros. Along the way, we encounter wife-stealing, dog-napping, extortion, a prostitute who saves her favours for Republicans, an island full of squashed toads, a millionaire with a fetish for Barbie dolls, a hit man whose hobby is recording 911 calls and a former state governor who lives off the land in the Everglades. With the righteous outrage of an Edward Abbey and an appreciation of the absurd of a Tom Sharpe, Hiaasen melds all these disparate elements into a funny, thoroughly enjoyable tale. A great weekend read.