Hiaasen finds fuel for novels in sunny Florida

Hiaasen

March 16, 2000
Web posted at: 12:29 p.m. EST (1729 GMT)

(CNN) -- Carl Hiaasen has made a career out of writing about political corruption in Florida. He was a longtime reporter for the Miami Herald and is currently a syndicated columnist and a bestselling author. Well known for his book "Striptease," which was made into a film staring Burt Reynolds and Demi Moore, his new book "Sick Puppy" (Knopf) is currently No. 8 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Hiaasen took a few moments to talk about his latest work on "CNN Sunday Morning."

Kyra Phillips, CNN anchor: Now, to quote the New York Times, "Carl's 'Sick Puppy' may have clinched your longtime argument that the most barbaric, ignorant and just plain awful people reside not only in New York or Los Angeles, but in sunny Florida." Is that true?

Carl Hiaasen, author of "Sick Puppy": Gee, I'd like to think we're up there with the top two. I don't know if we're in their league yet, but it's tourist season down here. You're liable to see anything.

CNN: Oh, isn't that true? And I bet you have seen a lot.

Hiaasen: Well, yes. I mean it's a lifetime sort of watching this place change and some for the better and some for the worse. But it's certainly a lot of fuel for the novels.

CNN: Well, there's a lot of political issues in Florida, Everglades, coastlines, water quality.

Hiaasen: Yes.

CNN: I mean is this state perfect for satire in that respect?

Hiaasen: Well, it's corrupt so that makes it perfect for satire. I mean it's as crooked as it can be, so under those circumstances it's ideal for someone who's writing satire or writing a newspaper column. There's very little I write that doesn't eventually happen in real life.

CNN: Now, are there any specific politicians you're referring to in your book? As a reporter, you've come across a lot of corruption. You've broken a lot of stories as an investigative reporter. When you've written your books, are you thinking of specific people?

Hiaasen: No, there's so many, it's usually a composite. The villain in "Sick Puppy" is an amoral political lobbyist, which may or may not be a redundancy, but he could be any number of half a dozen big-time lobbyists in Florida who are sort of behind-the-scenes fixers. And they exist in every community from Washington to the smallest little town. I mean that's who runs government for a lot of people. ...

I've always wanted to put one of these guys in a novel and be able to deal with them appropriately and it's great fun, as psychotherapy, to be able to make the sorts of things happen to these folks that they deserve in real life.

CNN: Now, has a politician ever come up to you and sort of whispered to you, "Are you talking about me in that book? Is that character about me?"

Hiaasen: No, then they would have to admit that recognize themselves in these despicable characters and I don't think they're that, quite that stupid. I occasionally hear through third parties that somebody read the book and thought it was about them and it's always funny. Vanity is a wonderful thing. They always see their colleagues in the books and they never see themselves. So I encourage the idea that they could be in any particular book. I like the little look of fear that creeps into their eyes.

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Carl Hiaasen on... Florida as a setting for satire 155K WAV or 114K MP3 sound Writing about lobbyists 130K WAV or 96K MP3 sound

CNN: Have politicians ever said anything to you? How do they react to your books in the area?

Hiaasen: Well, I don't know. I mean they just generally stay away from me, which is the perfect situation as far as I'm concerned. They keep a distance. They sort of treat me like a rattlesnake, which is fine. I'm happier for it.

CNN: What about environmentalists? Do they identify with your characters?

Hiaasen: Oh, yeah. I get a lot of people -- because some of the characters, especially in this book there's a young guy who's sort of an eco-terrorist, if you will, and there's a lot of folks out there who live vicariously through these kinds of characters just like they did with Edward Abbey's books, I think, and the "Monkey Wrench Gang" where they get away with a lot of things we wish we could get away with here in Florida. So I get a lot of feedback along those lines.

There's a lot of folks everywhere who don't like what's happening in their backyards and who don't want to see the rivers dammed up or, in this case, the Everglades used as a toilet by big business.

Review: 'Sick Puppy' by Carl Hiaasen

Alfred A. Knopf

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