Stormy Weather (Carl Hiaasen novel)

Stormy Weather
Author	Carl Hiaasen
Country	United States
Language	English
Publication date	1995
Media type	print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by	Strip Tease
Followed by	Lucky You

Stormy Weather is a 1995 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It takes place in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in South Florida, including insurance scams, street fights, hunt for food and shelter, corrupt bureaucracy, ravaged environment and disaster tourists.

1 Plot
2 Critical reception
3 Allusions to real-life persons, places, or events
4 See also

Plot

Young newlyweds Max and Bonnie Brooks, on their honeymoon at Walt Disney World in Orlando, are taken aback by news of the hurricane passing through South Florida. To Bonnie's surprise, Max is possessed by a fervent desire to visit the scene after it has passed through.

Once they arrive, Bonnie is appalled to see Max hopping through hurricane debris and gutted houses with his video camera, treating the devastation as a tourist attraction. She stalks away from him to regain her temper, and so is not present when Max is snatched up by "Skink," an ex-governor of Florida now living wild in the Florida country.

At the same time, con artist Edie Marsh, and her sometime partner, an ex-convict nicknamed "Snapper," travel to the hurricane zone to work a personal injury scam. Unfortunately for them, the house they pick belongs to mobile home salesman Tony Torres, who's a bit sharper than the average hurricane victim, and quickly sees through them and takes them hostage with a shotgun. But instead of killing them, he invites them in on his own scam: he's expecting a large settlement from the insurance company, but needs his estranged wife's signature to collect; if Edie poses as the wife, Tony can cut out his real wife, and Edie gets a slice of the take.

Critical reception

Allusions to real-life persons, places, or events

Edie refers to the William Kennedy Smith Trial when devising her plan to blackmail the family by seducing one of them.
Snapper's real name is "Lester Maddox Parsons." His parents, both white supremacists, named him after Georgia governor Lester Maddox, a famed segregationist, at his mother's insistence; his father favored James Earl Ray, the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
Several references are made to past hurricanes passing through the Southern U.S., including Camille and Donna. Augustine claims his parents conceived him during Donna.
Hiaasen makes a mocking reference to a passing visit to the scene of the disaster by the President of the United States. Though the novel was published in 1995, during the Bill Clinton Presidency, Hurricane Andrew occurred in 1992; this date, coupled with Hiaasen's description of the unnamed President as a Republican, accompanied by his younger son, is a clear reference to George H. Bush and his son, George W. Bush.
The aftermath of Hurricane Andrew was fertile ground for several news stories exposing real-life corruption and incompetence in the construction industry and local and state governments; Hiaasen wrote several scathing columns in the Miami Herald. In particular, he derided the industry's and government's apologists for describing Hurricane Andrew as "the storm of the century," or "The Big One" - in other words, excusing their own shoddy construction or incompetence by exaggerating the force of the hurricane.

Stormy Weather (Carl Hiaasen novel)

Contents

Plot

Critical reception

Allusions to real-life persons, places, or events

See also