"The Bizarre Origins of Florida Man"
Florida Hustle. Paul Wilborn. St Petersburg Press, 2022. 310 pages.
Swamp Story. Dave Barry. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 320 pages.
Tourist Season. Carl Hiaasen. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1986. 272 pages. (One of many "Florida Man" books by Hiaasen)
The "Florida Man"/"Florida Woman" trope is ubiquitous. When you see it in a headline or hear it in a tease, you know you're in for some weird and wacky story that you will most likely repeat to friends. There are jokes, tv shows, podcasts, newsletters, books, memes galore, and tons of merchandise. Many of the true stories are documented and archived by our friend, author and journalist Craig Pittman in his "Welcome to Florida" podcast, weekly newsletter, and books and articles. (Website https://craigpittman.com/ )
However, I don't think I realized that "Florida Man" also covers a whole unique genre of fiction, and I've sampled several in the last couple of years, including the three featured here. I've noticed some similar characteristics.
1. written by former newspaper writers, especially of Tampa, St. Petersburg, or Miami newspapers
2. All of the characters are losers in some way: damaged, lonely, addicted, abused, busted relationships.
3. Rich people are all especially miserable.
4. There always weird, gross, criminal, violent, incompetent pairs of brothers to hire as henchmen.
5. Women are all incredibly sexy and end up with the loser hero who always forgives their treachery (and their always treacherous to one degree r another).
6. Every good story involves Seminoles, the Everglades, or at the very least, alligators.
7. All Florida biological families are broken. "Chosen" families are forever.
Look, they're not great literature or necessarily historical,, but they're fun reads usually.
Author Talk
Through the Groves: A Memoir. Anne Hull. Henry Holt & Co., 2023. 224 pages.
I guess it's mandatory: if you've ever written for a Tampa, St. Petersburg, or Miami newspaper, you are required to publish at least one book of some sort.
Journalist Anne Hull published her memoir of growing up in 1960s Central Florida. My wife grew up near Orlando, and I have a couple of friends and multiple cousins who grew up in Central Florida and on the Gulf Coast around the same time, but none of them had connections to the state citrus industry that Hull and her family had. Meanwhile, I grew up in rural South Georgia. So, even though Hull's experiences are different, there are definitely familiarities.
Through the Groves has gotten a lot of buzz and acclaim, and it has appeared on many lists of best books of the year. I realize there is a huge audience for this story, and some readers will absolutely love it. However, it's just not for me. Don't get me wrong, Hull is an excellent writer and storyteller. I simply found the story lacking. There are some family difficulties and there is inner turmoil within the young Hull, nothing groundbreaking or incredibly shocking or publishing worthy. There are a lot more interesting lives out there. Just my opinion, but I'm sure some of you will enjoy it, and that's fine too.
"Finding Traces of a Failed Aryan Colony in Paraguay" New York Times
Forgotten Fatherland: The True Story of Nietzsche's Sister and Her Lost Aryan Colony. Ben Macintyre. Crown, 2011. 320 pages.
I didn't think this was possible: a Ben Macintyre book that disappointed me. Macintyre is a British journalist and author who has written many books and created many documentaries, mostly about World War II. He's highly regarded, and I enjoyed a couple of his previous books. In 2011, he published a book about his quest for Nueva Germania, a German colony within Paraguay founded by the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and her husband in the 1880s. Nueva Germania was to be a New Germany, free of non-Aryan handicaps. It failed miserably, but Elisabeth Nietzsche's greatest work was still ahead of her. First, she singlehandedly edited, shaped, made up, and published her brother's works as he declined into dementia and death. Without her work, the world at large probably would never have heard Friedrich Nietzsche. Only a very few academics ever read his philosophy during his lifetime, and it was universally dismissed until Elisabeth got her hands on it. Second, she linked him and his work forever with the burgeoning Nazi movement and with Hitler. There is absolutely no evidence that Hitler ever personally read or embraced Nietzsche's ideas, and, in fact, Macintyre makes the case that Nietzsche himself would have fervently opposed fascism, antisemitism, and Nazism just as much as Elisabeth embraced them all. Hitler, however, realized the potential propaganda value in using the dead philosopher and his living sister's celebrity status among some Germans, and he used them very effectively, so much so that we now associate Nietzsche with Nazism. Macintyre argues that our connection of the two is faulty.
Unfortunately for me, the book devotes too much time to Nietzsche's philosophy and too little time to the actual colony itself. I wanted to know more about the colony and about the remnants of the colony that still exists. Yes, there is a small community of German-Paraguayans descended from the original colonists who struggle to maintain their German purity today. Alas, there are very few pages about the colony itself.
Panel discussion on SAS including Damien Lewis
Brothers in Arms: Churchill's Special Forces During WWII's Darkest Hour. Damien Lewis. Citadel, 2023. 400 pages.
Regardless of his faults, Winston Churchill was ahead of his time when it came to recognizing the importance of propaganda and espionage as major parts of the war effort. He was very involved in those areas throughout World War II. When he called for volunteers to join the Special Forces and undertake espionage and sabotage missions behind enemy lines, scores of men answered his call, and the SAS was formed.
If you are a military history buff, this book is definitely for you. Damien Lewis exhaustively searched through declassified archives, letters, diaries, military reports, and rare photos and films. Much of the material he researched had never been seen by the public before. Along with all of that documentation, he conducted numerous interviews with surviving veterans and family members. The result is an exciting narrative of incredible acts committed by an incredible assortment of unbelievable real-life characters.
Author's Lecture
The Roaring 20s saw a lot of "booms." The economy boomed, women's rights boomed with the passage of the 19th amendment granting suffrage and with flappers doing things respectable women of past generations never dreamed of, new literary and art movements boomed, jazz dominated the music scene, and there were literal booms of violence as anarchists and racists used bombs, guns, riots, and lynchings to reach their goals. There was also an epidemic of deaths by poison that swept through New York City during the 1920s. Chloroform, arsenic, strychnine, and other chemicals, natural and man-made, were easy to get, and historically difficult to detect. Before the 1920s, it was extremely difficult to prove murder by poisoning in a court of law; science just wasn't up to the task. However, that began to change in the 1920s. NYC's Chief Medical Examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler undertook groundbreaking work in a laboratory at the city's Bellevue Hospital. Their work was instrumental in the development of forensics and toxicology.
Author Debra Blum examines their work in this book which is a mixture of true crime, 1920s history, and science history. The final product is a very interesting read.
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