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 Cover of the first edition of Nature Girl | |
| Author | Carl Hiaasen |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Charles Burns |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 306 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0-307-26299-8 |
| Preceded by | Skinny Dip |
| Followed by | Star Island |
Nature Girl is a novel by Carl Hiaasen, published in 2006. [1]
Honey Santana becomes irritated by telemarketers and invites a particularly obnoxious one to a phony real estate promotion - which she describes as an eco-tour - in the Ten Thousand Islands in order to teach him a lesson. It is thus that telemarketers Boyd Shreave and his reluctant mistress Eugenie Fonda make their way from Texas to Everglades City, Florida, and eventually Dismal Key with Honey, unaware that she is being stalked by Louis Piejack, Honey's perverted and disfigured ex-employer, who is unaware that he is being followed by Fry, Honey's wise and protective twelve-year-old son, and his courageous ex-drug runner father. Also on the island are a young half-Seminole man named Sammy Tigertail and his very willing captive, Gillian, a sex-obsessed, warmhearted Florida State coed. Various odd events surface along the way.
Honey Santana loses her job after she hits her lecherous boss, Louis Piejack. During dinner, she receives a call from telemarketer Boyd Shreave, trying to sell her cheap land. Honey asks Boyd if his mother knows what he does for a living, causing him to insult her. Honey resolves to track Boyd down to teach him a lesson. Meanwhile, a drunken tourist dies of a heart attack during an airboat ride with Sammy Tigertail, a young half-Seminole. Misconstruing his uncle's advice, he dumps the body in a river and camps out on the Ten Thousand Islands. Sammy's solitude is interrupted by a group of college students having a drunken party. He is about to steal one of their canoes and find another island when one of the students, Gillian, pressures him to take her along.
Boyd loses his job for insulting Honey, and his co-worker Eugenie Fonda, the one-time mistress of a tabloid murderer, ends their affair. He is also unaware that his wife, Lily, has hired a private investigator, Dealey, to gather evidence of his infidelity for their divorce. Lily demands more explicit footage of Boyd's affair, causing Dealey to realizes that she is now indulging a sexual fetish instead of gathering evidence. Meanwhile, Honey tracks Boyd down and calls him at home, posing as a telemarketer offering a free trip to Florida as part of a timeshare promotion. Boyd seizes the opportunity to try to win Eugenie back, and she is intrigued enough by a trip to Florida to accept. Honey borrows the airfare from her ex-husband, Perry Skinner, and asks her son, Fry, if he can stay with Perry for a few days.
Boyd and Eugenie arrive at Honey's trailer park. There, Dealey — who has followed the pair — is abducted by Louis, who is stalking Honey. While skateboarding past the trailer park, Fry catches sight of them. Honey leads Boyd and Eugenie on a kayaking trip. By coincidence they land on Dismal Key, where Sammy and Gillian have begun to bond. Fry is so preoccupied worrying about his mother that he collides with a garbage truck on his skateboard, suffering a concussion. Perry, who does not trust the hospital to look after his son, gives him a Miami Dolphins football helmet and drives with him to the docks. He spots Louis tailing Honey's kayak in a jon boat and follows them. On Dismal Key, Honey reveals her identity to Boyd and gives him a rehearsed lecture on basic courtesy. Boyd turns to leave with Eugenie, but they find the kayaks gone — Sammy, mistaking them for intruders, has stolen them.
Dealey arrives on Dismal Key with Louis. Sammy finds them, knocks Louis out, and takes Dealey prisoner, mistaking him for the tourist's ghost. After Honey, Boyd and Eugenie fall asleep, Sammy sneaks to their campsite to steal water. Eugenie wakes and follows him back, wanting the quickest possible way off the island. There, she meets Dealey, who admits he was sent by Lily. Dealey borrows Gillian's cell phone and calls the Coast Guard for air rescue. Sammy says that Eugenie and Gillian are leaving with him, whether they want to or not. Sensing her last opportunity, Gillian asks Eugenie for some privacy and seduces Sammy. Perry and Fry arrive on the island, with Fry ignoring his father and leaving the boat to find his mother. He runs into Eugenie, who is charmed by Fry's intelligence and manners, and helps him back toward the camp when he is overcome by vertigo.
In the morning, Honey makes Boyd climb a tree with her to watch a sunrise, which fails to impress him. As they climb down, Louis snatches Honey and Boyd watches mutely as she is dragged away. Dealey tries to paddle out in one of Honey's kayaks when a Coast Guard helicopter arrives, but has to be rescued by Gillian when he tips the kayak over and nearly drowns. Fry encourages Eugenie to go too, and she is rescued along with Dealey and Gillian. Fry comes upon Louis threatening Honey with a shotgun. Sammy strikes Louis with his guitar, killing him. Perry is shot in the hip during the skirmish, and Honey rushes him and Fry back to the mainland. Sammy disposes of Louis's body using his jon boat. Boyd reaches another island on Sammy's canoe and stumbles on a small religious group who identify him as the returned Jesus Christ.
In the epilogue, Sammy finds a new island and realizes that Gillian is searching for him, but wonders whether or not he wants to keep hiding. Eugenie leaves her telemarketing job and, as a snub to Lily, sends her footage of two mating geckos which she idly filmed on the island with one of Dealey's cameras. Dealey offers her a job in his office. Boyd alienates his religious followers, who kick him out of the group and leave him on the island with his canoe. He makes his way to the mainland, comes across a tourist couple from Chicago asking for a realtor. Honey and Perry get back together while recovering from their injuries. Fry is happy, but worried about whether his mother's obsessiveness will drive them apart again. During dinner, Honey decides not to answer the phone when it rings.
Like many of Hiaasen's novels, the events of the book are largely driven by the collection of characters who populate it:
The New York Times wrote that "perhaps as compensation for its familiarity, Nature Girl is a bit too frantic in its plotting." [1] Kirkus Reviews wrote: "For once, the characters are funnier than their exhaustingly unpredictable interactions. The result is less satire than usual from Hiaasen ... and more Rube Goldberg farce." [2] Publishers Weekly called the book "another hilarious Florida romp." [3] The Independent called it "an hysterical romp of crooks and tarts by a delectably deranged imagination." [4]
Carl Hiaasen is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for young-adult readers. Two of his novels have been made into feature films.
Sick Puppy is a 2000 novel by Carl Hiaasen.
Osceola, named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, led by a relative, Peter McQueen, after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
Skunk ape, also known as the Swamp ape and Florida Bigfoot, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forests and swamps of some southeastern United States, notably in Florida.
Tourist Season is a 1986 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It was his first solo novel, after co-writing several mystery/thriller novels with William Montalbano.
Skinny Dip is a caper novel by Carl Hiaasen first published in 2004. It is his 11th work of fiction for adult readers. It is his fifth book featuring the character known as "Skink" and his second novel including the character Mick Stranahan, a former detective. It involves a murder plot and a subsequent attempt to exact revenge against the backdrop of a threat to Florida's Everglades National Park.
Strip Tease is a 1993 novel by Carl Hiaasen. Like most of his other novels, it is a crime novel set in Florida and features Hiaasen's characteristic black humor. The novel focuses on a single mother who has turned to exotic dancing to earn enough money to gain legal custody of her young daughter, and ends up matching wits with a lecherous United States Congressman and his powerful corporate backers.
Stormy Weather is a 1995 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It takes place in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in South Florida and concerns the tragic effects of the disaster, including insurance scams, street fights, hunt for food and shelter, corrupt bureaucracy, a ravaged environment and disaster tourists.
The Ten Thousand Islands are a chain of islands and mangrove islets off the coast of southwest Florida, between Cape Romano and the mouth of the Lostmans River. Some of the islands are high spots on a submergent coastline. Others were produced by mangroves growing on oyster bars. Despite the name, the islets in the chain only number in the hundreds.
Double Whammy is a 1987 novel by Carl Hiaasen. The protagonist, a private investigator, is hired to expose a celebrity bass fisherman as a cheat and is drawn into a frame-up for murder. The book introduced the character of "Skink", who becomes a recurring character in Hiaasen's subsequent novels.
Shark Valley is a geological depression at the head of the Shark River Slough in far western Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is currently part of Everglades National Park. Shark Valley empties into Shark River in the Ten Thousand Islands of Monroe County. Shark Valley characteristically includes sawgrass prairie that floods during the rainy season, hence the name "river of grass"—Pa-Hay-Okee, from the Mikasuki language—for such marshes in the Everglades. Shark Valley features a Visitor Center with educational displays, a park video, an underwater camera and informational brochures. The entrance to Shark Valley is located along Tamiami Trail near the Miami-Dade–Collier County line.
Dismal Key is a small island, part of the Ten Thousand Islands archipelago in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The island is artificial, constructed by people of the Glades culture. Construction of the island proceeded in stages over some 1,500 years following the end of the Archaic period in Florida. Occupation probably ended a couple of centuries before the arrival of Europeans in Florida. Dismal Key was occupied by several hermits in the 20th century.
Native Tongue is a novel by Carl Hiaasen, published in 1991. Like all his novels, it is set in Florida. The themes of the novel include corruption, environmentalism, exploitation of endangered species, and animal rights.
The indigenous people of the Everglades region arrived in the Florida peninsula of what is now the United States approximately 14,000 to 15,000 years ago, probably following large game. The Paleo-Indians found an arid landscape that supported plants and animals adapted to prairie and xeric scrub conditions. Large animals became extinct in Florida around 11,000 years ago. Climate changes 6,500 years ago brought a wetter landscape. The Paleo-Indians slowly adapted to the new conditions. Archaeologists call the cultures that resulted from the adaptations Archaic peoples. They were better suited for environmental changes than their ancestors, and created many tools with the resources they had. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the climate shifted again to cause the regular flooding from Lake Okeechobee that gave rise to the Everglades ecosystems.
Ernest Francis Coe, also "Tom Coe" was an American landscape designer who envisioned a national park dedicated to the preservation of the Everglades, culminating in the establishment of Everglades National Park. Coe was born and spent most of his life in Connecticut as a professional gardener, moving to Miami at age 60. He was enormously impressed with the Everglades and became one of several South Florida-based naturalists who grew concerned for the wanton destruction of plants, animals, and natural water flow in the name of progress and prosperity. Coe worked for more than 20 years to get Everglades National Park established, but he viewed the effort as mostly a failure. However, Oscar L. Chapman, former Secretary of the Interior, stated "Ernest Coe's many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement."
Chomp is a young adult novel by Carl Hiaasen first published in 2012, and set in Hiaasen's native Florida. It is his fourth young adult novel. His previous three, also about Florida wildlife, are Hoot, Flush and Scat.
Squeeze Me is a novel by Carl Hiaasen released on August 25, 2020.
Houston R. Cypress is a Two-Spirit Native American artist, poet, environmental activist, ordained minister, and filmmaker from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Cypress is an advocate for two-spirited and non-binary gender peoples, Everglades ecosystem and cultural preservation, sovereignty, and environmental issues. He co-founded Love the Everglades Movement. Through his artistic practice, Cypress explores and articulates queer ecological knowledge through community-based artistic, mystical, and shamanistic techniques, including deep listening practice, ceremony, prayer walks, and service. Cypress is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Artists in Residency in Everglades (AIRIE), an organization in partnership with the Everglades National Park.