Product Description

A smart topless dancer and a cool but clueless cop join forces to trap adirty congressman, aided by one of the funniest cast of characters evercollected in a suspense novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114230 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com Review
A smart topless dancer and a cool but clueless cop join forces to trap a dirty congressman, aided by one of the funniest cast of characters ever collected in a suspense novel.

From Publishers Weekly
Inventive blackmail schemes, grisly murders, power politics, greed, revenge and sex all figure in Hiaasen's ( Native Tongue ) latest comic crime novel. At the Eager Beaver, a topless bar in Fort Lauderdale, former FBI clerk Erin Grant dances nightly to pay for legal fees in her custody fight for her young daughter. There David Dilbeck, a poorly disguised, somewhat kinky and imbecilic U.S. Congressman owned by the state's sugar interests, is recognized by a sharp-eyed regular who, infatuated with Erin, initiates a blackmail plan meant to influence her court case. The resulting mayhem, occuring in an election year, involves machinations up to the highest state level, most of which are orchestrated by Dilbeck's arrogant, sleazy lawyer, and leads to an escalating body count that ends in a frenzied revenge caper arranged by the resourceful Erin deep in some sugarcane fields. Dead-on dialogue ("My boots are full of Vaseline," says Dilbeck one night, his only other clothing a black cowboy hat) and clearly limned characters from society's fringes--notably the taciturn, inventive Eager Beaver bouncer; a Cuban cop who works the case off hours; Erin's psychopathic ex, and his sister who raises hybrid wolves outside her double-wide trailer--round out this somewhat coincidence-ridden but consistently entertaining, warm-blooded tale. 60,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
It's a wonder Florida hasn't yet banished Hiaasen (Native Tongue, etc.). Here's the Miami Herald reporter's fifth comic thriller--a marvelous madcap yarn pitting a stripper vs. a congressman--depicting the Sunshine State as the weirdest place this side of Oz. And the most venal as well: Hiaasen's satire is more barbed than ever here, pricking at Florida's apparently corrupt sugar industry. The typically bizarre action begins at Fort Lauderdale's Eager Beaver club, where a drunk fan is pawing star stripper Erin Grant. Out of the audience rushes an old gent who clubs the mauler with a bottle of Korbel. No big deal--except that the white knight is Congressman David Dilbeck, toady to sugar interests and up for reelection. Two men try to blackmail Dilbeck: one, a lovestruck fan of Erin's, wants the congressman to help reverse the judicial decision that granted custody of Erin's daughter to her psycho husband, Darrell; the other, a sleazy lawyer, wants money. Both wind up dead, victims of the sugar-growers' long and homicidal arm. Meanwhile, warfare erupts between the Eager Beaver and the rival Flesh Farm, and not even the Beaver's new attraction--patrons wrestling strippers in a vat of creamed corn--can stem the tide of customers to the Farm and it's ``friction'' dancing. In any case, Erin won't do corn, so--desperate for money to run away with her daughter, whom she's snatched from Darrell--she turns to dancing privately for the slobbering congressman. But now Darrell's hot on her trail, rusty knife in hand, and it takes all of Erin's wiles, plus some help from a kindly Cuban cop and the Eager Beaver's bald giant of a bouncer, to keep Darrell off her back and Dilbeck out of her pants--and bring justice to the sugar industry as well. Prime Hiaasen, and with a new edge: sexier, more violent, more political, but just as funny. (First printing of 60,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Hiaasen hilarity
I've read all of Carl Hiaasen's books, and although my favorites are "Native Tongue" and "Skin Tight", I choose to review "Strip Tease" because the film did not represent it very well. In all fairness to Demi and company, I don't think Hollywood could ever do Hiaasen's dark humor justice. By now everyone knows the plot line of "Strip Tease": Erin the reluctant stripper becomes involved with smarmy politicians, environmental despoilers, and slimeball ex and inlaws in her struggle for custody of her daughter. Sexploitation, murder, and blackmail ensue, but with the help of a good-hearted Cuban cop and a deranged but devoted doorman, our protagonist prevails. As in all Hiaasen's tales, the climax is upbeat for the heroes while the villains reap their twisted, greatly-deserved kharma. For those not already familiar with Hiaasen, reading this book is a good way to begin the experience. The characters are a little less wacky, the plot a little less zany than his other novels'. But the writing style is every bit as riotous. Warning: Hiaasen is addictive! Like tattoos and chocolate-cordial cherries, you can't stop with just one. And after the insanity of the recent Elian' Gonzales tug-of-war and the rigged election, the reader will realize where Hiaasen dredges up the loony characters who populate his Florida settings. But his genuine love for his home state -- along with his genuine frustration over the rape of its ecosystem -- is evident in all his writings. Those who appreciate Hiaasen's crusade against Florida's political corruption and development & tourism industries will enjoy reading his fine little non-fiction rant, "Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World".

About the right balance . . .
of "stripping" and "teasing" if by stripping you mean sex and violence and "teasing" you mean satire and Mr. Hiaasen's legendary caustic political wit. (If Congress ever takes meaningful action to reduce or eliminate the federal "giveaway" sugar price-support subsidies to the big growers, the best-informed average citizens outside of the Sunshine State will undoubtedly be Hiaasen fans who read this book.) But Mr. H. says that the Latino-American sugar barons portrayed in this book are just a figment of his warped imagination. Well, his imagination may be warped, but it tickles me.

This just may be Hiaasen's very best novel. The pacing is nice and zippy. Its story line has all the elements in the right degree: I mentioned the humor and the savagery, and the characters are priceless, including a bouncer who "has a high threshold" and inhales cigar smoke when he lights up, thinking that everyone else does. To an unusual degree with this frequently cynical author, the guilty suffer and the good are rewarded, though sometimes in unorthodox ways. I do agree with earlier critics who found the lady stripper a bit too good to be true. If you can spell, turn on a computer and look good in pumps, a legal secretary earns just as much money, has the drop on the best day-care centers and is about eleventy-seven times more likely to get home in one piece. I just have to forgive Hiaasen his title character's chosen profession; as the folks in the English departments do, write it off as a "convention of the genre," which is academese for "make believe it's so or else there ain't no story."

This is an excellent starter book for neophyte Hiaasen fans (notice I assume that anyone who picks up his books will become a fan); though if you prefer to work up the pace slowly you might consider the earlier, more leisurely "Double Whammy."

Demi Moore owes Carl and his fans a big apology
While not Carl Hiaasen's best work -- I'd nominate "Skin Tight" or "Native Tongue" for that -- "Strip Tease" is far wiser, funnier and richer than the anemic film version by Demi Moore would have you believe.

Instead of FBI secretary-turned-stripper Erin being a strangely desexualized perfect being, in the novel, in the novel, she's a complicated mess. In other words, a real human being. Her ex-husband is a piece of crap, yes, but not the cartoonish lout we see in the film. In fact, everyone in a Hiaasen novel is a bit of a goofball, once their foibles are looked at unflinchingly, which is part of the fun.

Those only familiar with "Strip Tease" via the movie don't get any of that: The good guys are too good to screw up, and the bad guys are too stupid to have any redeeming qualities. And to top it all off, Demi apparently doesn't understand that stripping is meant to titillate, not spiritually enlighten its audience. Those aroused by the film ought to get out more.

In fact, the book tops the film in every way, with the possible exception of what Burt Reynolds brings to the film. But even then, in his role as a corrupt politician -- and, ultimately, the engine for the story -- punches are pulled and he's not quite as sleazy as in the book. Apparently, giving people a lesson into how greed is destroying the Everglades was just too heavy for the film audience.

Those who liked the film -- and they exist, strangely enough -- still ought to pick up the book, to learn all about the characters and read the situations that didn't make the final cut. For current fans of Hiaasen's work, the book is roughly on par with "Stormy Weather," although much more politically barbed than that work, which took aim at humanity's folly generally.

And for Demi Moore, what were you thinking? You owe Carl and his fans a big apology, as well as your own fans, who deserve better.