Sick Puppy
Encyclopedia
Sick Puppy is a novel
by Carl Hiaasen
.
's corrupt governor, Dick Artemus, pursues schemes to line his pockets and those of his rich entrepreneur backers at the expense of the environment. His schemes have always foundered in the past, but he has high hopes of a plan involving Toad Island, virtually uninhabited except for innumerable tiny toad
s. A former drug smuggler-turned-developer, Robert Clapley, plans to bulldoze the island and turn it into Shearwater Island, with high rise condominium
s, a golf course and a massive new bridge to the mainland. He hires Palmer Stoat, a lobbyist, to expedite the project.
By random happenstance, Stoat incurs the wrath of Twilly Spree, an ecoterrorist. Spree obsessively pursues a path of retribution after seeing Stoat litter, and tracks him back to his Fort Lauderdale residence where he and his wife Desirata live.
Artemus, in an effort to avoid the Shearwater Project being tainted with violent death, seeks out and locates ex-governor Clinton Tyree
, who vanished about 20 years ago after a short and unsuccessful (but honest) term of office and is said to be hiding out somewhere in the remaining wilderness
of Florida. Artemus knows Tyree will be unsympathetic to his situation, and resorts to blackmail
. Clinton's disturbed brother Doyle is still on the governor's payroll as the keeper of a lighthouse that has not been in use for years. Artemus advises Tyree that his brother will be tossed out on the street if he doesn't locate Spree.
Clapley's death leaves the Shearwater project doomed without financial backing and only a few people show up at Palmer Stoat's funeral. Meanwhile, Twilly Spree and Clinton Tyree are driving along the highway towards Tyree's wilderness when they see another group of litterbugs throwing lighted cigarette butts, empty bottles and other rubbish out of their speeding car. They immediately agree the they have to teach them a lesson.
Other reviews praised the novel's harder edges.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen is an American journalist, columnist and novelist.- Early years :Born in 1953 and raised in Plantation, Florida, of Norwegian heritage, Hiaasen was the first of four children and the son of a lawyer, Kermit Odel, and teacher, Patricia...
.
Plot summary
FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
's corrupt governor, Dick Artemus, pursues schemes to line his pockets and those of his rich entrepreneur backers at the expense of the environment. His schemes have always foundered in the past, but he has high hopes of a plan involving Toad Island, virtually uninhabited except for innumerable tiny toad
Toad
A toad is any of a number of species of amphibians in the order Anura characterized by dry, leathery skin , short legs, and snoat-like parotoid glands...
s. A former drug smuggler-turned-developer, Robert Clapley, plans to bulldoze the island and turn it into Shearwater Island, with high rise condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
s, a golf course and a massive new bridge to the mainland. He hires Palmer Stoat, a lobbyist, to expedite the project.
By random happenstance, Stoat incurs the wrath of Twilly Spree, an ecoterrorist. Spree obsessively pursues a path of retribution after seeing Stoat litter, and tracks him back to his Fort Lauderdale residence where he and his wife Desirata live.
Artemus, in an effort to avoid the Shearwater Project being tainted with violent death, seeks out and locates ex-governor Clinton Tyree
Clinton Tyree
Clinton Tyree, a.k.a. Skink, is a fictional character who has appeared in several novels by Carl Hiaasen, beginning with Double Whammy in 1987. He is an opponent of sprawl and development, and partakes of roadkill cuisine.-Personal history:...
, who vanished about 20 years ago after a short and unsuccessful (but honest) term of office and is said to be hiding out somewhere in the remaining wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
of Florida. Artemus knows Tyree will be unsympathetic to his situation, and resorts to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
. Clinton's disturbed brother Doyle is still on the governor's payroll as the keeper of a lighthouse that has not been in use for years. Artemus advises Tyree that his brother will be tossed out on the street if he doesn't locate Spree.
Clapley's death leaves the Shearwater project doomed without financial backing and only a few people show up at Palmer Stoat's funeral. Meanwhile, Twilly Spree and Clinton Tyree are driving along the highway towards Tyree's wilderness when they see another group of litterbugs throwing lighted cigarette butts, empty bottles and other rubbish out of their speeding car. They immediately agree the they have to teach them a lesson.
Characters in "Sick Puppy"
- Twilly Spree — college dropout, millionaire, protagonist
- Palmer Stoat — lobbyist and political fixer
- Desirata Stoat — Palmer's wife
- Robert Clapley — drug smuggler, now real-estate developer
- Dick Artemus — Florida governor, politician
- Clinton TyreeClinton TyreeClinton Tyree, a.k.a. Skink, is a fictional character who has appeared in several novels by Carl Hiaasen, beginning with Double Whammy in 1987. He is an opponent of sprawl and development, and partakes of roadkill cuisine.-Personal history:...
— Former environmentalist governor of Florida.
Major themes
Although some of the themes of the novel may suggest an autobiographical element the author himself shrugs off at least one aspect of this parallel. A main character Twilly and himself both had attorney forbears who lived in Southern Florida, but the development in this area came as a surprise to him and his attorney father and grandfather.Literary significance & criticism
Sick Puppy has been reviewed well and one example describes Hiaasen's skills thus.Other reviews praised the novel's harder edges.
Read on
- Many of Hiaasen's other novels are quite similar in tone and subject-matter, for example Tourist SeasonTourist SeasonTourist Season is a 1986 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It was his first solo novel, after co-writing several mystery/thriller novels with William Montalbano.-Plot:...
or Skinny Dip. - T. Coraghessan BoyleT. Coraghessan BoyleTom Coraghessan Boyle is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the mid 1970s, he has published twelve novels and more than 100 short stories...
's novel A Friend of the EarthA Friend of the EarthT. Coraghessan Boyle's novel A Friend of the Earth is a story of environmental destruction. The novel is set in 2025; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect, the climate has drastically changed, and, accordingly, biodiversity is a thing of the past.-America in 2025:Due to habitat...
is a slightly more serious treatment of ecoterrorism and ecotageEcotageEcotage is a portmanteau of the "eco-" prefix and "sabotage". Ecotage is often used as a descriptive term for the direct actions of environmental groups such as Earth First! and similar groups throughout the Western world. The term is only applied for actions of sabotage committed within the...
. - Henry Adams's novel DemocracyDemocracy: An American NovelDemocracy: An American Novel is a political novel written by Henry Brooks Adams and published anonymously in 1880. Only after the writer's death in 1918 did his publisher reveal Adams's authorship although, upon publication, the novel had immediately become popular...
discusses similar politics during the late 19th century. - Twilly Spree reappears in Hiaasen's newest children's book, ScatScat (novel)Scat is a teenage novel by Carl Hiaasen, published in 2009. Scat tells the mystery of a missing teacher named Mrs. Bunny Starch, and how two of her students, Nick and Marta, do everything to find her. The book is held in over 1,000 libraries, according to WorldCat...
Cultural Influence
- The title of the book inspired the name of AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n rock band Sick PuppiesSick PuppiesSick Puppies is an Australian rock band, formed in 1997. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Shimon Moore, bassist Emma Anzai and drummer Mark Goodwin....