I must admit I just don't find McGee that eccentric, more
bohemian, kinda self-consciously bohemian at that, which
seems to be the American way. And I don't see that as a
problem, but a good thing. He makes enough money to take his
retirement in installments, every American's dream.
As for the preachiness, I've got to agree with Juri here,
there is a difference between the politics of McGee and Dan
Fortune (or Lynds' Mark Sadler books, for that matter, though
they have the capitalist indictment within the plot more than
through lectures). As the series went on (one of the few
series I thought stayed as good, sometimes even got better
over time), Dan Fortune got more and more openly
compassionately Marxist (caring about what capitalism was
doing to real people) in his critique of corporate US. McGee
is a conservative in the literal sense, yearning for an
earlier, better time (whether or not it ever actually
existed, hence the nostalgia) before strip malls took over
Florida.
Hiassen takes that to an extreme. I enjoyed several Hiassens
(up to Striptease, which I found mostly stilted), found
several hilarious. I don't find his characters eccentric,
either, but pure comic constructs. And for the most part his
"Florida is going to hell" moral is worked into the text, is
the basis of the plot.
Of course, so much of the hardboiled Florida critique seems
to be of the
"I'm aboard, pull up the ladder" nature -- "Florida started
being overrun the day after I got there."
Mark
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