Smokeout

Rating:
Summary: Poor Hiaasen Imitation
Review: Date's certainly got the amorality of Tallahassee politics captured here, but frankly his big-government-should-control-every-aspect-of-your-behavior politics is what ruins this book. Hiaasen's novels make it clear that BOTH sides, all sides of politics are immoral. Date's attempt to hijack the Hiaasen style for a narrow political purpose make this novel not art, but propaganda. Moreover, I didn't even laugh once. If you or I had written this, instead of a well-connected reporter, it would never have been printed--and shouldn't have been.

Rating:
Summary: He sure ain't no Carl Haiassen
Review: Featuring abjectly corrupt politicians, a loco hit man and a corporate CEO practicing business the way Attila intended, "Smokeout" is furious fun, especially for those who've had the, ahem, pleasure of seeing the Florida Legislature up close. It mostly reads like a true-crime book because much of what's in the plot is akin to what happens everyday in Tallahassee.

The only time the fast-paced, inventive yarn strains credibility is when it finds a few laudable types trying to do the right thing amid the population of bumbling bottom feaders. Readers will be rewarded with enough laughs to not care.

Rating:
Summary: Nonstop Action
Review: I have read Date's two previous books "Final Orbit" and "Speed Week" with each being better than the previous. After reading Smokeout, I can only wait for his next novel to arrive.

Smokeout is a high paced book that picks up more and more momentum as the story continues. The nonstop action made it hard to find a point to put down the book. Date's development of his characters and situations is such that I felt like I was in the Florida capital at the scene of the crimes.

I would not have believed that the story line in Smokeout was based on fact if I hadn't heard NPR's Fresh Air 11/9/00 interview with Date. If you have 15 minutes and the patience for NPR to launch the file, it really is worth listening to.

I highly recommend Smokeout as a read for the New Year.

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: Many commentators have often pointed out that the difference between fact and fiction, is that fictional stories have to eventually make sense. Unfortunately, this book falls short in that category.

Yes there are some funny scenes and funny dialogue, but the story about sinister politicians and tobacco executives just falls apart at the end.

Date has been compared to other political authors who can be humorous (Carl Hiassan) but it's a poor comparison. Hiassan is funny because he can slip in the unexpected. Every once in awhile one of his characters acts out of type. Not so in this book, every tobacco executive is evil and every politician has a nefarious hidden agenda.

I am sympathetic to the anti-tobacco cause, but Date is so ham-fisted about the issue in this book. Let's face it, people live their lives in various shades of gray and not black and white. Some of our heroes have bad habits and secret lives and some of our villans can have a soft positive side. The problem with this book and everything else I've read of Mr. Date is that you can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are only sentences after being introduced to them.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, entertaining, informative
Review: Not since Buckley's Thank You For Smoking have I heard myself guffawing out loud so many times. You won't need any urging after the first chapter. But, best of all, there's a message here. Perhaps money doesn't rule so completely in our Democracy as the author pictures it in these pages. At least, I hope it doesn't

Rating:
Summary: Fun, entertaining, informative
Review: Not since Buckley's Thank You For Smoking have I heard myself guffawing out loud so many times. You won't need any urging after the first chapter. But, best of all, there's a message here. Perhaps money doesn't rule so completely in our Democracy as the author pictures it in these pages. At least, I hope it doesn't

Rating:
Summary: Zany and fun satire
Review: This book with its wild antics of the Florida legislature is especially appropriate now since the entire country has watched Florida politics at work in the presidential election. It's a quick, fun read, and gets more and more outrageous as you go along.