Naked Came the Manatee

Black comedy by Carl Hiaasen in collaboration with 12 other south Florida writers, including Dave Barry and Elmore Leonard.

Each writer produces one chapter. In spite of this technical handicap the story is cohesive. Indeed it's hard to tell at times that the writing style has shifted, since all

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keep to the well tried rules of the genre.

Arguably the result would have been better if each author had gone it alone, but it's a fun exercise that ultimately succeeds.

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This book was a light read: light suspense, light mystery, light sense of humor. It would be a decent beach read, but it really never pulled me very far into the story. I giggled a bit though, so points for that. It just wasn't my preferred genre. The fact that so many authors contributed a chapter

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kept the story from ever gaining any real depth, but it was certainly an interesting experiment.

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I can't say enough how much I love this book,
I've tried and I just blather on and on like an idiot.
The only definative thing I really can say about this lovely story is,
"What are you wasting time reading this review for?
Go get this book!"
It's been in my short list of favorites for years,

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absolutly timeless classic.

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Remember that game where you get a bunch of people together and one person starts a story then breaks off and the next person continues the story, and so on? Well this book is what happens when that bunch of people are all published authors. Just like those impromptu group stories, this story is a

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lot of fun, but suffers from characters that suddenly begin acting out of character, plot points that show up suddenly then just drift away, and even chapters that shift genres. Kudos to Carl Hiaasen who had the unenviable job of trying to tie down a story that had grown way out of hand and provide a reasonable conclusion to it.

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Take three Fidel Castro heads (well actually four), a montage of unique characters from movie stars to former politicians, and a naked manatee (aren't they all naked?) and you have one unique madcap story. This 13 chapter story was written by 13 well known Florida authors. It is neat to see the

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writing styles change from one chapter to the next. This is a quick read filled with a few laughs and a bag full of smirks.

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I disagree with many of the reviews inasmuch as the story is contiguous and does play out. what bothers me most is the blatent absence of awareness of some of these contributors of the need for a leap of the imagination by the reader. It is impossible for me to imagine a 102-year-old woman floating

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a mile out injto into the Atlantic. Forget the fact tnat a mile out the Gulf Stream may pick her up and move her towards England; there is nobody of that age capable of swimming a mile out and back; too, what dreamer gives intelligence of a mongoloid human to a manatee. they are dumb as cows. all mammels are not superior to other formws of life.i suggest a Retilian Ridley sea turtle would swim away from a motor instead of ignoring it as manatees do. Lastly, the element of style must be discussed. there are only two styles of wrting in this book -- Elmore Leonard's ujzi-like dialogue bits and Carl Hiaasen's flippant (and often cruel) descriptions and characters. I have never heard of the other 10 writers who allegedly wrote the chapters. I betcha Carl wrote them all, then asked Elmore in for to cast a joke. Either that or the other writeres herein not mentioned (nor shall they be) are all emulating the Hiasson style.
I am so glad Booger didnt get killed and that, as Hollywood always writes it, he gets the girl in the end. Bottom line: it was an enjoyable read and, except for the aforementioned lack of a leap of faith sections, was an entertaining and enjoyable read.

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Like the waters of Key Biscayne, in and near where much of the plot of this book occurs, this story is choppy. That's to be expected, given the novel consists of 13 chapters, no two written by the same author. Dave Barry kicks off the story, Carl Hiaasen finishes it, and the writers in between are

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all seasoned Floridian authors of varying renown. Some of the chapters are funnier than others, some better written, and a couple don't work at all. The approach makes for disjointed storytelling at best, and reads more like a series of tenuously interconnected vignettes than an actual story. It's an interesting writing experiment, but one that's been done before and better. If you're a fan of any of these authors or the peculiar inanities of south Florida life, you'll enjoy this book.

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The unusual name, cover and the fact that this was on the New York Times Bestseller list attracted me to this book. This is meant to be a comedy written by 13 of Florida’s ‘finest writers’ but I just did not find it funny. As each chapter was written by a different author, they did not always

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flow smoothly into each other. The characters seemed false with the most interesting character being the manatee! I got half way through the book and had to give up. I have too much life to live to waste it on a boring book!

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An interesting experiment. As usual, Carl Hiaasen was the best. Not a great read, but light summer stuff. I particularly liked Hiaasen's dehumanizing and desentimentalizing the manatee. It was as though he was saying to the other authors, "Enough of this nonsense! A manatee is an eating and f-cking

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machine with the mental resources of a piece of celery. He could care less about human foibles and so could I ..."

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A little uneven, but quite entertaining!

The concept is more fun than the book. If I knew some of the characters from other books written by some of these authors, I might have liked it more. Fidel Castro and international conspiracies figure in this fast-paced, humorous story.

The structure of "Naked came the Manatee" reminds me of a game we played in primary school; Person A writes something, passes it onto Person B, who adds to Person A's story, etc., so it ends up like Chinese Whispers. The end result of "Naked came the manatee" is somewhat better written than what my

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fellow students and I came up with but reading it made me nostalgic for books with a single author.

It was disjointed but it was also not overly interesting and it was only a testament to my staying power that I finished the book. Still, others with more nostalgic memories of their primary school class writing projects may enjoy it more.

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I forgot to record this when I read it, but I recall being underwhelmed. I think it was praobaly around 2004.

A great premise, but this book really foundered along the way. Each author tried to make it harder for the next one to continue the story, while planting what they thought were land mines along the way. It made for a jumbled mess, for me, and I didn't think it was very funny, either. Some of the

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authors were quite boring, and I read too many authors to mention.
It would have worked if Carl Hiaasen took the whole thing and wrote it himself. Yes, I am a HUGE fan of his writing. But this would have been more to my liking. I agree with others that there were too many heads, as well. And, I think even Hiaasen was annoyed and rolled his eyes at least a little, on how the others made the manatee so human-like..

A great novel to get a feel for other writers you've never read before.

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