“Raging fascist oaf” is one subtle description of The Former Guy in the satirical novel Squeeze Me, by Carl Hiaasen.

As you know, there are two kinds of satire: the dark ones, like 1984, and the humorous ones, like Squeeze Me. Some people won’t find it the least bit funny, as I suggest in the title to this post. For the rest of us, however, there are consistent laughs throughout the story, which features the travails of TFG (Secret Service code-name Mastodon) and the then FLOTUS (code-name Mockingbird) at the Winter White House in Florida. Real names, of course, are never used, so you’ll have to put up with the need to decode the pseudonyms.

I haven’t read much Hiaasen before, but I gather that this one is relatively typical but funnier. As you might gather from the cover art, the plot concerns the release of giant Burmese pythons amid the Rich and Famous of Palm Beach. Well, maybe you can’t gather that, but that’s the basic premise. Don’t read it as a puzzle mystery in which your task is to figure out whodunit, just as a satirical novel that you can have fun with.

Categories: Books