What to read before your Florida road trip,
Florida seems to have developed something of a monopoly on the bizarre. Take a 2015 news story about a traffic accident in which the only casualty was a shark. Or the ubiquitous “Florida man” headlines that have inspired parodic Twitter accounts and trivia games. (“Which of these absurd headlines is fake?”) Yet to some, Florida is either just home or an entertaining destination for travelers. The following books will guide you through the state’s swamplands, retirement communities and cultural enclaves, offering outright or de facto defenses of Florida.
“Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland,”
by Dave Barry — When did Florida became “The Joke State”? The author argues that the demise of the state’s reputation dates back to the 2000 election. “On election night almost all of the states were able to figure out pretty quickly who they voted for. But not Florida,” Barry writes. The country has never forgotten that gaffe. Rather than reject the oddball perception of the Sunshine State, Barry embraces the “Weirdness Factor” and guides the reader in a kooky, humorous road trip to places like Cassadaga, the Psychic Capital of the World, to have his dog’s aura read, and a retirement community with a thriving black market for Viagra. In the process, he recasts the absurd as endearing.
“Make Your Home Among Strangers,”
by Jennine Capó Crucet — A few pages into “Make Your Home Among Strangers,” Crucet’s heroine, Lizet, recounts the time her father and his friends, as preteenagers, saw a body floating in the canals of Miami. It is a story Lizet knows not to tell her colleagues at the parasitology lab where she works and reveals fairly quickly that hers will not be a story about Miami Beach’s high-end clubs and celebrity DJs. Instead, the author takes us into Hialeah and Little Havana, alternating between Lizet’s world at a prestigious college and her home life in Miami, where her parents have separated, her sister has become a single mother and a Cuban boy awash on Miami’s shores has ignited a passionate movement to keep him in America. The author investigates themes like family, immigration and race, while demonstrating the Cuban influence on Miami.
“Sunshine State: Essays”
by Sarah Gerard — The author blurs the line between memoir and journalism in this stunning book of essays. She opens with “BFF,” the story of her profound friendship with another woman that dissolved, in part, because Gerard had the means to leave town and her friend, who would become a stripper and spend time in shelters for battered women, did not. In another essay, “Going Diamond,” she writes an account of her family’s foray into Amway, describing their Bayou Club “functions” and including reporting on the company’s founder, Richard DeVos — the father-in-law of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — and its history. Gerard’s Florida is frenzied, evocative and optimistic.