"Humorous look at suburbia through the eyes of a kindhearted conman"
In the Tampa Bay area, after his roommates Sharon and
Coleman burn down their townhouse along with a few
historical homes while freebasing lint, Serge A. Storms
relocates the entire crew to Triggerfish Lane. Meanwhile
in the same Triggerfish Lane area, Lance Boyle rents to the
shoddiest tenants on the planet. The slumlord wants the
more respectable locals to sell cheaply to him. Shockingly, Serge the historian loves life in the Burbs.
He "helps" his neighbors, which requires some kind of
conning. His best buddy is Midwest refugee Jim Davenport,
a gentle-hearted father of three, who moved his family here
because Tampa ranks third as a desirable place to live.
However, the magazine Tampa and the Boyle Tampa are not the
same. Serge places the Davenports off limits to the local
nasties. However, Serge's bodyguard service requires 24-7
when Jim accidentally kills one of the McGraws leading to
the rest of the family of thugs seeking vengeance. The latest Serge tale TRIGGERFISH TWIST is a very humorous
look at suburbia through the eyes of a kindhearted urban
con man. The story line is wacky, as Serge looks so
comfortable outside his element. Except for the Davenports
the rest of the cast adds zany depth while the Midwest
transfers appear as a typical American family caught in the
midst of an asylum that leaves the quintet tugging at the
hearts of the reader and Serge when the McGraws seek
revenge. Tim Dorsey provides a humorous tale that
continues the crazy tradition that along with the 2k
election paints Florida with a lunatic terrific fringe. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 11, 2002
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When Tim Dorsey sat down to write his first novel, the
hilarious and hugely successful Florida Roadkill, he killed
off way too many people. Now he needs them back. So in
Triggerfish Twist, Dorsey invites us to take a warped trip
back in time as he reunites the living with the soon to be
very dead.And for the uninitiated, what a perfect place to
start! Set during the summer before Roadkill's pyrotechnic
climax, Dorsey's fourth novel is a fond and perverse
antirhapsody to the typical Florida neighborhood as seen
through the eyes of Jim Davenport, a mild-mannered
Midwestern family man whose company transfers him to the
Sunshine State. When he purchases a lovely tropical villa
on the equally idyllic Triggerfish Lane, his family appears
to have found paradise.But it is a long, hot summer, and
soon the layers are peeled back one by one to reveal that
all is not right in utopia. Yuppies with pit bulls, hot-
rodding pizza deliverymen, Machiavellian used-car salesmen,
Rastafarians who refuse to smoke dope, floating pawn shops
on Crack Street, neighborhood crimewatch teams running for
their lives, after-midnight clientele at twenty-four-hour
supermarkets that put zombie movies to shame, unnatural
sex, casual violence, gore, blasphemy, and people who write
checks at convenience stores.It all becomes too much for
Jim, and before this peaceful Indiana farm boy knows what's
happened to him, he's gone and killed someone. Of course,
the odds are, it was someone who richly deserved it, and
police officially rule the homicide extremely
justified.Unfortunately for Jim, he has killed the youngest
of the infamous McGraw Brothers, who got released from
prison near a NASCAR track in Alabama and are heading
south, bent on revenge.Not enough, you say? Okay, Serge
Storms and his cohorts Coleman and Sharon are forced to
move when the latter two burn down several blocks of
Tampa's historic Latin Quarter during a wacky binge of
freebasing high jinks. They naturally rent a house across
the street from the Davenports, and Serge decides to take
Jim under his wing, determined to teach him the local
history and the secrets of satisfying a woman.The McGraw
Brothers continue south.Sharon hallucinates on coke.Coleman
refills his beer helmet.Serge becomes a Little League
coach.And when the confluence of people and events is just
about to boil over, everyone converges on Triggerfish Lane
for the big Fourth of July block party, setting the stage
for another knee-slapping bloodbath.It's just another day
in Dorsey's paradise....
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