Hot Damn! : Alligators in the Casino, Nude Women in the Grass, How Seashells Changed the Course of History, and Other Dispatches from Paradise

by Hall, James W.

• ISBN13: 9780312288594
• ISBN10: 031228859X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-17
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

James W. Hall is the critically acclaimed author of eleven crime novels, includingBody LanguageandBlackwater Sound. He's also published four books of poetry. And several of his short stories have appeared in magazines like theGeorgia ReviewandKenyon Review. Now, writing in the spirit of Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor, Hall wins a new kind of reader with this collection of essays that run from insightful to opinionated, funny to wise. Hall ponders subjects as diverse as his own love affair with Florida which began on a trip after college from which he never returned, to his equally passionate romance with books. He ponders the nature of summer heat, the writing of Hemingway and James Dickey, television, teaching, politics, fatherhood and much more. In the vibrant and elegant prose which characterize his fiction and poetry, Hall now proves himself a master of the essay as well.

Author Biography

A native of Kentucky, James W. Hall has made Florida his home, as well as the setting for his popular suspense thrillers. He obtained his B.A. in Literature from Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) in 1969, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Utah in 1973.

For the last 29 years, he has taught literature and creative writing at Florida International University, where his students have included Dennis Lehane, Barbara Parker, and Vicki Hendricks. After publishing four books of poetry-three with the Carnegie-Mellon University Press-and several works of short fiction in such magazines as the Georgia Review and Kenyon Review, Hall began writing crime novels in 1986 with Under Cover of Daylight.

His published thrillers include Under Cover of Daylight (1987), Tropical Freeze (1990), Bones of Coral (1992), Hard Aground (1993), Mean High Tide (1994), Gone Wild (1995), Buzz Cut (1996), Red Sky at Night (1997), Body Language (1998), and Rough Draft (2000).

He lives on the edge of Blackwater Sound in Key Largo, Florida, with his wife, Evelyn, and his dogs, Travis and Sofie.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
Home At Last	1	(4)
The Names of Things	5	(6)
Florida Trifecta	11	(6)
Nude Woman in the Grass	17	(6)
Back To School	23	(6)
Winning Me Over	29	(6)
Dream House	35	(6)
Two Homes	41	(6)
The Hardy Boys	47	(6)
It's Not the Heat, It's The Stupidity	53	(6)
Spring Rites	59	(6)
Hemingway	65	(4)
``Nobody Knows Anything''	69	(6)
After-Dinner Conversation	75	(6)
Guns	81	(4)
Touchy-Feely	85	(8)
Fresh Starts	93	(6)
Car Wars	99	(6)
Disney Virus Los	105	(6)
Dry Tortugas	111	(6)
The Smallest Christmas Tree	117	(10)
Wooden Tennis Rackets	127	(6)
Dripping Clocks	133	(6)
Tubular Addiction	139	(6)
April is the Cruelest Month	145	(6)
Close Encounter	151	(4)
Hot Damn	155	(6)
Letter to My Father	161	(10)
A Moving Experience	171	(8)
Cabo	179	(6)
A Walk on the Beach	185	(4)
Doggone	189	(4)
Anniversary	193	(4)
Faithless in South Florida	197	(4)
Camping Out	201	(6)
I'D Like to Thank You All For Coming	207	(6)
Hurricanes	213	(8)
Cheeto	221	(4)
Poet Sinks To Crime	225