Author name:
Carl Hiaasen,
Elmore Leonard,
Dave Barry,
James W. Hall,
Edna Buchanan,
Edna Standiford,
Paul Levine,
Brian Antoni,
Tananarive Due,
John Dufresne,
Vicki Hendricks,
Carolina Hospital,
Evelyn Mayerson
Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780886464318
ISBN number: 0886464315
Label: DH Audio
Manufacturer: DH Audio
Quantity: 2
Printing Date: 1997-01
Publishing house: DH Audio
Sale Popularity Level: 1974788
Studio: DH Audio
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A story of suspense written serially by thirteen of Florida's most talented writers--including Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, and Elmore Leonard--features a riot in Coconut Grove, an appearance by Fidel Castro, and other strange happenings. 80,000 very first printing. $60,000 ad/promo.
Amazon.com Review:
Dave Barry starts the madness in Naked Came the Manatee, introducing a 102-year-old environmentalist named Coconut Grove and a manatee saddled with one of Barry's favorite monikers, Booger. Carl Hiaasen closes down the party, and in between, 11 of Florida's literati, including Elmore Leonard, John Dufresne, and Edna Buchanan, make twisted offerings to the affair: three severed heads, all bearing a remarkable resemblance to Fidel Castro; four murders; some sex; some espionage; even an appearance by Jimmy Carter and one by Castro himself.
Originally published as a serial novel in the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, Naked Came the Manatee resembles a literary game of telephone, with each writer contributing a chapter and passing it on to the next, who then makes the most of what he or she is given. The result is a novel with wildly fluctuating styles and more crazy plot curves than a daytime drama, but thanks to these 13 masters of the craft this roller coaster of a book is almost as much fun to read as it obviously was to write.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I had a lot of fun reading this mess of a book, but if you are looking for a 'normal' novel then you might want to run the other way. This is NOT a book to be taken very seriously (and if you try then you'll probably end up hating it). It's like the pass a long stories you wrote with friends back in school - it jumps around adding and dumping characters at will and it sometimes seems like the authors wanted to see how crazy they could make their chapter end to see how the subsequent author would write their way out of the mess. I think it was pure ridiculously demented fun from Dave Barry's opening to Carl Hiassen's ending.
Rated by buyers 
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If you are a fan of any of these authors, do yourself the favor of sticking with their individual efforts. Hiaasen's chapter (the final one) cracks broadly at the missteps of several previous authors. I enjoyed only 3 chapters (Berry, Hall, & Hiaasen), and I put up with the rest to see how Mr. Hiaasen would tie it up. Even his talents could not salvage this - and here, I strongly agree with other reviewers - MESS.
Rated by buyers -
I found Naked Came The Manatee to be an enjoyable read. I liked the different writing styles that wove the storyline together. I borrowed the book from our local library and liked it enough to buy my own copy. It was interersting and entertaining. The reason I gave it four stars was because I thought Dave Barry's very first chapter, though good, was a little too chock full of detail. Although I have read Carl Hiaasen's Flush and Hoot among others and have enjoyed reading Dave Barry for years, I was not familiar with some of the other writers. Naked Came The Manatee has whetted my interest in reading books they have penned. All in all, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon reading. ~ Mrs. B.
Rated by buyers -
First, I'd like to tell the authors that after reading this book, each of you owe me a few hours of my time which disappeared, worthlessly, from my life.
What starts out as a great idea - a gaggle of writers each crafting a chapter of a novel - quickly crashes into a confusing, poorly played game of "telephone."
You know "telephone" - the kids' game where one whispers something to the person subsequent to him or her and the words circle the room, ending in an incomprehensible string of gibberish?
Naked Came the Manatee is a hobo stew of styles, with each writer leading us through silly plot moves and adding their own characters.
While reading each of these authors might be fun, their collective sum only reveals a bookfull of defective parts.
Rated by buyers -
Back in the primary school days you probably partook in the exercise of everyone in the class writing a paragraph then passing the paper to the person sitting subsequent to them who wrote the subsequent paragraph, passed it to the subsequent person and so on until everyone in the class had contributed to each of the 30 or so stories. Well that is exactly what the publishers of Naked Came the Manatee have done, with thirteen Florida authors, just on a bigger scale.
The quality of each chapter obviously varies with the quality of each author but that adds to the fun. Even though Hiaasen is on the spine also doesn't mean that all the authors are surreal humorous type writers either with some chapters being very crime thriller in style and even one, chapter 11 being poetic philosophy (must admit didn't really enjoy this one.) The story flowed on quite well (except from chapter 10 to 11) from author to author in most parts but you could definitely pick up the difference in style with each transition. The story overall lacked the high quality that many of these authors such as Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry have achieved in their own novels but it was still a very good and enjoyable read.
The basic plot of Naked Came the Manatee revolves around a Manatee, called Booger by the locals who is either part of or around the main action. Throw in a 102 year old woman, Fidel Castro, shiny steel boxes, dim-witted criminals, lawyers and politicians as well as the locals of Coconut Grove and you've got a pretty fun storyline.
If you like the multiple author novel and want to read another one that Dave Barry is in grab a copy of The Putt at the End of the World. Barry teams up with Lee K Abbott, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W Hall, Tami Hoag, Tim O'Brien, Ridley Pearson and Les Standiford in this surreal golfing adventure that golf related is to the world of novels what Happy Gilmore is to the world of movies.
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