From Publishers Weekly
After skewering Big Tobacco (Smokeout) and the Disney empire (Deep Water), lefty journalist Date takes on Florida Republican election dramas past and present, vying with fellow Sunshine State satirists like Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen in this thoroughly over-the-top novel of political intrigue. A gubernatorial candidate dies in what appears to be a fishing accident and is replaced by a former governor's son, Bub Billings, a George W.-like clown who "can't read a TelePrompTer" but surges ahead in the polls anyway. When the GOP bosses find out Bub has a mind of his own, particularly on environmental matters, he gets pushed off a yacht (appropriately named Soft Money) and is replaced by his envious, conniving younger brother, Percy. Murphy Moran, a down-on-his-luck political consultant enlisted by the Democrats to get incriminating photos of Bub frolicking with half-clad "Victory Hostesses" on the Soft Money, ends up fishing him out of the water instead. The two then piece together the convoluted GOP plot and try to get the information to the proper authorities. Other characters include the slatternly secretary of state, Clarissa Highstreet, a dead ringer for Katherine Harris; conflicted state finance director Toni Johnson, who helps Murphy and Bud by exposing some major GOP corruption; and eco-friendly vigilante Randy Romer. Along with the politicians, big business (especially a shady company called Petron), a gullible media and a clueless electorate get what's coming to them in this timely farce. Though at moments alarmingly sexist, it should have Michael Moore fans cackling with recognition and glee.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Once again, Date (Smokeout) has laid Florida politics low with a hilarious indictment of that state's electoral process and Republican Party. The plot, as one character says, "is nothin' more than Big, Dirty Oil lyin' and killin' to own the government of Florida." In Date's hands, it becomes the perfect combination of high drama and slapstick comedy, laced with enough truth and innuendo to make the reader think, "it could happen." Two brothers, Bub and Percy Billings, are poised to become Florida's next governor. After Bub wins the primaries, he reveals his stance on offshore drilling and conveniently disappears over the side of a yacht during a campaign fund-raiser. Percy is all too willing to "win one for Bub" until Bub reappears, very much alive and ready to get to the bottom of the fund-raising scandal that earned him the nomination. What ensues is a battle to the death, fought on the high seas, with a hurricane and a love story thrown in for good measure. Black Sunshine is a delicious tale of ambition gone awry and people who should know better, and no public library should be without it.
Thomas L. Kilpatrick, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
