60 pages • 2-hour read
Fever Beach
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, death, and sexual content.
Authentic Morality Versus Moral Facade
The characters in Fever Beach have two distinct approaches to morality. Characters like Viva and Twilly believe in living by their stated moral beliefs. They worry less about what others think of them and more about whether they are living up to their principles. Viva does not accept her landlord’s racist beliefs, and she does not pretend to in order to keep the peace at home. As soon as she learns that the Minks are engaged in charity fraud, she risks her safety to bring them down. Although Twilly has access to great wealth, he is an environmentalist who does not believe in excessive consumption or in using his money to manipulate the world around him. Accordingly, he lives simply, and most of his funds stay in the bank, untouched. Twilly also risks his own safety repeatedly throughout the novel to defend Florida’s environment. Hiaasen uses he and Viva as clear representations of authentic morality that, juxtaposed with the other characters’ moral facades, emphasize the novel’s commentary on the hollow, corrupt politics surrounding the plot.
By contrast, characters like the Minks, Figgo, and Clure are more concerned with public perception; they have no qualms about committing immoral actions behind the scenes as long as their moral reputations are intact. When Figgo deliberately hits Kristiansen with his truck, his main concern is not Kristiansen but making sure that he is not caught and then, once the crime is traced to him, trying to convince his mother and Viva that he is not at fault. The Minks are secretly funding extremist hate groups and bribing public officials. They help Clure move dark money around by participating in charity fraud, but despite their terrible behind-the-scenes actions, they want to maintain a public facade of morality. They are so invested in this that they have Rachel Cohen killed to preserve their reputation. Clure is a congressman and desperate to maintain an aura of respectability to keep his seat, but he has no interest in actually living a moral life. He secretly uses his family’s money and connections to cover up drug use, infidelity, financial improprieties, and a host of other crimes and indiscretions.
The novel’s ending sends a clear message about the importance of authentic morality. Electra Mink is punished with losing her fortune and her public reputation. Clure, Claude, and Figgo all die in ways that ironically illustrate the flaws in their lifestyles and choices. Viva and Twilly, on the other hand, are rewarded. Viva secures her dream job in New York City and no longer has to live in misery with Figgo. Twilly has finally purchased his future home in the Bahamas and looks forward to being surrounded by peace and quiet in a more pristine natural setting. The two are still in a romantic relationship and, at the very end of the story, hatching some new plan together to continue their adventures. By following the fates of all the characters of Fever Beach, Hiaasen offers clear commentary on the virtues of moral authenticity and the consequences of living a life in which morality is superficial and focused only on public perception.
The Corrupting Influence of Dark Money
“Dark money” refers to funds secretly used to influence political events. Because the source of this money and the intentions behind its circulation must remain hidden, shell companies, charity fronts, and other institutions are often used as channels to route dark money from donors to recipients. Fever Beach conveys a strong message about the corrupting effect that dark money has on people and institutions through its portrayal of Clure Boyette’s reelection campaign.
The Minks represent the type of people who offer up dark money into this system to sway election outcomes. They are portrayed as selfish, dangerous people who, because of an imagined slight by their former Democratic allies, have vindictively turned to far-right politics and become obsessed with white nationalist ideology. They run a charitable foundation with two primary aims. One is to whitewash their own reputations by ensuring that their names appear prominently on as many hospitals and medical research institutions as possible. The other is to funnel dark money into extremist causes. The Minks use their money to bribe zoning officials, fund insurrectionists, and hire hitmen to kill anyone who stands in their way. Their characterization and actions illustrate the argument that dark money donors are corrupt people manipulating public institutions for their selfish ends.
Clure Boyette’s campaign and Figgo’s Strokers for Liberty are the beneficiaries of the Minks’ dark money contributions. The narrative makes it clear that these are unworthy causes—Clure is morally bankrupt and an ineffective representative of his constituents’ interests, and the Strokers for Liberty are a group of comically disorganized underachievers who blame others for their weaknesses. The channeling of money from the Minks into Clure’s and the Strokers’ pockets results in Figgo escaping the consequences of a crime—his attack on Kristiansen—when Clure uses some of the Wee Hammers fund to pay Figgo’s lawyer and settle with the Kristiansens. It also funds a physical attack on innocent people at the Key West drag club and attempted voter intimidation in Carpville. It makes the Wee Hammers program possible, resulting in child labor violations, several injured children, and an accidental house fire.
Although many of these incidents are portrayed as comical, they still illustrate the negative outcomes of the movement of dark money. They provide evidence that the legal system, charitable institutions, and the democratic system of elections are all corrupted by the presence of dark money. Fever Beach demonstrates how the circulation of dark money erodes public trust in social institutions and, because of the need to cover up its flow, endangers public safety as well.
The Nature of Political Extremism
Fever Beach is a satire that examines and critiques far-right political extremism. Hiaasen portrays far-right characters as morally corrupt fools and their cause as both ridiculous and dangerous. It suggests that personal weaknesses lead people to adopt extremist ideologies as a way to either protect themselves from confronting their flaws or manipulate others for their own ends.
The Strokers for Liberty are the main representative of far-right groups in the novel. Their name is absurd at face value, but beneath its humor lies a pointed argument: People involved with extremist groups may pretend to have noble ideals, like “Liberty,” but the real purpose of their involvement is self-pleasure through fantasy. The fantasy these men cling to is that they are superior to various marginalized people and must defend themselves and others against the unfair advantages being given to others. The reality presented by Hiaasen shows them to be uneducated, lazy, self-centered people who refuse to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. Figgo and Onus are perfect illustrations of this. They spend all their time committing petty crimes, gaming the system, consuming extremist content, drinking, and masturbating. They are poorly educated, gullible, and violent. Whenever they are confronted with the consequences of their choices, they cannot accept responsibility and instead choose to shift the blame.
Figures like the Minks and Clure Boyette manipulate gullible, angry people like Figgo and Onus to advance their agendas, highlighting another more calculated, manipulative side to political extremism. The Minks are former Democrats who took a hard-right turn after being slighted at a Democratic social event—their supposed belief in white supremacy is little more than a bitter attempt to avenge themselves on their former allies. The shallowness of their supposed beliefs is mirrored in Clure Boyette’s professions of far-right beliefs: For Clure, an appeal to gullible, angry voters is simply an effective campaign strategy, not a deep commitment to ideology. Groups like the Strokers are useful to the Minks and Clure as a means for consolidating their power and increasing their wealth—but as Clure’s warning against any action that might disrupt the tourist economy shows, they will stop short of any commitment to the cause that interferes with their wealth and power.
To contrast with these portraits, Fever Beach features several competent, moral, and engaging characters from the very marginalized populations that far-right extremists seek to persecute. Viva Morales, a Latina woman, succeeds in exposing the conspiracies headed by Clure and the Minks. Mary Kristiansen, a Black woman, hides Lewin Baltry and navigates the aftermath of her husband’s two head injuries and undercover involvement with the Strokers with grace and intelligence. Billy, a gay man and drag performer, is instrumental in stopping the Strokers’ unprovoked attack at the drag club. The positive portrayal of these characters emphasizes Hiaasen’s argument about how wrong the beliefs of men like Onus and Figgo, and the manipulations of people like the Minks and Clure, actually are. These characters also represent the real-world people hurt by groups like the Strokers for Liberty. The novel asserts that, as ridiculous as far-right extremists are, they are still a very real danger, but with the victories and successes of those who oppose them, Hiaasen offers a hopeful message to counteract this dark portrayal.
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