The Snakes That Ate Florida: Reporting, Essays, and Criticism

by Ian Frazier

Selected pieces on nature, history, politics, and urban culture from a master of the nonfiction narrative.

Writing on subjects as divergent as the mega-fires that burned the grasslands of the Great Plains in 2018, the tragic secret life of the manufacturer of maraschino cherries, the world’s largest beaver dam, and the invasive Burmese pythons of the Florida Everglades, Ian Frazier captures the multiplicity, the strangeness, and the wonder of contemporary life.

This collection of pieces—consisting of features and reportage for The New Yorker beginning in 1970, articles on topics such as COVID and rereading Lolita fifty years later, and work published in the last year—showcases the wide-ranging play of Frazier’s imagination. Astute and engaged, he is the supreme chronicler of the everyday, a kind of social and political anthropologist. Fifty years of keen observation and irrepressible curiosity come together in The Snakes That Ate Florida, establishing Frazier as nothing less than the greatest practitioner of the form.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

387 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2026

About the author

Ian Frazier (b.1951) is an American writer and humorist. He is the author of Travels in Siberia, Great Plains, On the Rez, Lamentations of the Father and Coyote V. Acme, among other works, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He graduated from Harvard University. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ianfra...

Reviews

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frazier's work spans decades, and a single book that captures all of it would do it a disservice. *The Snakes that Ate Florida* provides a brilliant sample of his skill in journalism and beyond. There's plenty of ink spilled on how the best writers "cut their teeth" in journalism. If anything, I wanted more of Frazier's long-form writing represented here, especially his criticism, where his humor especially shines through. Regardless, the collection is a love letter not only to the subjects of Frazier's work, but to the written word itself and the decades that shaped him.

[Karen Carlson]

h/t lithub's most anticipated books of 2026 - sounds like a fun read.

[Lissa00 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to have a book of essays to dip in and out of and this was a good one to have on hand. This is a solid collection of Ian Frazier’s prior work. Like any collection, I like some more than others. The title essay and the one about “Lolita” were my favorites but they all had something to enjoy. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of over 60 magazine pieces published from 1974 to 2024 by Ian Frazier Most of the stories were originally published in The New Yorker. He includes some great two or three page casuals. Some pieces appeared in other magazines including Atlantic Magazine and Outside. Frazier has an impressively diverse output. His sixteen books include several excellent collections of humor pieces, several travel books and well reported nonfiction.

These pieces are great fun. Frazier likes quirky things. He reports on the private rodeo in Madson Square Garden after the public rodeo performs. They go until three in the morning. He has a piece on "New York Fats", the pool hustler who inspired the Minnesota Fats character in "The Hustler". He profiles the "Positive Negative" which is the Midwestern practice of answering a question like, "Do you have toothpaste in this store? by saying, "we sure don't."

He also takes joy in designing his pieces. He starts a piece on the high school Westinghouse Science Fair by describing the winner like a story in a small-town newspaper, ending with listing the winner's mother and father. He slowly pulls back to a wider and wider lens and ends by noting the parents of Albert Einstein and finally Alfred Nobel.

He has a brilliant story that begins with beekeepers in Brooklyn being upset when their bees began to produce red honey because they were sipping waste from a maraschino factory. In 18 pages he reveals a story of immigrant success, mysterious criminal activity, a family battle and a short history of maraschino cherries. I had the sense that Frazier was enjoying himself.

The book is full of interesting stuff. Where does New York City's rock salt for the roads come from? He investigates two wily invasive creatures in Florida, cane toads and Burmese pythons. He talks to the only guy known to have visited the largest beaver dam in the world, over a half mile long. It is in the remotest part of Canada. It was discovered initially from satellite imagery.

There are a few duds. The longest piece in the book is about the Russian Revolution and its legacy. It is mostly big chunks of basic history and some personal stories that don't add much. A story on driving in NY reminded me of the SNL sketch where everyone is always reciting traffic directions.

Frazier is in the tradition of the great New Yorker writers like A. J. Liebling, E. B. White, and joseph Mitchell. He puts huge effort into his reporting and writing in order to produce clear and interesting writing with the correct sprinkling of wit.

[Charles Bookman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this delightful collection of oddball reporting, essays, and criticism, I learned about efforts to control the pythons that have decimated the raccoons and other mammals of South Florida; why cicadas hatch only in prime number years; and the seven hundred languages of New York City. The author writes about everything from the wilds of Siberia to the boroughs of Manhattan with forays along the way into literary criticism, of Russian American Vladimir Nabokov and American Russian John Reed. In Frazier’s work, there is something interesting to discover on every page. Read more at
https://bookmanreader.blogspot.com/20...

[Paige Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are flashes of wit and insight here, especially in the reporting pieces, but the collection as a whole didn’t really come together for me.

Some essays are genuinely engaging and funny, while others feel overly meandering or oddly self-indulgent. The quality varies a lot depending on the topic. I also think the humor works better in shorter doses.

Not terrible, just inconsistent enough that it became frustrating.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book!

One good way to find out how little you know about so many things is to read this wonderful book. This wonderful book opens more doors than the doorman at the Waldorf. From Russian history to snakes in the Everglades and Iowa cornfields, Mr. Frazier covers it all. I’m sure I’ll be reading it again soon just to soak up its richness more thoroughly.

[Margaret Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed for Library Journal. My Goodreads review isn't related to my professional review. But I did love this book.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of a journalist's writing throughout his career, both for his longer and shorter form stories, essays, and criticism. It's fascinating to see the lens that he views his subjects through evolve as his career goes along.