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.

[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...

[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.