Paradise Interrupted

by Tom A. Levine, K. C. Weller (Illustrator)

Disney World arrives and the transformation of Central Florida begins. Twenty years later not everybody appreciates the new look. Developers continue to salivate, locals cringe out of habit, rabbits try to adapt; and then someone draws a line in the sand.

Genres: Fiction

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[JoAnn DeBorja · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought it from the author at a festival. I like supporting local . It would have been a lot cheaper on Kindle and then I wouldn't have felt obligated to finish it like a school project book that I was required to read. First of all, it was self-promoted as being the funniest book. Carl Hiaasen it's not. I felt like a kid was writing a book with a thesaurus next to him is he how many adjectives he can add in a sentence.

[Greg Hadaller · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 'cuteness' was just too much -- non-stop and over-the-top. Better if he had just focused a little more on the story and not tried so hard to be different.

[Deighvyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had the chance to speak with the author himself. After trying to gather some information about the book’s content/inspiration, Tom offered me a few cryptic responses and lots of self praise. I was eventually pressured into buying a copy for 30 dollars (despite learning that most copies are sold online for far less… something I looked past for the sake of the intended message). After a few pages into this read, I was able to discern the undertones of environmental conservatism. The call against human development in Florida’s wetland ecosystems was well developed abundantly apparent. While I am able to rally behind such messages, the convoluted prose, dry comedic delivery, and relatively flat characters were also abundantly clear, and much less enticing. Admittedly there are many insightful one-off tidbits and strings of dialogue that serve to entertain and educate, but a lack of continuity made it difficult for me to keep searching for the next source of gratification. Also worth mentioning: in attempts to portray the unorthodox and nonconformist nature of the characters, the author shows a lack of intersectional awareness. Anti-development advocacy was understandably at the forefront, but this book seemed to miss the mark on tangential matters relating to race and gender (perhaps showing it’s age a bit - published 2007). By no means am I holding this book to some purity standard- I’m all for the raunch- but I found some of the humor to be rather cheap and the use of derogatory language was a little tone deaf.

[Shelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story had a lot of potential, but I did not care for the writing style of the author. I found it very hard to follow in some cases. The humor was way too dry; it made the book a real pain to read. I trudged thru dispite my feelings. Someone else may love it. Best Wishes. I'd swap it in an instant or maybe donate it to the library.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the gratifying fan-fiction every Florida environmentalist needs to buoy their spirits in the endless fight to try and protect what we love and value. Thank you for the crude humor making it beyond obvious that you get it. I was worried the book would only make me sad, but it was well worth sticking with! Dog-eared some pages for fantastic phrasing that I'd like to make use of in conversations and posts on social media.

[Savanna Finley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to start by saying I really wanted to like this book. I met the author, nice guy, very confident in his work. But I just.... the work is like an extremely badly written joke about Florida. The dialogue moved the story nowhere and as I grated through, the story never seemed to move anywhere I cared to see. The idea has value which is why I gave it two stars. I just wish it wasn’t written like someone used auto fill on a redneck central Floridian’s phone.

[Robert Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book initially was of interest to me because it is set in places that I know and I have visited. I was turned off by Levine's needlessly dense prose, but I gave it a chapter or two and I warmed to it. I peg it as an amusing fiction of greed and passion around a potential ecological disaster along the (very real) Econ River in Florida, a battle that continues, in real life, to this day. A quick read, sometimes very funny.

[John-Paul Charlebois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chances are few if any of the reviews below (and I red most of them) are by flroida natives / transplants. The reoccuring issure is detrachment, or lack of understanding due to the writes style, the aloof character dialouge and what is deemed be be a try hard effort to be funny but seems like a ridculous and terrible joke.

Yea, you obviously didnt grow up here. To me, these guys are right outta east orlando, they go to places i hang out at nw, or have seeen torn down...they lived 12 miles west of me....I could see myself hangiing out with them...and not only that its be a fuckin cool time.

I gurantee for anyone florida af, easpecially an otowner, add +2 stars off rip because u know the road work, the tourists, the rivers, the locale and its scary to see 20 years later agian, its happening again.

Truth is, its nto ttrying to hard to be funny, were all fucking funny here, its one of the things we do to survuve in dizneeland with some degree of sanity , and this book details a very accurate depiction of one of our many niches in lfestyles, because as impossible s it is for the rest of the world to fathom, some of us do actually live here

[Tim B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only book I have read by this author. It was a solid story with interesting characters. It has some pretty funny parts, and occasional parts that fall a little flat. When he uses his own voice, the book is really good. When it seems that rather than using his own voice, he attempts to emulate Dave Barry, Bob Morris, or Carl Hiassen, it does not work as much. I believe this is his first novel, and would like to read another as he grows his own writing style and is more comfortable using it. All in all, I recommend this book for folks who like comedic books seton Central Florida.

[Erik Deckers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ripping yarn! Edward Abbey meets Kinky Friedman. I loved the fourth wall breaks about saying “fork,” the anthroporhism of animals and Mother Nature, and the purposeful mangling of the language. Nicely done!

[Ksredmond · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuk

[Ellen Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry. But I found it difficult to get through the first chapter. I agree with other comments that suggested the writing seemed like a high school assignment with the directions to use humor by inserting as many adjectives as possible with the use of a thesaurus. I just think the author tried way to hard to be funny and I just didn't get it. I will try again to continue reading, but I have too many other books waiting and do not want to waste my time. Others seem to have enjoyed it, so maybe it's just me.

[Julenew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little predictable, but well written and captivating.

[Polly Balsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good. Stream of consciousness writing seems to me in a lot of places which I don't particularly care for, but I see where the author is going, why he wrote the book and I can appreciate that.