Like the actor himself, this autobiography is charming and smooth, self-effacing and witty. Like most of his film roles, there is not a whole lot of depth involved. He does touch on some emotional points, step-mother was evil on almost a fairytale level and his father a feckless alcoholic, but they are not dwelled upon. For the most part we are left with his love for almost everyone he worked with—even when they had problems he managed a positive spin. For example, Garner got the better of fellow race car driver Steve McQueen who for a long time held a grudge. Garner doesn’t fault him for it. Just waited for years for him to come around and he finally did. Impressive is that prowess as a driver—shown off doing most of his own driving in the movie GRAND PRIX and on his ground-breaking TV show ROCKFORD FILES. Despite being a long time fan, I didn’t know about his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement joining in on the 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON or about his potentially personally costly lawsuit battling “creative accounting” in Hollywood. Self-effacing on both subjects but I would certainly have liked to know more. Overall a pleasant ramble through an ultimately charmed life. (one extra * for being a fan)

There are flashes of classic Hiaasen: oddball characters, snarky wit, uniquely crazy situations and mayhem mixed with a central mystery or two. This, however, is not classic Hiassen. Where he aims to make a statement--shots at politicians and politics, being pro-environment, and being pro immigrant—he is ham-fisted and dreary. When he goes to his strengths—building insane characters—he falls short. It starts out well enough, letting the air out of the rich by having one of them devoured by a snake at a heartless charity function setting up a mini-mystery. Unfortunately that story line peters out about half way into the book. Reading perks along okay to that point then seems to go into a holding pattern looking for a runway. We keep treading air until the last 50 pages or so then it picks up some and has a decent landing. My favorite Hiassen character from his books (and one of my favorites from any book) is Skink—former Governor of Florida. This marvelous creation is trotted out here but given too little to do. The point of it all seems to be taking shots at Donald Trump, never named but quite obviously present. Initially I thought it would be a hoot to have him deservedly skewered, but by the end it just made me sad. Maybe it’s too soon to pull down the devil’s drawers. Or maybe treating him like a buffoon is less appropriate than treating him like a menace. Trump certainly feels like a Hiassen creation—a cartoonish remorseless, self-absorbed loudmouth—maybe he should have been the center of the book instead of a wacky side character. If you want to read better Hiassen—my favorite is TOURIST SEASON. SKIN TIGHT and DOUBLE WHAMMY are also quite good.

Talking about movies is fun. Talking seriously about movies is interesting. Often this book is fun and interesting. Just as often it is a bit slap dash, a touch non-sensical or a shade monotonous. The writing moves at a breezy pace sometimes becoming too much so, like the author is late handing in his homework. In fact, much of it reads like a term paper. In another life, I spent a lot of time correcting college writing so I didn’t entirely mind. If this were a term paper, my fist criticism would be the definition of a Cult Movie. In no way do I consider 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, or Forbidden Planet to be Cult Movies. I assume they were added because most people have heard of them making the selection less daunting to potential book customers. My favorite critique was for the one movie I haven’t seen—LIQUID SKY—the cultiest movie of the group. Lots of interesting background detail and the author seems to settle down during this piece. On the contrary, the worst piece is the first—on Barbarella. It was so bad I almost stopped reading. Almost smirky adolescent. His better essays from the rest of the movies include 5 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. Apparently this is part of a series, but I think I’m good for now.