Hiaasen and Barclay deliver the goods
Writers Carl Hiaasen and Linwood Barclay hit it out of the park last night at the Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library.
Hiaasen, a columnist for the Miami Herald and author of classics like Skinny Dip, Sick Puppy and Lucky You, was there to talk about his new book, Star Island, and he was in top form. The book is his take on celebrity culture –the main character is a hugely untalented singer called Cherry Pye –and he gave the packed house some choice lines about the current crop of celebrity air-heads. He and Barclay discussed the dubious value of reality television, with Hiaasen offering hilarious riffs on what could possibly make a person a "star" of reality.
He also spoke about the return of a character from a previous book. This would be the highly singular Chemo — a 7 foot ex-con with a burned face and a weed whacker in place of one hand. You get the drift…
Although Barclay and Hiaasen had never met before last night, Barclay has been reading Hiaasen for twenty years. In fact, he claims Hiaasen was responsible for getting him through his night shifts at the Toronto Star, because "you can't fall asleep when you're laughing."
Linwood Barclay of course wrote a humour column for the Star for years, before turning his hand full time to his own very successful line of crime novels.
It was a synergistic combo, and the audience loved it. If you missed it, check it out on the Appel Salon website in the next week or so.
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