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"All the Little Birdies" by Dan Allison
It is not often that I find myself in totality or near-totality of agreement with an author, but this is one notable exception.
Florida Noir from a native Floridian perspective: I'll admit that much in the vein of Tim Dorsey, who also produces wonderful Florida Noir based in the Tampa area, I'm somewhat prejudiced in favor of stories revolving around the Bay area. I consider this to be the finest of such efforts so far, and can assure you that many of the perspectives that Allison features from the view point of "hard-edged" Treasure Island taxi-cab driver and primary book character Jake Murdock, probably match those of native or long time residents of the Bay area (such as PCR publisher Nolan Canova, and contributor Steve Beasley) to the tee.
"All the Little Birdies" A Touch of Gospel and insight
Those of you who regularly read my column know that I am a fanatic of Florida noir authors such as Hiaasen, Dorsey, White and Gramling. If you want high octane, wonderfully satirical Florida Noir stories, Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey and even Dave Barry are for you. If you want an even paced, retrospective, introspective and even local historic written masterpiece, then Dan Allison's "All the Little Birdies" is for you.
This book is about the exploits of one Jake Murdock. A native of Florida who was born and raised in St. Petersburg circa late 40's to mid 50's, who after many years of enduring the out of control growth of that City, moved to the more slow pace of life offered in the beach community of Treasure Island. Murdock ekes out his living as a taxi cab driver. When he's not doing that he can be found at Nora's Beach Bar watching beautiful sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico while contemplating life, the universe and everything with bar regulars Mac, a Hemmingway look-alike wannabe, and millionaire Robin Bayless, the second primary character of this novel.
Unlike other Florida Noir books, Jake Murdock has been a religious person most of his life, grappling with the validity of his adopted faith and belief systems as he has gotten older and witnessed so much vileness, wickedness, meanness, and corruption, several of the key ingredients that offer nutrition to the engine that has been fueling Florida's growth and politics for decades. Once you read this book you will thoroughly understand the following two passages quoted before the prologue:
Notable Quotables "They say that nobody was really born in St. Petersburg, that people only relocate or retire here (my mother used to always tell me that-- Will), that the city is full of mean loathsome old farts. The part about the old farts is true, believe me, but the rest isn't. Plenty of us were born here. And those of us who were, we know things."
"We know about Webb's City, with its nine-cent ice cream cones and ninety-nine cent haircuts and its dancing chickens, drop a quarter in the slot and laugh your ass off. We know Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe vacationed at the Tides Bath Club on Redington Beach (my parents were members in the 40's and 50's-- Will). We know Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle got drunk and picked fights at downtown bars, then showed up with hangovers for spring training games at Al Lang Field (which my parents and older step-brother attended when they lived out on Bahama Shores in St. Pete--Will). We know the Allman brothers, with a small b, played at the local honky-tonks back when they were called the Allman Joys."
"And we also know that Jack Kerouac lived with his mother on Tenth Avenue North in St. Petersburg after he came off the road, stopped writing and became a full-time drunk. He'd go into Haslam's Book Store on Central Avenue and rearrange the books so that his were more flatteringly displayed. Jack woke up one morning in October 1969, vomiting blood. His wife, Stella, drove him to St.Anthony's Hospital, where he was dead by the next afternoon."
"Then one day in the seventies, Webb's City closed forever, an interstate highway (Interstate 275--I saw being built in St. Petersburg from 1970 to 1994--Will) and an NFL team (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) showed up, along with condos and shopping malls and then crack whores, and our childhoods were gone. So were the pines and the palmettos (especially in the Gateway area-- Will) where we built forts and played pirates, and the raccoons and frogs and grass snakes we considered our friends in north St. Petersburg before the bulldozers, the malls, the office parks and the condominiums razed and buried them."
These sentiments may not mean anything to a non-resident, but to one who lived it, it means everything!
The Story The story starts out with the impending Hurricane Dagoberto getting ready to bear down on the Bay area, giving the regulars at Nora's Beach Bar the willies on the best course of action--evacuate or ride it out. Slightly afterward, the action begins. In a double-cross, Bayliss and Murdock discover that Bayliss's new wife has absconded both with Bayliss's time-dated material, and with one of her ex-lovers as a partner in crime. Catherine goes on a murderous rampage killing friends and even law enforcement officials to get what she covets more than anything--wealth--and this time-dated material is the key to that wealth.
Can Murdock and Bayliss recover the time-dated material before it's too late? The only way to know for sure is read this fine novel.
Other Notable Quotables On Clearwater-- ".the Church of Scientology World Headquarters on Fort Harrison.boasted a slew of famous adherents, people like Travolta, Tom Cruise and Lisa Marie Presley. The religion was hokum, based on a dreary sci-fi mythology about ancient aliens and warring space federations.you could see the new recruits traipsing around downtown Clearwater every day of the week, sporting silly-as-hell uniforms that made them look like Sergeant Pepper or Captain Kangaroo."
On wealth, technology and freedom-- "Wealth, technology and freedom were supposed to make us happy. It's not working. Someone's plunged the world into a vicious, grab-it-while-you-can-free-for-all. Some nights it feels like everyone in the world's turned into a rabid pit bull or a charging rhinoceros, and I'll wonder if I'm becoming one myself."
On sleazebag Florida developers et al-- "Insurance companies that never pay legitimate benefits, HMOs that never provide health care. Developers who bulldoze hundreds of acres, erecting office towers and shopping malls that are seldom occupied and soon abandoned. Florida's full of them, silver-tongued serpents, and always has been since the first red man pitched a camp by the Alafia River. The easy money boys as Karl Malden called them in One the Waterfront. From the Dow Thirty boardrooms all the way to the coin operated laundry owners who make sure there's no heat going to the dryers. From the sleaze to the slime."
On the silliness of Florida's politicians-- "I read a short article about a group of boaters to eliminate the go-slow manatee zones in the state's coastal and intracoastal waterways. Calling themselves "Florida's endangered species," the boaters demanded that the manatees be corralled. "They're like cattle. That's why we call them sea cows," said State Representative Roberta Ellis of Merritt Island, testifying before the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission."
"Over nine hundred and seventy-five thousand endangered boats are registered in Florida, while fewer than thirty-three hundred pesky manatees inconveniently remain alive. It's the Roberta Ellises, with one manicured hand in the till and the other hand palming the payoffs, who need to be penned up, the self-seeking snakes who squeeze every drop of personal power and pleasure from the world then toss it away like a grapefruit rind. They think nothing of holding up hundreds of working people at the drawbridges while their swank luxury yachts sweep through on pleasure cruises, and now they wanted to build manatee gulags."
This is just a small sampling of the honest, no-holds-barred, take- no- prisoners approach that Florida Folk Hero and author Dan Allison uses in the novel "All the Little Birdies". He beautiful recounts Florida's native American Indian history, and addresses such items as the spookiness of the Sunshine Skyway, the curse of the Bay area's losing sports franchises and the inability to any longer see the Gulf of Mexico from Gulf Boulevard along Pinellas County's barrier islands due to screened views from condominiums and buildings.
This is not a high-octane, thrill-a-minute romp like the musings of some of his Florida Noir brethren. Dan Allison is hard-hitting, emotional and not scared to tell it like it is. Allison is in a league all by himself. If his Florida Noir brethren are rock superstars in literary world, Allison is definitely the unappreciated blues singer who sings from the heart and soul and deserves more recognition and understanding.
"All the Little Birdies", a Florida tale not to be missed.
This book has some of the finest Bay area notable quotables I have ever read this side of local historians Hampton Dunn, Tony Pizzo, Walter Fuller, Panky Snow, and Leland Hawes. Immediately, Allison delves into this area's character in Chapter One:
The basic premise of the story is about millionaire Robin Bayless who lives on the Hillsborough side of the Bay in a luxurious home with his Donzi speedboat in the back yard canal in Gemini Beach (Apollo Beach--Will). Something very near and dear is stolen from Bayless and held for ransom by his new wife Catherine Marie. Bayliss seeks drinking buddy Jake Murdock to retrieve the near and dear item as it is, shall we say, time-dated to assure freshness, purity and viability.
On our summer thunderstorms-W "When the hard rains set in, every night in the summer, and the palmettos rustle wet in the stormy winds and shimmery streetlights, you think the entire island might drift away forever into the Gulf. The rain and palmettos can do this for hours. Often the power goes out."
"La Floridiana" is ©2002 by William Moriaty. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2002 by Nolan B. Canova.