Jane May Wants to Hook You With This Modern Miami Fairy Tale
Hooked by Jane May
If Carl Hiassen and Christopher Moore were to write a modern fairy tale, it would probably look something like Jane May's Hooked.
In this 245-page novel, May retells the Grimm's fairy tale of A fisherman and his wife. This tale, though, is set in modern-day southern Florida and instead of being populated with peasants and royalty, it is people with used car salesmen, real estate moguls, wealthy brats, and women with more vapid sex appeal than brains or heart.
It also has the archetypical hapless hero — the one others deem the most unlikely to succeed. He doesn't have power, wealth, or strength. What he does have is common sense, kindness, and an overall likeableness. He's Woody Woods, an assistant dock master at a high-end yacht club in Miami. He spends all his spare hours building a boat in which he plans to sail around the world.
Woody's pretty content with his job and his life. He lives with his strong-willed, beloved aunt and pursues the dreams that are meaningful to him. Then SHE walks into his life. She's drop-dead gorgeous and he finds himself obsessing about her. It never occurs to him that her otherworldly beauty might not be equal to his other hopes and dreams.
When it seems impossible to win her attention — especially given that the competition is one of the wealthy young club members who can seduce with flashy cars and fancy dinners — help comes from an unusual direction, that of a talking fish who promises to make all his dreams come true.
May is a storyteller who writes with pure joy and pleasure. She plays with words, juggling them about in an attempt to entertain her readers and make them laugh. Don't get the idea that because the story retells a fairy tale that it's meant for the little ones. It is Grimm she's drawing from after all and she doesn't shy away from adult content. If you doubt it, read this opening passage from the book's prologue:
Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom bursting with strip malls, luxury high rises, and enough bling to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean and back, Raymond Prince prepared to anoint a royal consort in the back seat of a cobalt blue Mercedes sedan.
With a full moon as his guide, Raymond unhooked the front-loading brassiere of his target market and chuckled to himself. Damn, if those tan-lined double Ds didn't remind him of the headlights of an 18-wheeler.
Stylistically, the book careens joyously down a satirical track, brazenly poking fun at a culture of wealth and snobbery. Jane May pokes at hypocrisy and wasteful consumerism while soaking her pages with the fantasies of both the oversexed and the sex-starved. Her imagery summons memories of Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, in particular her descriptions of both unfulfilled lust and heated sex. Hooked is modern fantasy, but there is nothing about the world that isn't recognizable (except, of course, for the talking fish who grants wishes).
While the satire and humor make the book a quick, enjoyable read, it is ultimately the protagonist, Woody, his delightful aunt, and her friend that make the book worth reading. They cast lightness into what would otherwise be a dark, bitter novel.
While Woody strays during the course of the novel, he does eventually catch on to those lessons outlined in a bestselling book that hit the shelves about the same time as Hooked: Alan Alda's Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. Alda says the meaning of life is found in doing what you love with people that you love. By that definition, Woody figures it out.
Hooked is a delightfully fun read in part because Jane May applies a light touch, never beating her reader over the head with the social commentary, but never apologizing for it either.
