Fool s Paradise Players Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach

   

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow comes a remarkably revealing profile of the Miami Beach no one knows a tale of fabulous excess thwarted power and rekindled lives that will take its place among the decade s best works of social portraiture Created from a mix of swampland and dredged up barrier reef Miami Beach has always been one part drifter mecca and one part fantasyland simultaneously a catch basin for con men fast talk artists and shameless self promoters and a Shangri La for sun worshippers and hardcore hedonists In Miami Beach it s often said that if you re not indicted you re not invited But the city s mad fascinating complexity resists easy stereotyping Fool s Paradise is more than just a present day profile of a dark Eden Gaines journeys back into the city s social and cultural history unearthing stories of the resort s past that are every bit as absorbing and jaw dropping as those of its present The book begins with a snapshot of the city s current excess this is after all a sun washed hamlet that boasts on a per capita basis more bars and breast implants than any other place in America then plunges into the Beach s origins chronicling the audacious rise of such hoteliers as the Fontainebleau s Ben Novack and the Eden Roc s Harry Mufson the sharp elbowed tactics of Al Capone and Frank Sinatra and the Mac 10 shooting sprees of the Marielito and Colombian drug lords From there the narrative shifts to two wildly eccentric souls who gave their lives to preserving the city s architectural dazzle and creating its color palette introduces us to the Most Powerful Man in Miami Beach and arrives finally in the modern day where we meet among others a kinky German playboy who once owned a quarter of South Beach and publicly flaunts his sexual escapades a fabulously successful nightclub promoter whose addictive past seems to have given him a portal into the night world s id and a gaggle of young sexy models dreamers and schemers on a mission to achieve significance Evoking the Beach s surreal blend of flashy Vegas and old Hollywood glamour as well as its manic desperation and reckless wealth Gaines persuasively demonstrates that though the Beach is in the words of its most famous drag queen an island of broken toys a place where people get away with things they d never get away with anyplace else it casts an irresistible spell From the Hardcover edition

- ISBN13 9780307346285
- Condition NEW
- Notes Brand New from Publisher No Remainder Mark

Bradley F Smith | 2009/07/23
Readers must wade through the first 175 pages to reach material about the current South Beach and then we finally hear about the party promoters and the clubs that rule the beach today and in the recent past Before that it s a lot of ancient history about such topics as the Fountainblue Hotel but nothing about its recent redevelopment as the party mecca of the beach This book gets off to a very slow start but those who stick with it will be rewarded by capsule looks at such key figures as Barbar...

Magyar | 2009/04/15
I ve read numerous expose accounts of South Beach and this one only updates what has been previously written Focuses on the colorful characters but little insight about Miami Beach s history politics and culture Anyone reading this should keep in mind that South Beach is not Miami Beach is Not Miami is not South Florida is not Florida Also this totally ignores the other history of South Florida and Miami Beach the one told from the point of view of the many immigrants and refugees who have made...

Sam Frontera | 2009/03/31
Fool s Paradise is a well written book about the hidden history of Miami Beach I especially enjoyed Chapter Eleven The Mayor of South Beach After finishing Steven Gaine s manuscript where he mentions Mayor Alex Daoud and his unexpurgated book Sins of South Beach The True Story of Violence Corruption Murder and the Making of Miami Beach I purchased the Mayor s story All I can say is WOW The author a three time Miami Beach City Commissioner and former three time Mayor uses real names real crimes a...

B Rae | 2009/03/31
I was looking forward to reading this book having spent many years in Miami and Miami Beach but I was extremely disappointed in it There is nothing new here the same old stories that appeared in the Miami Herald Miami New Times and other publications are just rehashed Boring and dull

Stephen T Hopkins | 2009/03/30
For decades Miami Beach has provided an escape for snowbirds to get away from the cold of winter for gangsters a place to get things done without much interference for beautiful people a place to show off with few inhibitions Steven Gaines captures these and more in his book Fool s Paradise Players Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach Gaines tells the story of the hoteliers the Art Deco preservationists the nightclub operators gangsters druggies models and politicians Fool s Paradise...