Condominium by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The saddest part of this book for me was the realization that my tastes have really changed since 40 years ago when I first discovered MacDonald. The writing drew me in and I love Travis McGee. During the next 25 years of tracking down the 77 novels and other work he did, I presented him as my favorite author. i must back down from that now. ‘Condominium’ is a triumph for any author to accomplish. Just not a triumph i care for.

Part of my trouble is the fatalist view throughout the entire book and fed through all of the characters. There is little to nothing happy about the book. Not that there has to be. Unless you want a feel of realism in your story.

The story is just peppered with unreal characters that hate life, expect the worst, find morality an irritating speed bump and are mostly unlikable. Making it all worse is that all of the characters are far too over written. So you get far too much of the latter. There is just no reason to know so much about such a large group of characters. Especially when the bulk of what is depicted is depressing. MacDonald went far out of his way to maybe put a line or two good about each and then bury it all in a pile of a rotten view of life. A good story needs balance of good and evil.

Of the bulk of MacDonald I’ve read, this is one I always put off. Due to the celebration of MacDonald’s 100th birthday, i’m diving back into the 150 of so MacDonald books and such I have. ‘Condominium’ thought to be his crowning achievement had to be read. So I did and wish I hadn’t. I realize I need to read MacDonald with a chaser somewhat uplifting.

The setting is more than well described from sunken rebar to truss and the detailed described plans that go with it…oh, AND the financials. Having worked in Planning and Engineering and having poured through thousands of pages of various construction plans, i found this interesting, if a bit naive about the permitting process.

To me , the last fifth of the book, involving the hurricane is too short and much is left hanging about various characters and the fate of the condominium. Easily a sixth of the book could have been edited out. Trouble is, at this point, MacDonald was throwing a political anvil around and wouldn’t let up to his death. ‘One More Sunday’, which I read when it came out, I well remember as a strongly disturbing tale that i came out of wondering of MacDonald’s ability to reason anymore. Still I upheld him my favorite author! I wonder if he would have lived longer if he had let up being so upset about so much.

Involving the Florida setting: Much I refer to above. More specifically, he well portrays the suckers who move to Florida. Most all are, whether they want to admit it or not. MacDoanlds does a terrific job laying out foolish decisions and how so many are set up by intricate business plans that really do still occur today. Construction of structures has gotten far, far worse since the late 1970s as chipboard and Tyvek have been elected as the cheap industry norm. I agree with MacDonald that fools move to Florida and get what they deserve. If only they would research their move first. Of course, they don’t have George Gobel around anymore to seduce them to the state.

The issues of construction are written by MacDonald to bludgeon his political point. He maneuvers away from the actual process of pulling permits, construction meetings, site work and the actual process of building a structure.

His environmental concerns are mostly valid. Though he again writes to make a point and slithers away from pointing out that if the area was as rickety as he describes, constructing foundations would have been tough to pull off. His writing of clearing mangroves and vegetation is right on. This is an area he always wrote loosely about, which came to my attention after reading what my ex-wife, Sandra Friend, could/can write about natural Florida. From that I get the feeling MacDonald really didn’t have a handle of that subject and the idea of writing of beauty and majestic landscapes was not something that fit in his dark views of the world.

Hate writing this next part, but I viewing the above:
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of 10 points.

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