I can remember the opening shot of Barbara Eden (playing Barbara Messenger) floating in the middle of the vast ocean (in a row boat?) of the made for TV movie Condominium (1980). So when I saw a copy of John D. MacDonald's novel of the same name, I had to read it.Condominium was a departure for MacDonald, who is best known for his Travis McGee series. The book opens with a dedication: "This book is dedicated to these people who were part of the good years in Sarasota and were washed away:"and continues on with a long list of names. From the timeline of the book, I'm guessing these people were victims of hurricane Donna (1960).Condominium is not a novelization of actual events. It does however paint a realistic enough picture of the sorts of things that can go wrong to contribute to as massive a disaster as described in the final pages of this novel. MacDonald doesn't point the finger at just one person making mistakes or cutting corners as the cause. Instead he builds suspense on the knowledge that little mistakes and efforts to cut corners in the interest of saving money add up.In the middle of all of this are the families, mostly retirees on fixed incomes, who have maxed out their budgets to buy a retire home. With Ian on the board of our local HOA, I sympathized with the HOAs in this novel who struggled to undo the mess the developers left them with on their limited budgets.Condominium the novel predates the TV movie by three years and is as exciting to read as the film was to watch. I ended up staying up an hour and a half beyond my normal bedtime to finish it. Then I was afraid I'd have nightmares!
UPDATE: Abandoned. This book gave me some insight as to how the housing market works, and why land is developed so often counter to common sense or human/environmental concerns. It was dated though, written in 1977, and there were too many characters for me to invest in any one i particular. I could see clearly the disasters on the horizon - financial and environmental - and I wanted to read it, but I didn't want to read it. The kind of deal where, yeah, I could stick it out and read to the end - but why?? There are SO MANY BOOK to read.
Do You like book Condominium (1985)?
Condominium appeared on a booklist of influential Florida themed books, so I decided to give it a read. Perhaps I should have thought twice about reading a 447 page book about Florida condo dwellers in the lead up to a giant hurricane. This was not an uplifting book. It tackles the issues of corporate greed, unfulfilled retirement living, and the effects of natural disasters. I liked gaining a fresh perspective on topics I have not given much thought to before (such as why a lot of retired people flock to Florida), but this was a hard book to pick up and just read. There were too many characters for me to keep track of, and I became discouraged trying to remember all the backstories. I would also have liked to have seen a more balanced cast in terms of happy to tragic characters. John D. MacDonald is a very well-known author, and for that reason I am glad I read this popular book of his. I am going to pick up a mystery in his more popular series before I fully form my opinion on his writing.
—Kendra
