Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. There's obviously no singular American story, but what makes an American story? Sure, there are some books that are set in America, but really they could take place anywhere else. But there are certain themes and ideas that need to be present for something to be considered an American story.

And I'd say the two books we've got for you today fit the bill.

In a bit, we'll hear about a real-life family dynasty built on frozen vegetables.

But first, Carl Heisen is on the pod today talking to here and now as Robin Young.

Heisen is a former columnist for the Miami Herald, and his new novel, Fever Beach, is a satire

that involves bumbling white nationalists, corrupt politicians, and a trip to Key West.

What could be more American?

Carl Hyacin is back, and along with him in his new book, a rag-tag group of wack-a-doodle Floridians,

including the

malaprop spewing bigot and insurrectionist Dale Figo, who throws plastic bags with anti-Semitic

flyers on people's lawns, has to form his own rag-tag militia because on Jan 6 he smeared feces on

a Confederate hero statue. Oops, white supremacist got mad at him. Then there's Congressman

Clure Boyette who can't keep his pants on or his snowshoes off. Yes, he wears them in Florida

and little else for kinky sex. Boyette is being kept afloat by his rich dad and donors Claude

and Electra Mink, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party after they were seated at a convention between the Utah State Comptroller and a Halliburton lobbyist with breath like a bullfart. The nerve! They give millions to Congressman Boyette for his nonprofit, The Wee Hammers, grade school kids building little houses for the poor. What could go wrong?

Boyette funnels the money to Dale Figo to, as Dale says, fight the international Zionist

cowbell. I think he means cabal. Are you following this? Oh, this is Carl Hyacin's wheelhouse.

A former longtime Miami Herald colonist, he's credited with coming up with that

meme, Florida man, you know, Florida man gets beaten up by Easter Bunny. Well, Carl said years ago that it was

increasingly hard to come up with fiction weirder than that reality. What must you be thinking now?

Let's find out, Carl, Hyacin's new book is Fever Beach. Carl, great to talk to you again. Oh, it's great to be here. And you know, did I get it right in that summation? I mean, the... When I hear it all at once put together, it's a little unsettling that it came out of my brain, but you got it right. And that's not, that's the half of it. You're going right at the white nationalist movement.

Did you do research, or was this just in the ether?

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