Swamp Gas

By Nicole Paolini

Lana's face - round as the full moon and almost as luminescent under a thick layer of orange makeup - glowed from across the desk. The pattern of her dress strobed. Long, red nails flashed as she flipped through the documents. The total effect was just short of hypnotic, and probably capable of inducing epileptic seizures in high-risk patients .If you happen to be driving on 1-10 not too far from New Orleans, there's a billboard where you can see for yourself what Attorney Lana Pulaski looks like. Towering hairdo. Clothes bedecked with feathers and/or sequins and straining to contain her. Her entire being seems ready to erupt like a Texas oil gusher. Lana was first in her law school class, and has built a thriving if unconventional practice in New Orleans. Now she's running for state's attorney general.Lana's campaign strategy recognizes the importance of trolling for votes in Cajun country, and a fortuitous case makes it necessary that she go there anyhow. After one look, the judge involved, an octogenarian named L'Enfant from an old but exhausted Cajun family, is bewitched. For her part, Lana sees in him the opportunity to inject a local angle into her campaign. And if she were to marry him, it would add a touch of class, however decaying, to her image.Before you can say "Do you take this woman?" the wedding plans are afoot - the entire town invited to a giant affair on the grounds of the L'Enfant estate, an airplane piloted by The Bug Man, the local exterminator, 0 and trailing a "Pulaski for Attorney General" banner. The highly reluctant maid of honor would be the Judge's granddaughter, Scarlett (believe it!) a would-be painter with a most peculiar technique. But The Bug Man's compulsion to buzz the assembly just as the cake was being cut had not been written in. Swamp Gas is a farce, a hoot, a frequent belly laugh and a telling comment on politics and politicians. This is Paolini's first novel but already she knows that the way to keep the laughter going is to have something to say and to create characters, bizarre as they may be (and they are), that are real enough to convince us of their humanity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312262353
• ISBN13: 9780312262358
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Funny, easy read.

Swamp Gas is a hysterically funny book with characters that conjure wild images in your mind. It's not deep or compelling, but it's not supposed to be! The writing style of Nicole Paolini is intelligent and gripping, yet the characters are outrageous and comical. Jimmy Crouton and Lana Pulaski are so unique, you're actually happy to realize that you know noone to compare them to. This was a great casual read, and an impressive first book. I can't wait for the next.

Louisiana unveiled

This is a very, very funny book. Watch Lana Pulaski, statuesque ambulance chaser, enter the bayou to run for attorney general. Story and characters are just too loopy for words. Read this satire, and laugh for days.

A Must Read!

Great book. Paolini's story is an eccentric trip through the political underpinnings of New Orleans politics. The story reads much like a screenplay, with a descriptive use of language that takes the reader through the life of interesting characters as well as through the landscape (both political and geographic)in which they reside. Worthy of note is Lana Pulaski, the over-assertive protagonist whose "win at all cost" attitude protects her from the motivations of the Louisiana political machine, while creating countless mishaps in the process. Prepare yourself to be entertained by other characters such as Jim Crouton, the crack-head hitman whose affinity for rat-poison is the motivation for an fantastic ending. I would not be surprised to see Paolini's book as a motion picture in the near future. A must read.

MORE! MORE! GIVE US MORE!

It's hard to imagine that Swamp Gas is Ms. Paloni's first time out of the gate. Swamp Gas is gut-achingly funny. Lana is such a colorful, loopy character that my interest in her never flagged. Ms. Paloni must make it a serial. Just imagine the heights, and the pathetic depths that Lana and her crew could rise to and fall from. Hollywood take note -- Swamp Gas is made for the big screen (Joan Cusack would be perfect as Lana).