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Review: Tim Dorsey's 'The Pope of Palm Beach' reveals a sweeter side of Serge Storms

 
Tim Dorsey
Tim Dorsey
Published Jan. 17, 2018

It's an odd thing to say about a book in the Serge Storms series, but The Pope of Palm Beach is really kind of sweet.

Serge might not want to hear that. He does, after all, kill people, in highly creative ways, when he's not in manic pursuit of his passion for Florida history and arcana.

But in Tampa author Tim Dorsey's 21st novel about Serge, readers get glimpses of the character's childhood in Riviera Beach, a hometown on Florida's east coast that he shares with his stoner sidekick, Coleman — and with Dorsey.

One nostalgic scene describes a beach outing in 1965 by Serge's family. Coleman's family is there, too, although the future partners in crime haven't yet met. We do get a hint at their grownup characters when the little boys separately encounter man-of-war jellyfish washed up on the shore. Little Coleman thinks they're balloons and tries popping them with his bare feet, which doesn't end well. Little Serge looks them up in his children's guide to sea creatures, then carefully hoists one with a stick to show his mom — and drops it on her foot.

A pivotal event in Serge's boyhood occurs when he sneaks away from a Cub Scout outing at a state park, commandeers a canoe and paddles off in search of a legendary figure called Trapper Nelson. A real-life guy, Nelson was a "wild and crazy hermit who lived in the remote woods way up the equally wild Loxahatchee River, where almost nobody dared venture. He was said to live off the land, skinning alligators and anything else he could catch. And he'd shoot on sight anyone who came near his camp. Maybe skin them, too."

Even as a little nipper, Serge recognizes a kindred soul. He finds Trapper Nelson's camp — and he'll revisit it decades later in the present as The Pope of Palm Beach barrels toward its climax.

Much of the book's sweetness comes in a novel-within-a-novel about the book's title character, a legendary Riviera Beach surfer named Darby Pope, and Kenny Reese, a boy to whom Darby becomes a mentor.

In 1965, Hurricane Betsy slammed a 440-foot cargo ship, the Amaryllis, so far up on Riviera Beach that it took three years to remove it. The giant ship created a new wave pattern that drew surfers from all over, and Darby was one of the masters of those waves.

At first Darby and Kenny are surfing pals, but later Darby, a voracious reader, takes the no-books-for-me Kenny under his wing. Coaxing him with Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger, he turns the boy first into an avid reader and then, over several years, into an author.

Kenny's first novel, Florida Tarzan, is about Trapper Nelson, and it's a bestseller. He writes two more books, and his sales and fan base grow. Then, in 1989, in the wake of a tragedy, he disappears.

Vanishes, just like that. No explanation, no farewell note, nada. And he has stayed vanished for more than 20 years; Kenny Reese makes Salinger look like a publicity hog.

Every Serge Storms book is built around a road trip, and this time the motive for that trip is a literary tour of Florida. Serge and Coleman make stops in the Keys to salute Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Hunter S. Thompson and even Jimmy Buffett, "the fierce workaholic who marketed his unemployed beach-bum persona into the economic might of a small nation."

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There are other stops, but one of Serge's favorite writers is Kenny Reese, so back to Riviera Beach they go.

Along the way, of course, Serge does remove a couple of unpleasant people from Florida's population. When he and Coleman go to the beach late one night to reverently observe sea turtles laying their eggs, a bunch of drunk bros show up with the idea that turning the turtles around so they'll crawl away from the ocean is hilarious. Serge corrects that notion, with extreme prejudice.

There's also a smirky young drug company executive who jacks up the price of a life-saving drug to an insane level — and then finds himself suffering from the very condition the drug cures, courtesy of Serge.

But Serge seems to be having the most fun when, through complicated circumstances, he impersonates an author and holds book signings, where he deploys drones, karaoke and Silly String.

Disguised with a beard and eyebrows from Party City, Serge clearly has the basics of dealing with fans down:

"?'Everyone says I have a fascinating life story. Will you write it for me?'

"?'That's an easy one!' said Serge. 'No. ... Who's next?'?"

Contact Colette Bancroft at cbancroft@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8435. Follow @colettemb.