Condominium by John D. MacDonald

John D. MacDonald was a crime and thriller writer who lived a good portion of his life on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida. You might be familiar with the movie Cape Fear, which MacDonald wrote the novel it was adapted from.

Condominium (1977) is a novel set in Athens, FL a fictional version of Sarasota. The plot follows the residents of the recently constructed condo Golden Sands overlooking the Gulf of Mexico on Fiddler Key, a fictional version of Siesta Key.

There are about 30 or more characters in the book - various retirees from all over America living in Golden Sands, the greasy developer Marty Liss who developed Golden Sands, Tropical Towers, and Azure Breeze condominiums as well as Realtors and a crooked city Commissioner and his wife who cheats on him with Marty Liss’ bag-man every time the bag-man drops off the cut of money at the Commissioner’s luxurious home.

A picture:

It was a pale concrete building, one apartment thick, shaped like an angular boomerang. It stood on four cramped acres of land, its rear convexity backing upon an impenetrable jungle of water oak, palmetto, mangrove and miscellaneous vines and bushes. Its concave front faced the constant noisy traffic on two-lane Beach Drive and, at a greater distance, the space between two taller beach-front condominiums and, beyond them, the wide blue Gulf of Mexico.

MacDonald, John D.. Condominium (p. 6). Random House Publishing Group.

Early in the novel Gus Garver, a retired construction contractor whom had recently moved into 1-C, is inspecting Golden Sands and is not impressed by it’s construction. He sees the building has the finished “pro” look, but looks often hide what’s under the surface. Not just that the building is hiding construction flaws. But all of the Keys on the west coast of Florida north of Key West are glorified sand bars. True keys like the ones found on the east coast have solid foundations of limestone. 

I found the depth of knowledge in Condominium very impressive. Not just how true to life the characters are, which as a resident of Sarasota reading this nearly 50 years later, felt as if this was a piece of journalism. MacDonald seemed to know everything there was to know about the local government, the land developing business, civil engineering, the local eco system and Paleotempestology - the study of hurricanes. 

John D. MacDonald being a thriller writer as well as a hater of Florida condo developers, of course has to send the storm of the century right to the west coast. 

There is a character I found really entertaining. He is a retired man obsessed with conspiracies. He spends his remaining days locked in his office while his meek wife watches TV in the living room. He’s clipping newspapers and obsessed with the world banking system and the Rothschild’s family. When it seems like hurricane Ella is headed towards Athens he refuses to leave Golden Sands because he knows if he leaves then some government agency will raid his office and steal or destroy his files. At the same time he is convinced that the government has used some kind of mechanism to send hurricane Ella right to Golden Sands in hopes of killing him as well as destroying his files. 

In truth I could reiterate the whole book for you. Reading descriptions of local land marks a few blocks from my house really made me happy. I recommend the book to anyone interested but especially Florida residents.