Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West

by William McKeen

True tales of writers and pirates, painters and potheads, guitar pickers and drug merchants in America’s southernmost city.

For Hemingway and Fitzgerald, there was Paris in the twenties. For others, later, there was Greenwich Village, Big Sur, and Woodstock. But for an even later generation—one defined by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, and Hunter S. Thompson—there was another moveable feast: KeyWest, Florida.

The small town on the two-by-four-mile island has long been an artistic haven, a wild refuge for people of all persuasions, and the inspirational home for a league of great American writers. Some of the artists went there to be literary he-men. Some went to re-create themselves. Others just went to disappear—and succeeded. No matter what inspired the trip, Key West in the seventies was the right place at the right time, where and when an astonishing collection of artists wove a web of creative inspiration.

Mile Marker Zero tells the story of how these writers and artists found their identities in Key West and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise.

Unlike the “Lost Generation” of Paris in the twenties, we have a generation that invented, reinvented, and found itself at the unending cocktail party at the end—and the beginning—of America’s highway.

The taco man
Island of bones
The template
A different society
McGuane
The boys
Nowhere to hide
The failure
This republic of ours
Square grouper
A year of living dangerously
Margaritaville
The king of gonzo
Bum Farto and Ping-Ping
Redemption
Evacuation
Don't stop the carnival

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Author of Mile Marker Zero, Outlaw Journalist, Highway 61, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay and several other books, William McKeen teaches at Boston University and chairs its department of journalism. He lives on the rocky coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I could never claim to be a Parrothead, Jimmy Buffett's recent and surprising passing hit me harder than I expected. His music was the soundtrack of my early 20s and symbolized good times and escapism at a time when I was just trying to adjust to being a responsible adult. While reading an article about his life, this book was mentioned. I am so glad I picked it up. Mile Marker Zero tells the story of a post-Papa Hemingway Key West during the 1970s and the authors that followed him, embracing the hedonistic, non-stop party atmosphere of the island at the end of the earth. Besides Buffett, Tennesee Williams, Thomas McGuane, and Hunter S Thompson, among others, found a place where they could be inspired and write, but also carouse and go completely nuts. The Key West of today is a far cry from that free-spirited island of the 1970s and the sanitized version just doesn't seem as much fun. The book is a fun read, especially for fans of Buffett and those who are nostalgic for the 1970s.

[Derek Dowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you, like me, are a Key West history junkie who can’t get enough of this tropical oddity of geography, you might want to start digging through the couch cushions for spare change to buy Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West by William McKeen. You should know up front the Kindle price is $12.99, which is such a ridiculously stratospheric number it makes me want to punch a publisher, but I’ll refrain for now. The really incredible part is that the paperback version is actually cheaper! What brainiac decided pixels cost more than paper?

But I digress. Let’s get back to discussing the book. I sort of agree with the author’s apparent assumption, which was that the 1970s was the last decade the town was worth a damn. Past that point things changed. Cutthroat cocaine dealers stomped all over the the laid back vibe of shrimpers dabbling in pot smuggling to make ends meet. Then the cruise ships arrived, Key West became a full-bore tourist destination, and it’s been a slow slide downhill ever since.

Don’t get the idea that it’s too late to visit the place. It’s not completely ruined. Yet. You can still find bits and pieces of the old pirate and wrecker town here and there, if you look hard. The vast majority of McKeen’s Mile Marker Zero, however, dealt with the artsy fartsy scene of the ’70s. There were a handful of pretty big names writing, painting, and singing down island at the time. Maybe you’ve heard of a few: Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, Hunter S. Thompson, Jim Harrison, and Tom Corcoran.

We get a little bit of older Key West history to start things off, but then McKeen drills down to business. In this case, the business is recounting the drug, alcohol, and sex binges that followed in the wake of the new arrivals. Blah blah blah…reading about other peoples’ vices gets boring pretty quickly, and methinks there’s a good chance the world wasn’t as interested as McKeen and his protagonists’ seemed to think.

As a slice of Key West history, this book is well written and worth the overpriced pixel cost of admission. Lest we forget, going all the way back to Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, Bone Island has and continues to cast a hypnotic spell on creative types. I’ve felt it myself whilst wandering the sun-baked streets. So…what to make of all this mish mash of book review opinion?

I bought it and I’d do it again. It’s better than Twilight. By the way, where IS Bum Farto?

[Craig Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at some of the famous writers who have called Key West home -- with Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Thomas McGuane being the main ones -- although I wish it went a little further than it does. While jampacked with jaw-dropping anecdotes, it's not as good as William McKeen's brilliant biography of one of those writers who found a refuge on Bone Island, Hunter S. Thompson, "Outlaw Journalist."

I think it's because he has to cover so much territory, particularly with McGuane and his circle (which involves his affairs with Elizabeth Ashley and Margot Kidder and his wife's affair with Warren Oates and eventual marriage to Peter Fonda). As a result he doesn't have time to delve too deeply into why so many talented people wound up in one place at roughly the same time.

He also gives short shrift to some bigtime Key West writers -- Wallace Stevens, for instance, who while staying in the Keys wrote a poem called "O Florida, Venereal Soil" (and got into a fist fight with Hemingway) and John Dos Passos (who recommended Key West to Hemingway, and fished with him), and John Hersey, whose last book was an excellent short story collection called "Key West Tales" (including one story that's about Hemingway).

Some of the best material in this book isn't about the Big Name Writers at all. Instead, it's when McKeen takes a long look at such Key West institutions as Jimmy Buffett (who once sang for free drinks at a low-down dive he memorialized as "The Snake Pit" in the song "Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw)") and the enduring mystery of what became of fire chief Bum Farto, famous for wearing all red clothes and driving a lime green car he should not have been able to afford. His summary of how the town changed when the smugglers switched from weed to coke is downright perfect.

Perhaps someday McKeen will do a sequel to this book and expand on some of those stories, and perhaps he'll hook up with a publisher who will give him the time to get it all juuuuust right. Perhaps the key would be to write the whole thing in Key West.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars. I lived in South Florida in the 70s working on yachts, was familiar with Key West, had some experience with smugglers and square groupers, read Thomas McGuane and Hunter S. Thompson, and, of course, I love Jimmy Buffett's earlier music and have a photograph of his Key West apartment building on my wall, so I had high hopes for this book.
Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The story jumps from character to character too much and the timelines are confusing.
There are a lot of stories and details in the book, but it just wasn't written that well.

After going to the author's website, I learned that Tom Corcoran, one of the main characters and one of my favorite mystery authors, died earlier this year. He will be missed.

[Harry Ramble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account of the Key West scene in the '70s was composed at the suggestion of Tom Corcoran (bartender, photographer, pocket mystery writer), who surely didn't feel he was in a position to dish on his more famous friends. And those friends?

Well, Tom McGuane arrives in Key West in 1971, the author of a couple of slim novels well-regarded by critics, and promptly burns his burgeoning career to the ground in a "Captain Berzerko" phase. Hunter S. Thompson arrives in 1976, two years after he had lost the ability to compose a coherent sentence. There's also a European count of some sort and a painter, both fishermen.

Only Jimmy Buffett shows up willing to do any work and he absconds for Aspen the moment "Margaritaville" appears on the radio. So what's left? A kind of "you had to be there" tale of a bender you might hear from the guy on a barstool next to you at Captain Tony's. Nothing wrong with that, of course. As for the Moveable Feast concept here, well, Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Stein and Joyce and Pound, this ain't.

[Katherine Freniere · Rating 1 out of 5]

Are you kidding me?? One day I may pick this book up again and give it another shot but I stopped reading it because it was just pissing me off. How is this guy a journalism professor? He can't write!!! I LOVE Key West, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, writers, stories of drinking, drugs and excess but I couldn't get past so much that was horrible about this book. The author talks about things without explaining. He makes references and ASSUMES you know about what he's talking about. A lot of times you can figure out what he's talking about but the way he writes is unnecessary and confusing. He also seems to be trying too hard with his language. I was in the middle of a flight and had to throw this book down because I was just becoming so angry at the writing. Don't bother with this one

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mile Marker Zero: The Moveable Feast of Key West by William McKeen (Crown Publishers 2011)(975.941) is an enjoyable tip of the cap to life on the island of Key West. The author briefly outlines the history of this the southernmost Key, but then he moves on to the focus of the book: the various artists who have called the island home. From Papa Hemmingway through Tennessee Williams on to Jimmy Buffett and Hunter Thompson, all have enjoyed the freedoms that life at the end of the U.S. have afforded. Those freedoms have traditionally included, according to the author, the right to smuggle marijuana more-or-less openly and giggle about it. My rating: 6/10, finished 6/13/2013.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm maybe 1/3 through. As a Key West resident, it's fun reading about Key West locations and people. This is a very unique and unusual place. A great place to live.

MORE TO COME ...

It got boring and repetitive. 2** is a stretch.

[Michael Alligood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost faith in the research and writing after the train-wreck of chapter three. The author (editor, researchers, etc.) let slide numerous mistakes concerning Hemingway. As if there haven’t been over 100 books written about the author. This made me mistrust every other “fact” presented regarding Corcoran, McGuane, Chatham, Thompson, Buffett, Williams, etc. Furthermore, the writing is difficult to track at times—being repetitive in places yet vague in others.

[Peter Boody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Key West fan and must admit I'm one of those bourgeois touristy people that have allowed the developer and corporate types to turn Key West into a Disneyland version of its former dirty, stinking tropical-trash self. So despite my guilt, and my personal failure to head to Key West when I was 21 to go hang at the Chart Room, I really enjoyed this book, which is about the 1970s in Key West, when the Chart Room crowd — including Jimmy Buffet and writer Tom McGuane — formed a kind of manly salon of late-day Hemingway wannabes.
Or maybe just jerks. Some of these guys sound kind of like real assholes*: drunk out of their minds and chauvinistic tyrants ... at least McGuane does and he becomes, essentially, the focus of the book.
McKeen doesn't find the humanity in him or the rest of them, which I assume is there somewhere. He just kind of runs through their adventures in a curiously choppy, disorganized and sometimes even repetitive way. (* Jimmy B excepted and I doubt Tom McGuane is really an asshole either; no devoted father and fly fisherman could be.)
There are lyrical and richly moody moments in the book that stitch fragmented anecdotes, blotchy scenes and scattered moments together and the overall effect has a charm and appeal. But the writing --- or at least the organization and structure --- is peculiar if not downright bad.
The story line, for example, begins not with McGuane but a very well crafted and strong depiction of a guy I'd never heard of before, Tom Corcoran, deciding to make a life in KW after his Navy career. It was good stuff but it disappears ... only to re-emerge near the endless swan-song ending of the book, with news of the bizarre disappearance if his devoted wife and his late career as a writer, which is barely covered.
I suspect the problem is that the book is really a transcription of interview highlights stitched together with some made-to-order literary binder. It's all disguised as a book meant to be like "Philistines at the Hedgerow," an excellent example of the genre: a series of rich vignettes that each focus on a particular player on the Hamptons scene on eastern Long Island (where I live) in the 1970s or so. That book was brilliantly executed, a bestseller for Stephen Gaines and it deserved to be, with richly drawn character studies and fully realized accounts of important events in the lives and times of each subject.
This sometimes shaky imitation is a must read and even a good book for any Key West aficionado but it has serious flaws. I still give it a 4 because I did enjoy it, I'm glad McKeen wrote it and maybe he did the best anybody could with the material, which features less than heroic and maybe even less than fascinating people, at least when they were in Key West.

[J.K. Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating - Put It On The List

Level - Short to moderate in length, but reads longer, easy to moderate read

Summary

I'm torn on the summary. It can be summed up in a basic sentence, or it would take a whole page to do justice to the craziness of this book. essentially, it is about Key West, way back when. When Key West wasn't a tourist trap, when it was the wild west of modern America. This is post landbarron, like Flager, and celebrity, like Hemingway, but pre-over commercialization. There were as-yet unknown writers like Corcoran, McGuane, and Buffet. Hunter S. Thompson among others makes an appearance.

All to say, if you grew up with the legends of the Conch Republic, read this book, if you've never heard the stories of the way things were, it will either be dull or incredibly fascinating.

My Thoughts

So, I did grow up the stories of Key West, especially from my dad, who visited more often in his lost years. In fact, we took a pilgrimage, driving the 800+ plus miles from Atlanta, when I was maybe 12 or so. In a somewhat odd coincidence my dad actually grew up next to where Vaughn Cochran, proprietor of the Black Fly and secondary character in these Key West chronicles, spent his summers. Actually, it was my dad who loaned me this book.

Anyway, this book is a lot of fun. If you've spent time in Mallory Square or read the autobiographies of Jimmy Buffett or Hunter S. Thompson, you'll get a lot out of this. It is all the craziness you'd expect and then some. Plus, some somewhat odd and data funny parts, like the little crew down there getting members only jackets with fake name to wear as the walked around getting drunk and partying.

There is a just an interesting mix of writers, musicians, and artist, you have to wonder why it never really got the popularity of some of the other historical places for such people. Maybe because it was at the bottom of the country, inhabited by nomadic Southerners so forgotten than the US Army once accidentally invaded the island; but probably mostly the commercialization tha followed. Ironically, Buffet's own Parrot Head/Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise stores are currently part of the problem, a victim of his success.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I arrived in Florida in the early 80's from California and decided to head down to Key West with my wife just to check out that portion of our new state. We loved it - party town! From the sunset watch at Mallory Square to the drunken revelry at the local jazz spots it was great. We stayed at a funky hotel near the Southernmost Point for a bit under $40 a night. (Same spot now closer to $240 with 3 night minimum during major party times like Fantasy Fest, New Years or the Hemingway look alike competition.) Food was great with lots of options and party times on Duval street were crazy. Yes, body paint was all some were wearing. Not unusual to stumble back in the early a.m. to find a couple making love on the end of one pier and a nude drunk nearby on another whizzing into the ocean.

Turns out it was even rowdier (hard to imagine) during the few years before when writers like Tom Corcoranm, Thomas McGuane and Hunter Thompson were around, mixing with folks like Peter Fonda and Margot Kidder, Truman Capote and Tenessee Williams. Of course, one of the best stories was the rise of Jimmy Buffet and all the happenings around him. (Ever wondered about his T shirt that said "Where is Bum Farto?" Book doesn't answer the question but at least you will know where it came from.) They have all moved on. Some to Alabama, some to Montana, Central Florida, etc. but the legacy remains and this book does a great job of catching the spirit. Now of course, the place has been cleaned up, the tourists pile in, the prices are up dramatically and major "yuppie conversion" has occurred upon places that once had great character.

Still, if you want a sense of what it was like and frankly, some of that spirit lives on, this book is a great tour guide.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read finished this on the ferry bound for Key West, which made for a perfect intro to the Isle of Bones. So many writers and artists have followed Hemingway's wake to arrive on Duval Street: Tom Corcoran, Thomas McGuane, Tennessee Williams, Jimmy Buffet, and, of course, Hunter S. Thompson. Most of them also followed his wake to exit the island, often with similarly tragic ends. What I most enjoyed about this book was how it introduced me to new writers about whom I hadn't yet heard enough to be intrigued. It was also interesting to see how much a small group of bar buddies interconnected with so many other celebrities of their time, including Margon Kidder, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dan�[return]Aykroyd, and Bill Murray. The island is a relaxed oasis of live-and-let-live. The lucky make that work for them, while the rest eventually let their own ambition counterbalance it. Most ultimately escape it, sometimes leaving behind the peak of their lives; others to finally find that place. This book is always engaging, sometimes dirty, and apparently honest.

[judy]

There are people who will adore this book. To do it you have to know who Tom McGuane is and like Jimmy Buffett. That is a NO both counts. If McGuane is a name you don't recognize and haven't read you should probably know that he's "this generation's Hemingway". As a rule I'm considered very literate but I didn't know who Tom was or most his writing buddies. Turns out they hung out in Key West in the 70s. Have read most of Papa Hemingway and most of Tennessee Williams (a fave) who also had Key West connections. Would love to read this guy's bio of Hunter S. Thompson whose time in Key West probably gave birth to this book. I'm going to guess that McGuane is a writer's writer which is why I don't know him even though I was in several book groups at the time. Didn't finish the book but major points for a great title.

[Paultc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a good deal, but I suspect one's reaction to the book will have a lot to do with how interested you are in a group of writers and artists who frequented Key West in the 1970s. This is not really a literary history of the island at all. It is a snapshot of a place in time. If the names Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Corcoran, Russell Chatham, Elizabeth Ashley, or Margot Kidder resonate with you, this is a must read book. If you could care less about these folks, than the book is not for you. To give you an idea of how limited the focus is, consider that Thomas Sanchez spent time in Key West a decade later and produced the wonderful "Mile Zero." I don't think McKeen mentions Sanchez at all.

[John Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great opportunity for insights into literary and musical Key West in the 1970's. I moved there right as the period that McKeen documents was ending, and he's right, things got a lot uglier in town then, thanks to the violence that escalated when pot smuggling was overshadowed by cocaine smuggling. But it was still a blast and really established my creative roots on the island with a long pedigree of literary history.

Fun to see more about writers like McGuane, Harrison, Buffett, Thompson and Corcoran from that period, but I'm also hoping McKeen continues to tell the tales that followed, with the next generation of writers there.

[Joe Drape · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful read about Key West in the 1970s became the mecca for macho literary types and at least one wistful sailor, Jimmy Buffet. They drank, fished and chased women. It really was a movable feast with writers like Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison and Hunter S. Thompson in its orbit. Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams are featured in McKeen's gives a brief and anecdotal history of the island. The colorful locals, too, are given their due - the smugglers and bartenders. Now, I want to go read the Alex Rutledge Key West mystery books by Tom Corcoran who sounds like a helluva guy and rode shotgun with all of the above.

[Sue Merrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about excesses, this certainly fills the bill. Language that might be a little shocking in conversation quickly becomes overpowering in print.I suspect many of the tales are exaggerated, such as sexual adventures on a crowded bar or a illogical mechanical sexual gratification machine that had Coast Guard wives standing in line. It's one long locker room brag fest, with very little explanation of the heart or motivations involved. And most disappointing of all, there's really very little description of Key West. Only a few stories are actually entertaining, such as an encounter between Jimmy Buffett and Buford Pusser that is hilarious.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing how much Key West has changed in 40 years! With all the sex, drugs and fun stories that are like quick scenes, Mile Marker Zero would make a much better movie than book...something like "Boogie Nights" - would it be as good as a book? For book format, it could use deeper character development for readers who don't know the people or town. The primary research done by the author is impressive, but I didn't see Jimmy Buffett and his family on the list of interviews even though he is one of the stars of this book. I do recommend this to anyone planning a visit to Key West and wanting to learn about its history beyond Hemingway.

[✨ Gramy ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have lived in Florida most of my life. I only visited Key West for a weekend and did not observe the behavior portrayed in this book. I would never had stepped foot near it if I had read this book prior to the trip. The drunken and stoned people that are referred to may have created their own illusions. I really didn't appreciate the expletives in the book. It's a real turn-off. So much so that I opted not to complete the book, which is a rare choice for me.

Other people that view the world differently than I do, may really like this book. I saw many good reviews to that effect. To each his own!

[JoYo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read on Key West that almost serves more like a mini-biography for quite a few of its 70s-era colorful characters. As a Thompson and Buffett fan, I obviously enjoyed those chapters the most, but was pleasantly surprised to read about folks like Corcoran and McGuane, both of whom I'd never heard of. Key West is a travel muse of mine, and I definitely wish I could experience this era of the little island, most of which, is now just a memory.

[Richard Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging portrait of literary life in Key West, focusing primarily on the seventies, when Tom McGuane and his pals were in residence. The author admires the literary achievements of these people more than the critics do, but it is fun to see these people park their inhibitions on the mainland and try everything.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this one while in Key West, and it is always fun to read about the people and places of a certain place while you are there. It was interesting to learn more about this subculture of artists and authors of the '70s and how they failed and succeeded. I wasn't very familiar with a couple of them so now I'm interested to read some of their works.

[Dotty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard bits & pieces of this book on The Radio Reader - and I was fascinated so I ordered it from the library. It was fun - and filled with interesting gossip about the late 60's & 70's in Key West - and the lives of various writers, musicians & characters who lived/worked there. This author also wrote a biography on Hunter S. Thompson.

(I'd give it a 3-1/2 if that was possible)

[Katie Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some obvious structural problems with this book, but I love Key West. I grew up visiting my grandparents on Summerland Key, and I now visit often with my family. I love the lore and literary history of Key West and this was a great book to tuck into on the most recent flight home from the town at the end of the road.

[Rollin · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Key West was a Paris of sorts for north American writers. Some of my favorites. Some I missed. Add a healthy dose of actors and musicians whose lives and marriages intertwined in surprising ways. And then there is the big connection with Montana. Quite a book.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the hands of another writer, this could have been a better book. In his zeal to include everyone who was part of the Key West scene "back in the day", McKeen has short-changed most of the folks he's writing about.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. I read it while on vacation in Key West. You can pick it up and put it down as you like. Nothing deep here, but like Key West a litle bit of this, a little bit of that, with Trop-rock playing in the backround.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading about the place that really has grabbed my heart, and how it was only a few decades ago, and thinking about how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. Fascinating stories about so many famous artists and how Key West changed their lives.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love Key West, this is a must read. My only regret is that I never got to experience the Key West of this book. I love the Key West that I know now, but I think I might've loved McKeen's Key West even more.