Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780425184127
ISBN: 0425184129
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: September 01, 2001
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: April 02, 2002
Sales Rank: 848727
Studio: Berkley
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Dave Barry makes his fiction debut with a ferociously funny novel of love and mayhem in south Florida.
In his career, Dave Barry has done just about everything--written bestselling nonfiction, won a Pulitzer Prize, seen his life turned into a television series. And now, at last, he has joined the long list of literary figures from Jane Austen to Tolstoy who have made the transition from humor columnist to novelist...and done it with a style and inventiveness that establishes that, yes, he is very good at that, too.
In the city of Coconut Grove, Florida, these things happen: A struggling adman named Eliot Arnold drives home from a meeting with the Client From Hell. His teenage son, Matt, fills a Squirtmaster 9000 for his turn at a high school game called Killer. Matt's intended victim, Jenny Herk, sits down in front of the TV with her mom for what she hopes will be a peaceful evening for once. Jenny's alcoholic and secretly embezzling stepfather, Arthur, emerges from the maid's room, angry at being rebuffed. Henry and Leonard, two hit men from New Jersey, pull up to the Herks' house for a real game of Killer, Arthur's embezzlement apparently not having been quite so secret to his employers after all. And a homeless man named Puggy settles down for the night in a treehouse just inside the Herks' yard.
In a few minutes, a chain of events that will change the lives of each and every one of them will begin, and will leave some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work. With a wicked wit, razor-sharp observations, rich characters, and a plot with more twists than the Inland Waterway, Dave Barry makes his debut a complete and utter triumph.
'The funniest book I've read in fifty years.'--Elmore Leonard
'Despite wealth, fame and a tendency to undermedicate himself, Dave Barry remains one of the funniest writers alive. Big Trouble is outrageously warped, cheerfully depraved--and harrowingly close to true life in Florida. This book will do for our tourism industry what Dennis Rodman did for bridal wear.'--Carl Hiaasen
Amazon.com Review:
Dave Barry, the only newsman to win a Pulitzer for exemplary use of words like booger, will please humor and crime-fiction fans alike with this racy debut novel. The scene is Miami. In ritzy Coconut Grove, the teen son of Eliot, a newsman turned adman, sneaks up to spritz a cute girl with a Squirtmaster 9000 to win a high school game called Killer. Meanwhile, two hit men sneak up to kill the girl's abusive stepdad, Arthur. Arthur cheated his bosses at corrupt Penultimate, Inc., which equipped a Florida jail with automatic garage-opener gates that accidentally freed prisoners in a lightning storm.
Farcical confusion ensues, witnessed by a saintly bum named Puggy, camped in a tree in Arthur's yard. Puggy works at the Jolly Jackal Bar & Grill, which has no grill and actually sells guns and bombs to an offshoot of the Crips and Bloods called the Cruds, and to Penultimate (which plans to conquer Cuba). But when dim thugs Eddie and Snake rob the Jolly Jackal and Arthur tells them it's a Russian mob front selling bombs, the proprietor snorts, 'Bombs, pfft! No bombs! Is bar.'
Can Snake and Eddie spirit a suitcase nuke through Miami, 'where most motorists obeyed the traffic and customs of their individual countries of origin'? Can Eliot and cop Monica Rodriguez save the day? And how do the 300-pound hallucinogenic Enemy Toad, the 13-foot-long python Daphne, highway goats, and the Denture Adventure seniors' theme park fit in? Everything fits perfectly, including a few dark passages new to Barry's work. But one warning: if you read this book while drinking milk, at some point it will spurt out of your nostrils. --Tim Appelo
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Can't Stop Laughing!!!!!
This book is totally hilarious! Dave Barry has a great style filled with jokes that will make you laugh for hours. The pacing is great - plus, lots of good characters with an awesome plot. And nobody does south Florida comedy better!
There should be more books like this one. I'd recommend this to anyone...it's one of my favorites. And if you're looking for another good book to read after Big Trouble, check out National Darkroast Day.
Rating:  - Decent first effort at fiction by Barry
This is an off-beat little sort-of-hard-boiled crime thriller (think Elmore Leonard lite with a dose of wacky humor). Dave Barry's brand of humor didn't always translate well into the fictional format, in my opinion, but for the most part he pulled it off. If you're a fan of his humor columns, you will probably like this novel, but that will depend somewhat on whether the darker elements bother you--there are some unsavory characters here. Barry does just enough characterization to make each character distinct and recognizable, but in some cases you wish he did more (when you actually liked the characters).
The plot is fairly-well handled, but it was unfortunate that 9/11 happened not too long after this came out (though this really hurt the movie, which was in production pre-9/11 but was released shortly afterward, more than the book).
Dick Hill's narration of the audio version is quite good, especially his ability to do distinct and recognizable voices for each character. His delivery helps the humor along as well.
Rating: - Hysterical!
Dave Barry weaves a funny, complicated tale, and this is one of his best. Full of off beat characters, absurd but somehow true to life scenarios, and bad guys who get their comeuppance, this is an engrossing cassette set to listen to. The narration is excellent as well, by a true audio artist!
Rating: - Completely Brilliant
Anyone who has read any of Dave Barry's work knows how completely hilarious his analogies and descriptions can be. However, almost all of his work has been short editorial articles. This novel is like a full feature film of Dave Barry's notoriously outrageous mind.
This book is probably the funniest book I have ever read, even considering novels by Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams, Carl Hiassen, and many others. I don't know if I can ever look at Florida the same way after reading this book. Since finishing it, I've chuckled every time I've even hear the word 'Florida', and that was a few years ago.
Writing comedy is difficult, and Dave Barry clearly put a huge amount of thought and time into the writing of this novel. Anyone that reads this book will find that their time and money was well spent.
Rating: - Laughed Out Loud Many Times
BIG TROUBLE is a very funny crime novel. I've never read Dave Barry's column (which, as of this date, no longer exists), but this book makes me wish that I had. There are many laugh-out loud moments, especially in the first half of the book, when the huge cast of characters is introduced. Barry also has a great time skewering the culture and people of Miami.
This is a farcical novel, and you have to keep that in mind as you read it. If you're looking for serious or sophisticated humor, or emotional depth in the characters, you definitely won't get that here. BIG TROUBLE is instead a fun, raunchy farce, and succeeds at that level.
If you're looking for light fun, this short novel is well worth your money and time. It only took me a few hours to read, and is a perfect book to take to the beach or on vacation.
Three and a half stars.
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