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


From Publishers Weekly
In writing a comic thriller set in South Florida, the Pulitzer-winning Miami Herald columnist and author of 20 books of satirical nonfiction (most recently, Dave Barry Turns 50) risks the inevitable comparison to Carl Hiaasen. The good news is that he acquits himself well in this slapstick caper. Barry's cast of familiar South Florida oddballs populate what might best be described as a Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) sendup of the hard-boiled crime novels of Elmore Leonard. Featuring a homeless drifter who sleeps in a tree and tends bar for two illegal arms-dealing Russian hoods, a pair of two-bit losers who hustle tourists at parking meters, an ex-journalist (now a failing ad-man), a pretty illegal alien, a boozy embezzler and his ill-used wife and daughter, a teen with a water pistol playing a game of Killer, a retarded dog, a psychedelic South American toad, two klutzy New Jersey hit men and a virtual army of local and Federal law enforcement, the novel's quirky players bounce off each other like popcorn in a microwave, chasing after a mysterious suitcase containing a nuclear bomb in an unlikely race against certain death. The zany plot has more twists than the I-95 Miami airport interchange and more pratfalls than a Three Stooges comedy. Despite an occasional stiffness and tendency to strain for one-liners, the narrative moves at a breezy pace. Barry is indisputably one of the funniest humorists writing today, and his fiction debut will not disappoint a legion of fans. Agent, Al Hart. 150,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; 12-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Humor columnist and writer Barry delights us with his first full-fledged novel. The circumstantial theater of events culminating in much riotous zaniness reminds this reviewer of P.G. Wodehouse. Only Barry sets his characters in 20th-century south Florida ? la Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard. If you remember that Barry always tries to find the humor in everyday situations, you almost instinctively know that when he gets to develop the plot, twists, and personalities in a story of his imagination, it will be a light-hearted, wacky ride. Consider the combination of a dim, homeless vagrant named Puggy who "lucks" into a job at a bar where two corrupt Russian owners are warehousing and selling high-tech weaponry; several teenagers actively pursuing one another in a secret squirt-gun game of "Killer"; two low-life thugs who have been "contracted" to bump off a sleazy embezzler, and you have the trappings of comedic farce. Dick Hill's rendition of the characters will have you laughing out loud during your commute. Highly recommended for those who like sophomoric silliness.-Kristin M. Jacobi, Eastern Connecticut State Univ., Willimantic Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Kinky Friedman
...Dave Barry has created that rarest of all literary creatures, the genuinely funny mystery novel.


Washington Post
Absolutely wild.


From Booklist
This first novel by the popular humor columnist won't fail to satisfy his numerous fans, and it may even garner new readers for him, because it's a delightful romp through the less noble side of Miami life. The story is character driven more than plot driven, yet it's a rousing good story nonetheless. Barry simply revels in his kooky characters, of which this novel is packed. You got a former newspaper reporter now small-potatoes advertising guy working out of a small office in Coconut Grove, chasing down what people owe him. You got two high school guys looking to "kill" a girl they go to school with, "killer" being a squirt-gun game big in school these days. You got an engineering and construction firm executive, stepfather of the girl the boys want to "kill," with two hoods from Jersey after him to kill him for real. And you got two street punks who actually believe they can extort on a major level, and what they get involved in is absconding with a bomb and hijacking a plane--sophisticated criminal stuff way beyond their mental means. And, too, you got great comic relief in, among other moments of great comedy, the dog Roger, whose whole life centers on trying to keep the big, bad old toad from eating out of his own bowl. These and other characters are what this novel boils down to: comic relief, a great source of diversion, and even chuckles. Hats off to Barry's cleverness. Brad Hooper


From Kirkus Reviews
In his first-ever novel, prolific humorist Barry (Dave Barry Turns 50, 1998, etc.) proves just how easy it is, or at least how easy he can make it seem, for any zany with Miami connections to master what he artlessly calls "the Bunch of South Florida Wackos genre." Here's the scoop. Matt Arnold, the high-school son of an unsuccessful advertising man, wants to assassinate his classmate Jenny Herk, as per the rules of the Killer game they're both playing, by shooting her with a water pistol. Jenny's father Arthur, embezzling executive and bagman for a ludicrously corrupt construction business, is also the target of a pair of killers who are packing more serious heat. Both executions are about to be witnessed by Puggy, an oblivious drifter whose low-impact job at the Jolly Jackal bar has connected him to gadabout Russian arms dealers who've recently assumed possession of a really heavy suitcase filled with something that looks like a garbage disposal with a 45-minute timer. The FBI is interested in the Jolly Jackals; the Miami police are interested in the assassination attempts; and the kingdom of allegedly lower animals also plays an active role. Roger the dog thinks of every encounter with the human community in terms of a possible meal; a poisonous toad lives only to eat from Roger's food dish; and a cobra named Daphne will play a timely role several bumps down the road. Barry juggles this ship of fools with a genial ease and a disarming lack of tension that suggest, maybe not Carl Hiassen, but the sweeter disposition of Laurence Shames. The big surprise is how readily adaptable Barry's jokey rhythms are to the demands of creating characters and spinning them a farcical plot. But a host of lesser surprises are equally welcome. (First printing of 150,000; Literary Guild featured alternate; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Seattle Times
What else do you need to know? It's by Dave Barry so you know it's going to be funny.


Stephen King
I laughed so hard I fell out of a chair.


People
Dave Barry has gone completely-and delightfully-bonkers.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Review of Big Trouble by Dave Barry
by Dave Barry

When this critic read Dave Barry's new novel, Big Trouble, the literary comparison that immediately came to this critic's mind was Ulysses by James Joyce.

As the reader is no doubt aware, last year the Modern Library declared Ulysses to be the greatest English novel of the 20th century. It is hard to argue with this choice: Ulysses is an extremely literary book, with "literary" defined as "hard to read." When this critic was a college student in 1967, this critic attempted to read Ulysses, and after 15 minutes of exhausting effort, this critic had no choice but to give up and play Frisbee for the next five semesters. This critic seriously doubts that anybody, including James Joyce, has ever actually gotten all the way through Ulysses.

Nevertheless it is a powerfully literary book, and at one time this critic believed that it would never be equaled in the 20th century. But this critic was forced to revise that opinion when he read Big Trouble.

The parallels between the two books are eerie:

Ulysses recounts the events in the lives of Dublin residents during a single day, using a narrative structure that incorporates an astonishingly rich and complex array of themes and images, with numerous subtle allusions to Homer's The Odyssey.

Big Trouble features a giant snake and a poison toad.

The list of striking similarities just goes on and on. This critic will not bore the reader with all of them, except to say that Big Trouble, like Ulysses, has both characters and a plot, the difference being that in Big Trouble, Barry boldly explores the theme of what goes through the mind of a man who is being pursued by hit men while he is handcuffed to a large entertainment unit and is also hallucinating that his dog is Elizabeth Dole.

This is a theme that James Joyce, for whatever reason, never even touched upon, as far as we know.

In conclusion, it is this critic's objective opinion that Big Trouble, which incidentally is available at bookstores everywhere, is the finest book ever written in any language by anybody. But don't take this critic's word for it: Buy several copies of Big Trouble and read them for yourself. Or, simply mail this critic some money.

 Dave Barry is a syndicated humor columnist with the Miami Herald.

ANNOTATION

A slapstick thriller set in Florida, featuring oddball characters. They include a homeless man who lives in a tree, a student with a squirt gun playing a game called Killer, a couple of real killers, and a terrorist with a nuclear bomb in a suitcase.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the city of Coconut Grove, Florida, these things happen: A struggling ad man named Eliot Arnold drives home from a meeting with the Client From Hell. Eliot's 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 with her mom in front of the TV 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 for 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 embezzling 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 will begin that will change the lives of each and every one of them, and leave some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work.

FROM THE CRITICS

Trudi Miller Rosenblum - Billboard

Humor columnist Dave Barry successfully crosses over to fiction in this entertaining, tongue-in-cheek mystery novel. The large cast includes several teenagers involved in a game called Killer, in which they must ambush each other with squirt guns. Others characters include two hit men out to kill the embezzling stepfather of one of the teenagers; a Russian barkeeeper who smuggles weapons on the side; an amiable homeless drifter; and several thugs. The various plot lines tie together nicely in a fast-paced story, and narrator Dick Hill does a good job at voicing the various characters. He does an especially good job with teenager Matt, to whom he gives an appropriately squeaky, awkward-adolescent tone; and with Eddy and Snake, two thugs right out of central casting.

Washington Post

Absolutely wild.

People

Dave Barry has gone completely-and delightfully-bonkers.

Seattle Times

What else do you need to know? It's by Dave Barry so you know it's going to be funny.

Publishers Weekly

In writing a comic thriller set in South Florida, the Pulitzer-winning Miami Herald columnist and author of 20 books of satirical nonfiction (most recently, Dave Barry Turns 50) risks the inevitable comparison to Carl Hiaasen. The good news is that he acquits himself well in this slapstick caper. Barry's cast of familiar South Florida oddballs populate what might best be described as a Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) sendup of the hard-boiled crime novels of Elmore Leonard. Featuring a homeless drifter who sleeps in a tree and tends bar for two illegal arms-dealing Russian hoods, a pair of two-bit losers who hustle tourists at parking meters, an ex-journalist (now a failing ad-man), a pretty illegal alien, a boozy embezzler and his ill-used wife and daughter, a teen with a water pistol playing a game of Killer, a retarded dog, a psychedelic South American toad, two klutzy New Jersey hit men and a virtual army of local and Federal law enforcement, the novel's quirky players bounce off each other like popcorn in a microwave, chasing after a mysterious suitcase containing a nuclear bomb in an unlikely race against certain death. The zany plot has more twists than the I-95 Miami airport interchange and more pratfalls than a Three Stooges comedy. Despite an occasional stiffness and tendency to strain for one-liners, the narrative moves at a breezy pace. Barry is indisputably one of the funniest humorists writing today, and his fiction debut will not disappoint a legion of fans. Agent, Al Hart. 150,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; 12-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. Read all 8 "From The Critics" >

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