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Book Review
Big Trouble
by Dave Barry
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
Published: April 2002
| About the Book | The Review | Where to Order |
About the Book
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 Review
This was so funny. I could barely put the book down and I'm sure that those around me wondered what on earth I was laughing at.
Set in Miami, Florida, a couple of Russian arms dealers own a beaten up bar as a cover for their business dealings. They hire Puggy a homeless guy who lives in a tree to do a few chores for them. Puggy falls in love with Nina the illegal maid who works for the Herks. Mr. Herk is a prick who is the target of a hit. Two guys from Jersey are trying to kill Mr. Herk, but their attempts go haywire when a couple of kids head out to kill Jenny, Mr. Herks step daughter. The frog keeps eating the dogs food. The cops are an interesting team. A few unlikely people fall in love in the middle of the mess.
Read it and you'll see for yourself what a truly entertaining story this is.
~Sheila, November 2002
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