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Summary: Take a wild and zany trip with Dave Barry!
Review: Lets start by saying that this book definitely doesn't qualify as "literature". If you are looking for something more refined, look elsewhere. But if you want a quick, fun, wild read you should pick this book up. The book reads a lot like one of Barry's columns, which isn't really a bad thing. The plot, while requiring suspension of disbelief, is interesting. And although the characters lack any real depth, they are also interesting, and funny. Expect rampaging goats, bumbling assassins; giant, dog tormenting toads, "killer" squirt guns, and much more. The only part that didn't work as well was the final scene at the airport which seemed kind of hurried. Overall, a very funny book that is a good way to spend an evening. Don't read it in public, however, or people may look at you funny when you fall over laughing.
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Summary: The trouble is you'll miss a good book if you don't buy this
Review: Set in Miami, Florida mostly in the suburb of Coconut Grove this book is a simple quick tale of different unrelated interesting characters whose paths cross at one time or another. You have your bumbling idiot criminals, slow witted homeless man named Puggy, dumb Roger the pet dog and his arch enemy the evil, evil cane toad. Combine this with the young lust of a boy playing a game called Killer who is trying to squirt Jenny the beautiful daughter of wife beating and money stealing Arthur with a water pistol. There is Elliot a pathetic wimpy ad man who encourages his son Matt to stalk Jenny by lending his Kia for him to drive and you have a very different and interesting novel. This is not the funniest novel ever written but it will not bore you at any time either. Granted it is not very realistic especially the airport chapters but I will definitely be checking out other books by Dave Barry as I rather enjoyed this one.
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Summary: First attempt at fiction went pretty darn well!
Review: Dave Barry has done a wonderful job on his first fiction novel. I found myself laughing out loud at parts. In a style reminiscent of Carl Hiassen, Barry introduces a cast of unforgettable characters and a hillarous commentary on society and especially South Florida.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun for Barry fans
Review: Barry is a much better columnist than he is a novelist. I'm a great fan of his columns and other essays, so had high hopes for his first novel. This book started out funny, lost the humor about mid-way when he described a truly frightening episode, then tried to get funny again. The ending owes a lot to "Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying..." The vulgarity is overdone, so be warned if that bothers you. There were some great bits, like Roger the dog (although a piece Dave wrote about his own dogs in another book dedicated to dog stories was much funnier), the sports talk show, the airport, and some other sections. So, all in all, you'll get a couple hours of amusement from it - it's worth the Amazon price. But the master of the humorous novel remains P.G Woodhouse, who gives us excellent characters, complicated plots, truly humorous language, and consistent tone. Barry needs to read some Woodhouse to see how it's done.
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Summary: Read this before moving to Miami
Review: I loved the book - it is set in the humorous, but all too real world of Miami where anything can happen. From the high school kids to the FBI agents it, the characters have their own unique charm (personal favorite - Roger). The plot is just about what you could expect from the author - who has spent too many years down here in the humidity writing about what makes South Florida unique. Read this book ! Don't move down here, remember this could also be non-fiction any day now. Visit, spend tourist dollars, go home ! Seriously, this is well worth the reading time. Fast-paced, good characterizations, and funny. I hope Dave Barry continues to write columns and even more novels (how about a So.Fla. sport team in the playoffs ?)
Rating:
Summary: a great humor/crime novel!!!
Review: I found Dave Barry's novel, Big Trouble, a very entertaining story down to the last page. The book is filled with action and witty humor throughout. The book is a light-hearted crime novel - a storyline of a robbery, with comic relief where it is needed.
Dave Barry creates a wall of characters in the story, which makes the book read a little faster, as he is jumping from character through character throughout the book. The only problem with this is that although the large amount of people in the story adds to the plot's depth, it is easy to get lost between the character's names and what's happening to whom.
Even with this mild flaw, though, the story still reads well and the plot flows brilliantly. Dave Barry takes completely different characters who have nothing to do with each other and then pulls them together through a series of events. At first, no plot seemed evident to me, but as you read on, everything begins to fit in, and then the adventure starts!
The story is a very original one involving a nuclear bomb, a game called killer, a large toad, a homeless man, a bar that's purpose is not to sell drinks, and two hitmen, two police officers, two high schoolers, two FBI agents, and two "veterans". It seems like it would be impossible to write a book incorporating such a wide variety of ideas and thoughts and yet still keeping it an interesting story, but somehow, Dave Barry manages to pull it off.
I find this story very hard to describe in a few short sentences, as there is just SO much that goes on in it. It takes place in Miami, where a victim of attempted murder tries to buy a bomb to get the attention of the feds in some crazy plan of his. It just so happens that two amateur robbers were about to commit their crime in the place where the bomb was being illegally purchased. When the robbers see all of his money they assume him to be a drug kingpin and take him hostage. As the story goes on more characters get involved, until they are all in one big dangerous mess.
I found the ending a little weak, though. Without giving anything away, I think Dave Barry could have added a couple more pages to sum it up just a little better, but my overall impression was still excellent, despite the short ending.
If you're the kind of person who looks for a moral, or the kind of person who wants to "get something out of a book", I think you DEFINITELY need to approach this book with a different attitude. This is the type of book involving hallucinogenic toads and squirt guns-you'll find no moral here, this book was written to make you laugh! Besides, too many books are too serious anyway, it's good to take a break from that.
I have read his newer novel also,(Tricky Business) and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this book. I have also noticed they made a movie from this book, but I have not seen it yet, so I'm not sure how accurately it really follows the book. I highly recommend this book to people who would enjoy a fun-to-read crime story. The only reason why I gave this book "4 stars" out of five, was for the confusing amounts of characters and the abrupt ending. Don't let that discourage you though, if this book sounds appealing to you, give it a chance, I'm almost certain you'll love it!!!
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Summary: So complex...so funny...so Dave Barry
Review: I'll admit that I was a bit nervous when I heard that Dave Barry was writing a novel. Sure, I love Dave's work, but I tend to read it in small chunks. Would a novel full of Dave's childish one-liners be too much to handle? So I proceeded with caution -- and I was pleasantly surprised. In Big Trouble, a different side of Dave Barry comes through loud and clear -- and Dave shows that, while he's still a perpetual ten-year-old, he can tone it down enough to write an incredible story that just so happens to be hilarious, too. Big Trouble is so complex -- and so well-done. There are at least 42 different plot lines that connect perfectly to create an outrageous story involving a couple of hit men, two Russians who sell weapons out of a run-down bar, a homeless guy, an embezzler, a down-on-his-luck advertising guy, two cops, a detective, two FBI agents, two kids with squirt guns, a couple of small-time crooks, an evil toad, and Elizabeth Dole. The only thing I can say about it all is: only in Miami... Hard to explain? Yes. Hard to read? Not at all. This book is one that you won't be able to put down until you've read the whole thing -- twice.
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Summary: Hey, isn't some "lightweight" humor ok?
Review: People who expect ALL novels to be lugubrious, heavy, symbol-laden tomes that your favorite (or least favorite) high school English teacher would make you read and then discuss in class endlessly apparently don't like Dave Barry's work. To this I say, "LIGHTEN UP, FOLKS!" There's a place in most of our lives for a book that is a romp, a lark, a farce, a string of silly gags. That's what Dave Barry provides here. No, Barry is not (yet) an "accomplished novelist," and perhaps, given his style, he never will be. But this book is FUNNY, people, and aren't some good laughs worth our time--once in a while--maybe? In reality, Barry does put forth a "view of human nature" that is not a flattering one. If readers think too long and seriously about the characters in the book and what they reflect about the human condition, *Big Trouble" actually could be seen as a dark and brooding work, indeed. But don't bother to think too hard about such larger themes. Just read the book and laugh.
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Summary: warning: don't drink while reading
Review: ...or you'll run the risk of injury and embarrassment if you're in public. Yes, this book has some bad words and sexual situations - it's a novel not a column run in a family-friendly newspaper. And its intended audience is adults' whose books occasionally have bad words and sexual situations - regardless how many young people enjoy Dave's columns. Otherwise it would be a different section of the bookstore. Anyway, it's very funny. No one can or should be able to make the reader howl on every single page, but "Big Trouble" does a fine job of entertaining. If you've seen the movie (worth checking out) it's very loyal to the book: same characters and most of the funniest situations are kept in. Plot: Roughly eight to 12 characters wind up interacting in a kind of convoluted manner to describe well here - a pair of teens playing "Killer" with a water pistol wind up inadvertenly messing up a hit man's plan to kill the dad of one of their classmates - whose maid winds up falling in love with the narrator - a homeless man called Puggy. Meanwhile the target of the hitman winds up facedown in a bowl of dog chow squirted by a poisonous toad having hallucinations that involve Martha Stewart. Eventually, the dad of one of the teens winds up hijacking a plane - which finally wins his son's respect. A bomb which passes with impunity through an airport check is finally diffused and - well, why not read the rest? I promise it's funnier than just a brief description here can make it.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: May I first say that I am a fan of Barry's? I love his columns and his comedy books. I didn't like this in the least. It reaks of rookieness. The characters are so flat and predictable that you will not be able to attach to them. The plot is empty and very, very boring. And, worst of all, he seems to try and make up for it with distasteful humor. I'm no prude, but this is pretty vulgar stuff, and the payoff in humour is lacking. Barry is a great columnist, but his fiction is bottom of the barrell, please don't bother.
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