Rating: 
Summary: think of it as Hiaasen-light
Review: Dave Barry must really like Carl Hiaasen. Both work for the Miami Herald. Both are funny guys. Dave thanked for the Hiaasen's support in writing the book, and Hiaasen's accolades of Barry's first novel 'Big Trouble' is splattered on its back cover. However I think Carl Hiaasen should keep his distance. With his first novel Barry has, to an extent, beat Hiaasen at his own game.Like Hiaasen's books, Dave has selected whacky Miami as the location for 'Big Trouble'. And following Hiaasen's formula Barry has also centered his story on befuddled middle-income/rich folks who get embroiled in nasty business and sleazily funny criminals. The actual story in 'Big Trouble' is too silly to describe; it's just a zany slapstick romp through the Miami suburbs However Dave Barry is not exactly another Carl Hiaasen. 'Big Trouble' is not especially well-written. Although hardly fine literature, at least Hiaasen's prose can be considered as very competent. Dave Barry's work seems very thin by comparison. Yet unlike Hiaasen, Barry doesn't blather on about the ecology and rotten tourists, and so his book is a pure comic read without any hidden social agenda. However Hiaasen is better when it comes to brutally satiric humor (..Barry's humor is just goofy). Bottom line: pure silliness. Irresistable fluff.
Rating: 
Summary: Dave Barry dissapoints us
Review: First off it was not funny at all. Dave warning us that the book might be terrible proves to be very right. I am a big fan of Dave Barrys writing but this book was unbeleivably boring. Guess the Publishers figured anything with dave's name on it would sell.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the funniest books I've read in a long time.
Review: Humorist Dave Barry shows a real flair for fiction in this comedic thriller set in Miami. From the moment the action begins with homeless kind hearted Puggy stepping off the bus and into employment as a paid illegal voter, the laughs and the action never really stop. The narrative focuses on a comedy of errors as Russian arms dealers (who moonlight as owners of the infamous Jolly Jackal bar), careworn Eliot Arnold (owner of his own faltering public relations firm and ad agency), his son Matt (who is trying to "kill" - i.e. squirt with a water gun as part of a teenage game - the beautiful Jenny, daughter of much abused Anna Herk, who is married to the scummy and evil Arthur Herk, and various other oddball and nefarious characters come together in a complicated plot that simultaneously keeps you on the edge of your seat and laughing out loud. As he does in his columns, Barry takes just the right mix of fantasy and impossibility and then mixes it with real life ironies and contradictions to come up with a funny, yet scary scenario that you know could actually happen, especially after the events of the last year after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Barry's characters are a bit over the top, yet they are still believable in the sense that we've all seen their like before. He has the talent of making you care about what happens to them, even if in some cases you actively want them hurt. I recommend the book to anyone who likes Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovich, P. G. Wodehouse, and other practitioners of the mix of crime and comedy. I sincerely hope that we see more novels from Barry's pen (or typewriter) soon! And I wouldn't mind seeing some of the same characters return in some sort of sequel. Especially the "killer toad". Maximum 5 stars all the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks Hiaasen's sharpness
Review: I love Dave Barry's columns. This book reminds me a lot of Carl Hiassen's books but lacks the edge, the intelligence, even the darkness of Hiaasen's Florida crime novels.
Rating:
Summary: Readable, but not funny at all.
Review: I figured if this book could be made into a movie, with Hollywood stars and a Hollywood budget, it's got to be good. Add to the fact that it was written by Dave Barry, with a lot of reviews on the cover declaring it to be a great comedy, I thought I might have had a winner. Now I realized why the movie failed. The book wasn't at all funny. If no one said it was a comedy, I would have thought it was a bad action book. I didn't laugh or find anything humorous. The characters are non-engaging, and the story itself was farfetched, but not wacky or fun. The good point about the book is that it's a small, light read. Though not good, it's not annoying, boring, or drawn out. It's basically a series of unrelated characters that converge in an accidental nuclear bomb chase. Though not terrible, it really isn't much.
Rating:
Summary: Another funny one from Dave
Review: I'm a Dave Barry fan and found this book to be entertaining. It's funny, twisted, and silly, just like you'd expect from Dave. Big Touble is great for a weekend of carefree reading.
Rating:
Summary: A fun ride
Review: Dave Barry, writing his first novel, had no right to come up with something this good. I'm not saying it's literature; it is simply one of the most entertaining books I've listened to in a long time. It's easy to follow and knock-down funny, especially in the beginning. I picked this up from the library to listen to on a long road trip. My attention was held the entire time. Something like this is perfect for those trips, because while you're laughing, you're not thinking, "I've still got six hundred miles to go." Barry's characters are some of the most offbeat I've met since Carl Hiaasen (whose territory he admits invading, and who also worked at the Miami Herald) and Elmore Leonard. Original it's not, fun it is. Dick Hill's reading is part of the fun. While his women all sound like Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) and some of his characterizations are over-the-top, I still enjoyed his work. He often would surprise me with his choice of voices and I was always able to tell one character from another. The ending tests credibility quite a bit--and the humor flags while trying to wrap things up--but it's all in fun and I was able to suspend disbelief in order to make it to a very satisfying epilogue. For a nice break between bouts of Russo, Updike, and Chabon, pick this up and give your brain a rest.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh-out-Loud Thriller
Review: There must be something in the water in South Florida, or maybe it's just the water coolers at the Miami Herald. As a former newsman myself, I can't imagine what it's like to be in a newsroom with guys like Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry. How does anyone get any work done? Barry, of course, has been sharing his twisted views of Americana with all of America for years through his syndicated columns and the books of collected columns and other Barryisms. I don't know much about Carl Hiaasen's columns, but he's been writing equally twisted crime novels set in South Florida for about 15 years or so. "Big Trouble" is Barry's first plunge into fiction, and we can only hope he stays in the pool for a while. Although in the acknowledgements he complains about having had to develop both characters and plot to do this novel, Barry seems to have little trouble applying his strange and accurate perceptions to both elements. The plot is as twisted as a mangrove root, but it serves to pull us oh-so-willingly to the convergence of characters ranging from a sympathetic hobo living in a tree to a mixed breed dog "with the intelligence of celery" whose single-minded pursuit of food makes him the unwitting hero of the book. Throw in a crooked businessman and his long-suffering family, an adman who hates his clients, a bright and luscious female cop and her muscle-bound, panting partner. Mix them all together with a stolen nuclear device and an airport security system that is less funny nowadays than before 9/11, and you have a novel where the thrills fight the laughs to a bloody, panting draw. If there's a drawback to this book, it's that it should have been longer. It's a two-sitting novel, and you're left with the same sensation you get after one of those bite-size candy bars. In that sense, Barry doesn't quite live up to the example already set by Hiaasen, who also puts wonderfully bizarre characters into wickedly funny plots set in South Florida. Hiaasen draws the stories out delightfully. Barry's prose is a little more spare. I hope when he writes his second novel, he'll realize this isn't a column; there's no word limit. I am confident that greater depth will not spoil his wit.
Rating:
Summary: Big Trouble
Review: I have recently read the novel "Big Trouble" by Dave Barry. This is one of Daves few, if not only, novel. In this hilarious book, Dave puts together his usual fashion of short stories into a real laugh -out-loud plot. With many comical names, such as Puggey, these charactors are sure to generate a few laughs. In the book, the plot is formed around a bomb that has been secretly stolen and then bought. All of the charactors are somehow connected to this cooky plot, one way or another. I thought this book was good and had many funny parts. However, I think Dave Barry could have chosen a better baseline for his novel then the stolen bomb plot. It was also a surprise to read a book with so much adult language and themes. I liked that he did this because usually books will loose my interest but when Dave uses more of a "street Language" that I am used to, I can follow along much better. This is definately something that is not common to many books. This book was good overall and only lacks the final star because of the shaky plot.
Rating:
Summary: It even has a plot!
Review: I approached this book with extreme caution. Barry's humor is often over the top, and it works well in his column and other books. That type of humor, though, is difficult to do well in novel format or else it seems forced. This was the problem I had with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Bored of the Rings," and "Doon." Happily, Barry kept a tight reign on the narrative and the result was a readable, FUNNY novel with his skewed outlook on life peeking through. I would have given it 5 stars, except for Dave's use of profanity. He tried to justify it in the acknowledgements, but his reasons didn't really hold water. We all know people use those words, but we don't have to have our faces rubbed in it. All-in-all, though I highly reccomend this book for anyone wanting a brief diversion. I'm looking forward to the movie.
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