Big Trouble

by Dave Barry

Describes the fictional lives of the troubled denizens of Coconut Grove, including a career-threatened ad man, an alcholic embezzler dodging a couple of hit men, and their dysfunctional families.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Mystery, Comedy, Crime, Ebooks, Novels

309 pages, Hardcover

First published September 13, 1999

About the author

Dave Barry is a humor writer. For 25 years he was a syndicated columnist whose work appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Many people are still trying to figure out how this happened.
Dave has also written many books, virtually none of which contain useful information. Two of his books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World," in which Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave.
Dave plays lead guitar in a literary rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson and Mitch Albom. They are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud. Dave has also made many TV appearances, including one on the David Letterman show where he proved that it is possible to set fire to a pair of men's underpants with a Barbie doll.
In his spare time, Dave is a candidate for president of the United States. If elected, his highest priority will be to seek the death penalty for whoever is responsible for making Americans install low-flow toilets.
Dave lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, a sportswriter. He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Sophie, neither of whom thinks he's funny.

Reviews

[Debbie W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I chose to read this book:
1. I'm a HUGE fan of Dave Barry's humorous writing style, so when I found a collection of his books, including this one, at my local library's book sale, I just had to snap them up; and,
2. I've dedicated June 2024 to be my "Humor Month"!

Praises:
1. this has a most descriptive plot! I could easily visualize the high-octane action involving "good guys", who you will root for, and the dastardly "bad guys", who get their just desserts;
2. set in Miami, Barry gives us a detailed, hilarious description of the typical "Cruise Ship Passenger";
3. if you're not a fan of coarse language, then please heed Barry's humorous warning preceding the story; and,
4. Barry's Epilogue is a great "Where Are They Now?" look into his various characters, some bound to elicit a laugh or two.

Overall Thoughts:
A quick, predictable read, but Barry never claims to be an author of fine literature. In all honesty, I experienced more laughs with this book than with his Tricky Business. Personally, I find Barry's nonfiction work, which focus on his thoughts and experiences, to be funnier than his fictional work, but that's just me. Rest assured, that won't stop me from reading anything by Dave Barry in the future!

[Berengaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

short review for busy readers:
Very much a comedy of the 1990s and very clearly a first stab at fiction. Rather like an amateur attempt at a Carl Hiaasen novel. Funny in parts, but also rather cringe in others.

in detail:
Question: What do Jerry Springer, Elizabeth Dole and lax airport security have in common?
Answer: All things you barely remember about the 1990s in the US.

"Big Trouble" is very much a child of its time. Almost disposably so, it's so much about the time (late 90s) and place (Miami, Florida) it was written in.

That means the references and some of the situations will seem like things from the Stone Age now.

For example: harassment of the homeless, the sexual humiliation of women and girls, and the idea that two low lives are able to smuggle, not only a hostage, but also a portable nuclear bomb past incompetent airport security and onto a plane will have very much lost their comedic appeal since then.

Thank goodness South Florida nutjobs, smug G-men, randy cops on steroids and Russian mafiosi who own seedy bars are still funny.

Sort of.

Because the comedy in this novel rather goes like this:
Funny, funny, cringe, funny, cringe, cringe, funny, cringe, cringe, cringe, funny, funny, cringe.

There's just about as much cringe as there is funny, and since comedy lands differently with everyone, my funny/cringe may not be your funny/cringe, but I'm guessing the 60/40 split will be about accurate for you, too.

Another problem is that Barry relies on a one-note situation for most of the comedy. In a twist off the Golden Age mystery trope of "I've gathered you all here to reveal a murderer!," Barry gathers together all his characters like weasels in a bag and steps back to reveal COMEDY! as they go at each other.

Once or twice that would work, but Barry does the weasel bag thing repeatedly, as if he can't think of anything else to do with his assorted wackos. (Maybe he couldn't. #FirstNovel)

But let's talk about the absolute worst part: the cover shows an alligator but there is NO ALLIGATOR in the novel! There's a poisonous toad, but NO ALLIGATOR! How can you write a Floridian comedy with NO ALLIGATOR encounter? Beyond me. 3 stars. 🐊

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it happens, the Herk household did have a dog, named Roger. Roger was the random result of generations of hasty, unplanned dog sex: among other characteristics he had the low-slung body of a beagle, the pointy ears of a German shepherd, the enthusiasm of a Labrador retriever, the stubby tail of a boxer, and the intelligence of a celery.

Dave Barry may have written here a sort of National Lampoon's parody of the typical crime novel, but he brings into the equation a lot more intelligence than the proverbial celery. The result is the perfect beach read for me: witty, fast-paced and surprisingly hard hitting on the subject of institutional corruption. I've read this on my holiday a few months back, so the details of the plot are a little vague : there's an investigative reporter turned advertising designer, there's a wealthy real-estate investor with a dysfunctional family, a couple of Russian gangsters running a bar, another couple of panty-hosed dime-store robbers, another couple of paid killers from up North, another couple of angsty teenagers, another couple of patrol cops with gender issues, a squirt gun, a giant South American Toad, some goats lost in traffic on the highway, a pothead living in a tree, gazombas, a nuclear weapon and that mongrel dog from my opening quote). The reason I'm not even trying to write a synopsis is that the action is too crazy for words. Dave Barry is mainly a stand-up comedian and a current issues columnist, but his foray into novel writing had me laughing out loud in public more than once. It's better to discover for yourself what hi-jinks his characters are up to in this romp.

Florida is a hotbed of criminal activity that has spawned a whole new subgenre in my adhoc study of American crime fiction. Yet Florida crime novels have something that its more famous northern neighbors from New York, Chicago, Las Vegas or Los Angeles don't seem to possess: a certain wackiness both in plot and in characters that gives it a special flavour I can only describe as 'sunny' noir : it takes most of the ingredients of the classical crime story (the gumshoe, the femme fatale, the mob boss, the paid killer, etc) and then pours over them the blinding light of the tropical sun, makes their brains boil over and do crazy stuff.

I was already familiar with the works of Lawrence Sanders (McNally), Carl Hiaasen (Skink), John D MacDonald (Travis McGee) and Tim Dorsey (Serge Storms). And now I have to add Dave Barry to this growing shelf of crime stories coming from the Panhandle.

—«»—«»—«»—

P.S. After finishing the book I realized the story was very familiar not because of the other writers I mentioned above, but because I have seen the movie adaptation a long time ago. So I went and watched the DVD again , and it turns out to be very close to the source material, with an incredible cast (Janeanne Garofalo is my favorite, but all of the actors were great in their roles) .

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am pretty uncertain about what to say about this book. It has the potential of a truly high-class satire, but anyhow the flow can´t be maintained constantly. This could have been a unique work, but it would have probably needed a bit more fine-tuning to become a real jewel instead of being an average, good read. Especially during the second half, it seems as if the author had lost interest in the brilliant, interspersed details and innuendos and just wanted to focus on the indifferent story and changed to a faster telling mode that couldn´t integrate as much wit as the first half.

But hey, Stephen King praised it and like a lemming style blind fanboy of him, I couldn´t dislike something he appreciated. And it really isn´t bad, just switched from great to normal in the middle of the game and who is unguilty of such behavior may throw the first stone. Ok, Stephen King was in the same band as the author, but that is certainly just a coincidence...

Tropes show how literature is conceived and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Lois Bujold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dave Barry channels Carl Hiassen. Assorted lunatic south Florida types (well, and a couple of dudes from New Jersey) chasing each other around, albeit in a reasonably logically connected way, as their assorted plots and goals cross paths, clash, and burn. It was, indeed, laugh-out-loud funny in parts.

Continuing the compare-and-contrast, Barry is not so dark and edgy as Hiassen, nor are his characterizations, though consistent, at all deep; there's barely time for interiority as the characters of Big Trouble race from crisis to crisis. But while Hiassen is perhaps the better fiction writer, the underlying anger in his satire-drama became for me, after three of his books, a headspace I didn't want to revisit. Barry, at least in this sample, seems a kinder noir-farce writer.

I should add, despite the cover, no alligators feature in this tale.

Neither writer makes me want to go anywhere near Florida, I must say...

Ta, L.

[Exina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books of which the movie adaptation (starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo) is much better than the book. For example, the additional father-son storyline in the movie is hilarious, and both the narration and the dialogues rock! It's my all time favorite movie, I’ve seen it a million times! I’m so glad someone has seen the potential in this book to be screened.
The novel gives some background information about the characters, and overall it's pretty enjoyable.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My apologies to the citizens of Miami, Florida.



According to author Dave Barry the following astounding things happened in Miami;

There is...

A burnt out hippy living in a tree house,
who falls in love with a South American maid,
who works for a crook
who is being targeted by hit-men,
who are not bothered by the Miami police,
who are chasing love-struck teenagers,
who are dodging low life criminals,
who are mixed up with Russian mobsters selling a portable nuclear bomb,
who are being tailed by FBI agents,
who are in charge of air-force hunter/killer jets!



Other players are;
Miami airport security,
a herd of goats,
and a plane load of football fans!



Only in Miami!

Enjoy!

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Trouble reminds me of the movie Scary Movie, due to the strict policy of making jokes while keeping the plot moving. The first half of Big Trouble was very funny, the latter half not at all. The book is very entertaining, though sometimes it loses its lightness and there is not a total lack of expletives and/or nudity(twice). It was a bit sad how the young lovers i.e Matt and Jenny decided to forgo their love - though not their friendship - for the benefit of their elders. Altogether, I'm glad to have discovered this book...which I did through IMDB. The movie doesn't do justice to the book, but I still want to rewatch the former.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first saw this book, I thought what you're all thinking - Dave Barry wrote a book? A real book? This cannot be!

And yet it can. And it is. And it's awesome.

One of the major themes in Barry's newspaper column is that South Florida is insane. Things happen in Florida that could never happen anywhere else. Hell, Fark.com has a special tag for stories from Florida, such as:

"Congresswoman accuses filmmaker of taking her support of Castro assassination out of context. "
"Man hires taxi to drive him to rob bank"
"Motorcyclist killed after striking wild pig."
"Woman tells cop she bought 'bad crack'"
"Thieves dig tunnel under Gamestop store, steal XBox 360s"
"Car Salesman Stabbed In Neck During Test Drive In Orlando"
"Cyclist Killed After Being Hit By 3 Cars"

And so on.

For his debut novel, Barry decided to use that kind of madness as his setting for a story that is repeatedly compared to the work of Elmore Leonard - not a bad bit of work. It has a money-grubbing mega-corporation, mafia assassins, Russian arms dealers, teenagers, dogs, poison toads and a song called "Sex Pootie" by a band called the Seminal Fluids. It's wonderfully paced, and manages to balance out the usual hilarity of Barry's writing with actual - *gasp* plot and characters. It's funny and touching, and a very quick read. Highly recommended.

They made a movie, too, back in late 2001, which had to be postponed because the studio felt - not without some justification - that a movie where a central plot point is that people sneak weapons past airport security onto a passenger plane would not be received very well at that time. I've heard it's massively funny and would love to see it sometime....

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulitzer-Prize winning humorist Dave Barry's first "grown-up" novel is a ensemble crime story revolving around a load of wacky characters including hitmen, FBI agents, Russian arms dealers, a bagman for a shady corporation, teenagers, a couple of low-level troublemakers, a hallucinogenic toad, and Roger the dog who is bound to be the crowd favorite, just to name a few. Not much life is breathed into the description of Barry's home base of Miami, FL, except that we are led to believe that it is fully stocked with even more zany nutjobs than the ones named above and rife with bizarre happenings that make our plot just another "day in the life." Barry is always funny, so the laughs come fast and furious in the first half, but give way, at least somewhat, in the second half as the plot devolves into the standard race against time.

[Alexw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarity with biting satire dialogue is what to get from this funny novel. Thrown in 2 inept contract killers, a bar that fronts for illegal military weapons, add to love struck teenagers and other mad cap characters and let the laughter roll.

[m. · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a certain kind of rococo, hyperactive plotting that you tend to see from authors who aren't used to writing stories with a great deal of plot -- they understand that "plot" tends to denote Characters Doing Things, so everyone is constantly Doing Things, or on their way to go Do Things, or arguing about how they have to Do Things and how This Other Thing They Are Doing is interfering with this goal. The plot pushes the characters briskly from one Terribly Exciting Situation to another, and neither the characters nor the reader get a chance to breathe.

Frenetic, breathless plotting can work decently in a character-driven screwball comedy; it isn't inherently a bad thing. But when the plot pushes the characters rather than the other way around, they cease to be characters and instead become panicky vehicles for Wacky Hijinks.

This -- plus the fact that the threat of sexual violence is pretty much guaranteed to derail any existing comedy -- accounts for why I did not care for Big Trouble.

Dave Barry packs the story with characters who range from bemused everymen to aggressively quirky plot-generating machines; he gives elaborate backstories to people who only appear for half a scene, which, rather than giving the appearance of depth, seems like he's populating his world with an army of one-dimensional punchlines. This is a problem especially when you don't set up the joke ahead of time -- it reads like "oh hey, look, another hilariously quirky extra!" rather than being a satisfying payoff for an existing theme. (No, "Miami so crazy" is not an existing theme.)

I understand that Dave Barry is agreed to be a funny dude; I also understand that he mostly writes humorous articles that don't rely on plot to carry them. His brand of humor, as presented in this book, is much better suited for short satirical pieces.

And that's okay. He doesn't have to be a novelist.

(He really doesn't.)

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to read Dave Barry's humor columns in the newspaper back when my parents used to get it delivered daily and I was still living at home. His columns were zany, with some on-the-nose observations of humanity, focusing mostly on the more trite side of life. So when I saw he'd written a book, I decided to read it.

I don't remember much about this one, to be honest, except that it was often scattered, often "whacky" and "zany", with erratic characters who were hard to find believable. Of course, this was before I understood Florida and its inhabitants better than I do today. Nowadays, I'd probably say this was too tame and generous. 🙈

If you are/were a Dave Barry fan, this might be worth a read. Or you could save some time and watch the movie adaptation (which I haven't seen but I seem to recall it getting some fairly good reception back when it was released).

[Teck Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooo many characters! But easily digestable. Very funny!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the hilarious story of a group of South Florida "wierdos," who are (most of them accidentally) embroiled in a rather life-threatening escapade. The writing reminds me a little of Buffy, and the book actually references Buffy a couple of times. I was literally laughing out loud on several occasions. I know there's a movie made from this book, but it probably isn't as funny because the funniest thing about this is the descriptions of the background and the characters' internal motivations.
You should go read this now.

[C-shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just saw the movie for the umpteenth time, wanted to see if the book added anything to the story. Some of the dialogue is verbatim from the book!

So funny, almost like the movie. I love Dave Barry's writing.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eliot was fired from his job at a newspaper and now runs an unsuccessful PR agency. Most everyone else in the novel is a crook of some sort: hitman, arms dealer, thief, embezzler, you name it. When the police and the FBI get involved because they learn about a nuclear bomb hidden in a suitcase on a plane headed for Freeport with the crazy guy with the gun, all hell breaks loose. I was hoping for a lot more laughs, but no such luck.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

eighteen majillion stars. this man knows how to tell a story. negative. make that several dozen stories all tied together and NOT annoyingly cliche like "crash" or "babel", but actually hysterical, in the kind of way that makes you want to laugh and be afraid for humanity at the same time.

it's actually a thriller (no kidding.) and i promise, you won't be able to put it down.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book mildly amusing, which was disappointing because usually I think Dave Barry is laugh-out-loud funny. I feel misled by the Stephen King blurb on the cover, which said that he fell out of his chair laughing while reading this book. I spent my journey through the book wondering what in the world he thought was that funny. I still haven't figured it out.

[Eric Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way better than the movie.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novel of humor and bad guys. Its easy to see why this became a movie. Barry is an excellent novelist when he wants to be. 9 of 10 stars

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wacky adventure set in Florida, with a crazy cast of characters and misadventures galore.....

[Iris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did not age well, at all. At first I couldn't pin down what I disliked. I usually like zany, wacky hijinks with characters that get swept along for the ride. For example, I enjoyed Burn After Reading because an absurd chain of events unfolds and the characters don't have any idea how or why they are connected. However, this book just irritated me so much. About halfway through I realized I wasn't enjoying this book because of the style of humor it uses.

There are some characters that the reader is meant to dislike immediately and vehemently because they are racist, misogynistic, rude, self-centered assholes. The author portrays these characters in such a way that the reader hopes karmic justice comes for these jerks. My issue with this is that the author is still using these characters' awful behavior for comedic effect, to garner laughs. Look at this ridiculous person demeaning immigrants, or that idiot for saying dehumanizing things about women, aren't they being stupid and ignorant, hahaha. Except these things happen in everyday life. These transgressions shouldn't be trivialized and laughed away. Sure, one might argue that the writer is just creating a caricature, after all you're not meant to sympathize with these characters. But if I'm reading a book for fun and enjoyment, then I don't want to see these kinds of jokes. They're just not funny to me.

I don't want to keep ranting. I'll just mention one more point that really annoyed me. Some of the characters seem to have the same voice. For example, there were times when the dialogue between Elliot and Anna had them both using the exact same sarcastic, snarky tone. I would mix up who was talking and have to back track. Maybe it was meant to show that Elliot and Anna really clicked and understood each other. But to me it felt like lazy writing and character development. There is a lot more I could say about this book. But I feel I've already spent too much time thinking about how much it bothers me.

[Alexa Earle · Rating 4 out of 5]

So silly. Time capsule of my Michigan trip Ⓜ️. I liked the converging plot lines and all the silly quips. Overall a fun and short read with a dog named Roger

[Lewis Noles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outrageously funny. I would read it again.

[Will G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read some of Dave Barry's non-fiction in the past and fount it quite funny. His, "Best. State. Ever." in particular is a great read if you ever spend any time in Florida. This was his first foray into fiction and in it, his sense of humor is evident. But the story itself is kind of convoluted with multiple characters, almost too many to keep up with. They also have little time to develop so there isn't a lot of depth to them. In soite of this, I did find the story entertaining and worth the 3 stars...

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a perfect beach day read!

Carl Hiaasen is still the master of the SoFlo wackos genre but Dave Barry did a pretty decent job. (Apparently that is the unofficial name of the genre )

[Nika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wat een bevalling! Heb denk ik nog nooit in m’n leven zo lang gedaan over een boek uitlezen. Ik vond het een erg matig boek, het hoorde grappig te zijn maar ik vond dat niet zo. Ook waren er best heftige onderwerpen (o.a. aanranding, seksuele intimidatie, heel veel seksisme) en ik vond dat beetje problematisch omdat dat werd neergezet als ‘hoort erbij’ en soms zelfs met humor werd omgegaan. Verder heb ik voor het eerst in m’n leven een boek in het Russisch uit dus daar ben ik wel heel trots op!!!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a fun, quick read. Not a heavy plot, but it was fun to watch all the various pieces come together. I, also, thought it had a "Home Alone" kind of feel to it. My biggest complaint is that Dave Barry seems to really like to use the word "titties." That became a bit annoying. It was definitely not like any book I've read before. Lol

[IAmTheFakeBrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book that's funny, so that kinda automatically makes it on par with Ready Player One. I also loved the way the story was written, so that everyone's, for the most part, completely unrelated stories connect at some point. That is definitely a creative writing technique. I loved the ending, how Eddie came to his senses and realized how wrong all everything he was doing was and betrayed Snake. I also love how Arthur Herk got what was coming to him. He was a piece of crap. In conclusion, I rate this book 5 stars and recommend it to anybody who breathes oxygen.