Title:
Big Trouble
Author:
Dave Barry
Publisher:
G.P Putnam's Sons, 1999
ISBN
0-399-14567-2

Most people living in the USA and capable of basic reading skills are probably familiar with Dave Barry's newspaper column, in which he brings booger jokes to never before dreamt of heights. It's a style of writing that lends itself equally well to clever political parodies as to juvenile bathroom humor, and Barry doesn't seem to shrink from either form of expression. So it was with pleasant anticipation that I bought a copy of Big Trouble.

Snake and Eddie, a couple of thugs from Miami, manage to obtain a dangerous prize during a robbery, and in their bid for a life of leisure in the Bahamas, they collide with a crazy quilt of humanity, ranging from a grasping white collar criminal to a highschool student in love.

The plot is fairly straight forward, but it's hard to say who this story is actually about. Maybe it's about Huggy and his simple approach to attaining happiness. It could also be about Matt and Jenny and Eliot and Anna and how relationships are built. Or maybe it is about a city that is inhabited by far too many people possessing alcohol soaked brains, the intelligence of mayonnaise, and loaded firearms.

Considering the nature of Snake's prize, you kind of hope that Dave Barry is making all of this up. Since one of the book's characters is more than a little autobiographical, I'm at least feeling a little bit concerned.

Barry serves the entire adventure up with competence and laughter. There are the inevitable scenes of violence and cruelty that go with modern high adventure and intrigue, but Barry doesn't dwell on them and instead gets on with life. His style is that of a newspaper columnist, stringing short vignettes together to advance the action, sometimes miles apart. All the action comes together in the end, though Barry, in keeping with a humorist device that must surely have outlived its usefulness, does append an epilog, in which he quickly punctuates, or even punctures, all of these threads. It isn't necessary, it is arguably customary, and it happily doesn't harm the story, which is a thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable read.