Big Trouble is a big success

Dave Barry has long been known as an excellent humor columnist and humor writer. However, a few years ago, Barry tried his hand at writing fiction when he wrote the first chapter of the collaboration "Naked Came the Manatee" (a novel which was written one chapter at a time, with a different author for each chapter). That was a marvelous success, and if you've read that, you already have some idea of what Big Trouble, Barry's first full length fiction novel, is like. Barry retains the the same irreverent style of his humor columns and books, yet at the same time creates a wonderful, fast-paced, wacky web of characters and plots all inextricably intertwined.

Certainly, Big Trouble, being set in South Florida, means a bit more to people who have lived in South Florida themselves, although there isn't really any one part of the book that is mysterious to those who haven't lived down there. Furthermore, the book seemed to have just one or two too many characters for me to keep track of...I had to keep looking back just to remember who each name corresponded to.

In conclusion, Big Trouble is a great humorous fiction novel, and if you are a fan of any of Barry's works you'll certainly enjoy this book. If you haven't read Barry's work before, I would wait a few days, read his column in your next Sunday's newspaper, and then decide. Regardless, this book can make a good gift to anyone with a sense of humor, and although there's nothing really objectionable, I'm not sure how much anyone under the age of 12 would enjoy it.