Motley Ship of Fools

An earlier epinion focused on the fact that this first novel by Dave Barry was more or less a collection of some of his essays combined into a single narrative. I had never read any of Barry's previous essays nor seen him speak or perform, prior to picking up a copy of Big Trouble, which I did based on nothing more than what was written on the cover and the high caliber of authors (Elmore Leonard, Stephen King) who hailed this book as genius.

Taking place in Miami's, Coconut Grove, a series of crazy events and characters come together to form an excellent, humorous tale. It all begins when two high school students, Matt Arnold and his friend, head out to the home of Jenny Herk to "kill her," which entails shooting her with a squirt gun. Meanwhile, two professional hit men from New Jersey, Henry and Leonard, have arrived at the home of Jenny Herk to "take out" Jenny's sleazy, abusive and embezzling stepfather, Arthur, for misappropriation of company funds. To further complicate things, Puggy, a homeless man of Herculean strength and a peaceful nature has moved into an abandoned tree house in the Herk's yard. This is just the first of many hilariously coincidental situations that Barry uses to jab and weave his way through this tale of humor, crime and satire.

However, the wackiness doesn't stop there. Factor in some Russian arms dealers, two psychotic drifters, the Miami police, the FBI, two rookie pilots, a nuclear bomb in a suitcase, a blossoming love affair between Matt's struggling advertising executive father and Jenny's mother and an odd couple of a poisonous toad and a dog and you get a good idea of the creative humor of the novel. All of the characters and events of Big Trouble parody real life in such a way that it easy imagine the genesis of the book deriving from a series of satirical essays.

I laughed out loud, was constantly surprised by the twists and turns and marveled at Barry's humor. This single work has turned me into a full fledged Dave Barry fan. Barry has the rare ability (think Bill Cosby or Robin Williams) to take mundane events and make them incredibly hilarious without the addition of offensive language or situations.