Big Trouble: Amazon.de: Dave Barry: Englische Bücher

Amazon.com

Dave Barry, the only newsman to win a Pulitzer for exemplary use of words like booger, will please humor and crime-fiction fans alike with this racy debut novel. The scene is Miami. In ritzy Coconut Grove, the teen son of Eliot, a newsman turned adman, sneaks up to spritz a cute girl with a Squirtmaster 9000 to win a high school game called Killer. Meanwhile, two hit men sneak up to kill the girl's abusive stepdad, Arthur. Arthur cheated his bosses at corrupt Penultimate, Inc., which equipped a Florida jail with automatic garage-opener gates that accidentally freed prisoners in a lightning storm.

Farcical confusion ensues, witnessed by a saintly bum named Puggy, camped in a tree in Arthur's yard. Puggy works at the Jolly Jackal Bar & Grill, which has no grill and actually sells guns and bombs to an offshoot of the Crips and Bloods called the Cruds, and to Penultimate (which plans to conquer Cuba). But when dim thugs Eddie and Snake rob the Jolly Jackal and Arthur tells them it's a Russian mob front selling bombs, the proprietor snorts, "Bombs, pfft! No bombs! Is bar."

Can Snake and Eddie spirit a suitcase nuke through Miami, "where most motorists obeyed the traffic and customs of their individual countries of origin"? Can Eliot and cop Monica Rodriguez save the day? And how do the 300-pound hallucinogenic Enemy Toad, the 13-foot-long python Daphne, highway goats, and the Denture Adventure seniors' theme park fit in? Everything fits perfectly, including a few dark passages new to Barry's work. But one warning: if you read this book while drinking milk, at some point it will spurt out of your nostrils. --Tim Appelo -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Booklist

This first novel by the popular humor columnist won't fail to satisfy his numerous fans, and it may even garner new readers for him, because it's a delightful romp through the less noble side of Miami life. The story is character driven more than plot driven, yet it's a rousing good story nonetheless. Barry simply revels in his kooky characters, of which this novel is packed. You got a former newspaper reporter now small-potatoes advertising guy working out of a small office in Coconut Grove, chasing down what people owe him. You got two high school guys looking to "kill" a girl they go to school with, "killer" being a squirt-gun game big in school these days. You got an engineering and construction firm executive, stepfather of the girl the boys want to "kill," with two hoods from Jersey after him to kill him for real. And you got two street punks who actually believe they can extort on a major level, and what they get involved in is absconding with a bomb and hijacking a plane--sophisticated criminal stuff way beyond their mental means. And, too, you got great comic relief in, among other moments of great comedy, the dog Roger, whose whole life centers on trying to keep the big, bad old toad from eating out of his own bowl. These and other characters are what this novel boils down to: comic relief, a great source of diversion, and even chuckles. Hats off to Barry's cleverness. Brad Hooper -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Disappointing experience 1. August 2000

Von Simone Shoemaker

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Let me say this first: I LOVE Dave Barry. I must have at least 90% of his books, and I rolled on the floor laughing with every one of them. But "Big Trouble" was a disappointment. Not once did it make me laugh - Barry's humor simply doesn't lend itself to a novel. Maybe I was expecting too much, possibly a storyline? (this one is far-fetched as a B-movie & very predictable towards the end), characters? (Barry doesn't waste time actually bringing his characters to life). Most of all, when writing dialog, one has to understand the HUGE difference between spoken and written word. "Big Trouble"s dialog reads as if cut from one of Barry's columns. Would have been funny there. Isn't funny as dialog. Anyway... if you are a Barry fan - don't expect too much here.

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Take a wild and zany trip with Dave Barry! 18. Februar 2000

Von Aaron Steel

Lets start by saying that this book definitely doesn't qualify as "literature". If you are looking for something more refined, look elsewhere. But if you want a quick, fun, wild read you should pick this book up. The book reads a lot like one of Barry's columns, which isn't really a bad thing. The plot, while requiring suspension of disbelief, is interesting. And although the characters lack any real depth, they are also interesting, and funny. Expect rampaging goats, bumbling assassins; giant, dog tormenting toads, "killer" squirt guns, and much more. The only part that didn't work as well was the final scene at the airport which seemed kind of hurried. Overall, a very funny book that is a good way to spend an evening. Don't read it in public, however, or people may look at you funny when you fall over laughing.

Hey, isn't some "lightweight" humor ok? 3. November 1999

Von Douglas A. Greenberg

People who expect ALL novels to be lugubrious, heavy, symbol-laden tomes that your favorite (or least favorite) high school English teacher would make you read and then discuss in class endlessly apparently don't like Dave Barry's work. To this I say, "LIGHTEN UP, FOLKS!" There's a place in most of our lives for a book that is a romp, a lark, a farce, a string of silly gags. That's what Dave Barry provides here.

No, Barry is not (yet) an "accomplished novelist," and perhaps, given his style, he never will be. But this book is FUNNY, people, and aren't some good laughs worth our time--once in a while--maybe?

In reality, Barry does put forth a "view of human nature" that is not a flattering one. If readers think too long and seriously about the characters in the book and what they reflect about the human condition, *Big Trouble" actually could be seen as a dark and brooding work, indeed.

But don't bother to think too hard about such larger themes. Just read the book and laugh.