• Big Trouble

  • By: Dave Barry
  • Narrated by: Dick Hill
  • Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (703 ratings)

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Big Trouble  By  cover art

Big Trouble

By: Dave Barry
Narrated by: Dick Hill
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Publisher's summary

In his career, Dave Barry has done just about everything - written best-selling nonfiction, won a Pulitzer Prize, seen his life turned into a television series. And now, at last, he has joined the long list of literary figures, from Jane Austen to Tolstoy, who have made the transition from humor columnist to novelist - and done it with a style and inventiveness that establishes that, yes, he is very good at that, too.

In the city of Coconut Grove, Florida, these things happen: A struggling adman named Eliot Arnold drives home from a meeting with the Client From Hell. His teenage son, Matt, fills his Squirtmaster 9000 for his turn at a high school game called Killer. Matt's intended victim, Jenny Herk, sits down in front of the TV with her mom for what she hopes will be a peaceful evening - for once. Jenny's alcoholic and secretly embezzling stepfather, Arthur, emerges from the maid's room, angry at being rebuffed - again. Henry and Leonard, two hit men from New Jersey, pull up to the Herks' house for a real game of Killer - Arthur's embezzlement apparently not having been quite so secret to his employers after all. And a homeless man named Puggy settles down for the night in a treehouse just inside the Herks' yard.

In a few minutes, a chain of events that will change the lives of each and every one of them will begin, and will leave some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work.

With a wicked wit, razor-sharp observations, rich characters, and a plot with more twists than the Inland Waterway, Dave Barry makes his debut a complete and utter triumph.

©2000 Dave Barry; 2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Big Trouble

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Classic Barry at his Best

The jokes are hilarious and delivered with the perfect deadpan for the sarcasm, irony, absurdity all for which Barry is so famous. There is a joke every sentence or two making this book is VERY funny. The production is excellent including: perfect narration, changes in volume like talking over a phone, and a huge cast of wackos if you aren't laughing out loud a lot.. you'll, at the very least, be grinning to yourself or smirking a lot. Beware the "too high expectations" trap. This is just a very silly book but, but like Monty Python, it is *quality silliness.* If you aren't snooty you'll love it. Note: The forward warns you this is NOT a book to buy for your kids given the..uh.. adequate quantity of cuss words.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Big Trouble

Always fun to listen to; humorous yet so much of the analogies are true. Dick Hill is perfect as the narrator.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

very disappointing

Maybe the second half of this book is better -- I don't know, since I didn't get that far. I quit in the middle, around the time that the characters were getting shot, threatened with rape, kicked in the face and other places... This is from Dave Barry???? The guy who wrote all those funny columns in the newspaper?? What happened?? The half of the book I listened to was extremely violent, disturbing and not at all amusing. Too bad you gave up your day job, Dave.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Ammusing and Well Written

Excellent book, very comical. It wasn't "oh my gawd my sides are splitting" funnybut it was clever, well-developed, kept my interest. Easily recommended.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Caution: Vulgarity Magnified

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes/No It depends upon the individual. The vulgarity definitely defines the unsavory characters, but it can be very offensive. Sexual references about underage girls is really never necessary in a book geared to adults.

What was most disappointing about Dave Barry’s story?

While he defines his characters with witty dialogue, He could have created equally offensive characters with a less graphic vocabulary.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A disappointment

I usually find Dave Berry's articles and short blurbs amusing, only occassionally reading it and not laughing. After half an hour of listening to this and not laughing once, I gave it up. Perhaps it's just not my sense of humor, but it was a disappointment.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story!

I enjoyed this book so much. Narrator was excellent. I was especially impressed with Mr. Barry’s acknowledgements at the end. Keep writing!! Please!!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hope you never run into these people.

What make this book so funny is that I have known people like the ones in the book. These are not the brightest people in the world. Most don’t live to an old age because they don’t know that it is not wise to play in the traffic.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Just not my cup of tea.

Too irritating, too much like a sitcom without a laugh track. Too much yelling. Story- Meh. And I used to love Dave Barry.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator made all the difference

Listening made all the difference to this wonderfully silly story.
Dick Hill did a fabulous job.

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1 person found this helpful