Tom Bradley Jr. reviewed Insane city by Dave Barry
Review of 'Insane city' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Several years ago I read Dave Barry's BIG TROUBLE in the space of about three hours (about the time it took me to fly from Las Vegas to Seattle). I laughed throughout, to the point my wife admonished me several times for embarrassing her in public.
INSANE CITY gave me similar reason to chuckle, although probably not as out-loud and side-splitting as BIG TROUBLE. While some scenes in the novel read like a Hangover reboot, the situations Barry puts his characters in--and how he gets them out of those tight spots--are what set this book apart from those movies.
At the same time, he knows when to ease his foot off the gas pedal. In particular, the scenes depicting the Haitian refugees as seen from their POV are harrowing, and prove Barry has the dramatic chops should he choose to write a straight, "serious" novel.
But I hope he never …
Several years ago I read Dave Barry's BIG TROUBLE in the space of about three hours (about the time it took me to fly from Las Vegas to Seattle). I laughed throughout, to the point my wife admonished me several times for embarrassing her in public.
INSANE CITY gave me similar reason to chuckle, although probably not as out-loud and side-splitting as BIG TROUBLE. While some scenes in the novel read like a Hangover reboot, the situations Barry puts his characters in--and how he gets them out of those tight spots--are what set this book apart from those movies.
At the same time, he knows when to ease his foot off the gas pedal. In particular, the scenes depicting the Haitian refugees as seen from their POV are harrowing, and prove Barry has the dramatic chops should he choose to write a straight, "serious" novel.
But I hope he never does. INSANE CITY is insanely funny stuff from one of the masters of the genre. Now all I can ask is, what else does he have up his sleeve?
