Watch The Toad (Big Trouble - Dave Barry)

Member Name: Terry Mcintyre

Product:	Big Trouble - Dave Barry
Date:	20/03/01 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some funny bits, fast plot

Disadvantages: too light for crime

Crime and comedy are two things that you don’t see lumped together that often. A mix of the two often results in one taking precedence over the other. Unfortunately for Dave Barry’s Big Trouble they seem to cancel each other out. Its too funny to be really thrilling and to make you care about the characters or the plot but there is too much crime to make it an out-and-out comedy. Confused? Well I’m sorry.

The story is basically a collision of lives and events in Coconut Grove, Florida. First we have the Herk family, demented stepfather Arthur, wife Anna and daughter Jenny. Two hitmen try to kill Arthur but that coincides with Matt Arnold trying to ‘kill’ Jenny with a water gun for a high-school game. That is where it all starts and it would take me too long to explain it all but it eventually all hinges on two crooks called Snake and Eddie trying to escape to the Bahamas with a nuclear bomb in a suitcase and everyone else trying to stop them. Other characters include Eliot Arnold (Matt’s father) who falls for Anna, Puggy (a short barman) two Russian arms dealers that work out of a bar, Police officers Monica Ramirez & Walter Kramitz, FBI agents Greer &Seitz and many others. A special mention must go to Roger the Herk’s dog and his continuing battle with an ‘enemy toad’ that steals his food. Yes I have typed it right; there are noo spolling mistikkes in thus review. It’s a wonderful example of the type of joyful lunacy to be found in this book and there are some wonderful bits such as Kramitz and Arthur Herk trapped to a giant metal entertainment centre, a continuing radio debate about sports fans, Matt’s favourite song ‘I want your sex pootie’, the wannabe cop Pendick and Eliot’s brilliantly sexist client at his graphic design firm.

The book moves along at a cracking pace, barely stopping for breath as it lurches into the next action sequence. The count
down at the end certainly brings a sense of urgency to the final two chapters. Altogether, Big Trouble is an entertaining read that is very funny in places with a fast moving plot but fairly unoriginal characters. As I write this, a movie adaptation is being planned starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo. I think that the film could do this better justice especially if Barry has a hand in writing the script, but exactly who could they get to be the toad?…

Summary: