Swamp Story
Dave Barry
At his best, Dave Barry is one of the funniest authors you will ever read. I am a long-time fan, dating from his days as a Miami Herald columnist. (Indeed, I still have a postcard from him certifying my status as an "alert reader, who should seek some sort of help immediately".) I remember lying on the floor, literally gasping in pain because I was laughing so hard at one of his books (Dave Barry Turns Forty).
Swamp Story was funny, but it did not have me rolling on the floor laughing. I venture to predict that you, too, will be able to remain upright in your seat while reading it. It's a perfectly serviceable Florida Farce, in which a bunch of recognizable Florida types become tangled in a complicated imbroglio, in which many recognizably funny things happen. Many of these things actually made me laugh, too! So, it's LOL funny, but not ROFL funny.
The master of the Florida Farce is of course Carl Hiaasen. Swamp Story feels very much like a Hiaasen novel. That is a compliment. I'm a Hiaasen fan. I think the world would be a better place if Carl Hiaasen could be cloned. Two of him would not be too many. But, on the other hand, I feel the world is a richer place with both Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry in it than it would be with two copies of Carl Hiaasen and no Dave Barry. Thus I am not overjoyed at the prospect of Dave Barry turning into Carl Hiaasen.
Swamp Story is not indistinguishable from a Hiaasen novel. It has all-too-rare moments of character idiosyncrasy that remind me not only of Dave Barry, but also of P.G. Wodehouse.
Now, let us be clear --if the worst one can say about a novel is "It is not better than P.G. Wodehouse and Carl Hiaasen," -- well, that's a pretty damn good novel. I'm being hard on Swamp Story because I think Barry can do better.
I thank Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster for an advance reader copy of Swamp Story. This review expresses my honest opinions.
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