Florida, Never Change

I kind of love Dave Barry — I’ve never really read his humor column, but I’ve read his two previous novels (Big Trouble and Tricky Business) several times. They’re very, very silly books — but the writing is fun and the plots never stop to take so much as a breath. He’s got an excellent sense of humor, and the ability to poke a little fun at just about everything. The sort of read that’s great for a road trip, and since that’s what I had in store this weekend, I’m glad I picked this one up before I left.

“You came to a strip club with a woman who is not your fiancée, and a gorilla on your wedding day.”

Except that it’s actually an orangutan. So Seth has come down to Florida (Miami) to marry Tina — a woman who has deigned to marry way below her station and he’s never really figured out why. On their first night in town, his “groom posse” takes him out for his bachelor party. They get tanked, he manages to lose his suitcase (which has the wedding rings, literally the only thing Seth was put in charge of for the weekend) and in the process, picks up a friendly chick named Cyndi, a less-friendly prostitute and her pimp/boyfriend, a Haitian family that washed up on the beach and an amorous orangutan. Hijinks ensue, people run around frantically for a bit, Barry throws some social commentary in there, and it’s all wrapped up with a bow on page 400. Like I said — silly, but you could do a lot worse.