Insane City by Dave Barry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I read this one cover to cover on a plane from Detroit to San Francisco. I’ve got mixed feelings about it.
Dave Barry’s humor was stellar, as always. I chuckled and laughed out loud quite a bit as I wondered how thin a person has to be to be comfortable in economy seating.
The discovery that the main character really did give a damn, and the contrast between causes and real people were both well woven into the story. They weren’t subtle, but they didn’t club me over the head, either.
Unfortunately, there’s always a but.
The amount of terrible coincidences that kept happening to the main character strained credulity, and then tore through it like a crazed orangutan. It went beyond the character reacting with “oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.” I found myself uttering that very phrase every time I got thrown out of the story.
Even for Miami, the insanity was just too focused on one person.