I’d never read before a book that opens with a warning in large boldface type:

THIS BOOK CONTAINS SOME BAD WORDS.

Dave Barry is explicit (even before he gets explicit) that his book contains some filthy words and scenes. In fact, he even expounds on the warning on page ix:

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE BAD WORDS, PLEASE NO NOT READ THIS BOOK. THANK YOU.

I didn’t necessarily want to read bad words, but I did read the book. He was right. This book contains some bad words.

I read the book because I grew up reading Dave Barry’s newspaper columns. My mom even cut them out for me while I was away at college, taping them into a blank notebook so I could catch up on his writing during the summers. Ah the pre-internet days! I had long been a fan of Dave Barry , though to my recollection, I had never before read any of his books. He’s got a lot of them, and I don’t know what genre most of them fall into, fiction or non-fiction, being humorous books about age, masculinity, sports, etc. Tricky Business is his second novel, and it’s my first taste of his writing in probably 20 years. This is not the Dave Barry I remember!

Much of the story is set aboard a casino cruise ship floating three miles off the Florida coast—in the middle of a pretty wicked tropical storm. It’s a story of trying to find fulfilment despite life’s difficulties, and if not fulfilment, then at least some fun. It’s a story filled with drugs, thugs, murder, and sex, and yet virtually every scene is tinged with the Dave Barry Smirk. It’s not a book that “will make you laugh. Out loud. Many, many time” as the San Diego Union-Tribune promises on the back cover, but it’s definitely a book that rarely feels serious. In fact, it’s all these elements combined that reminded me most of Kurt Vonnegut‘s writing. Did Vonnegut ever make me laugh out loud? Rarely. But did he make me smirk and chuckle inwardly at the inanity of his characters and their foibles? Constantly. Dave Barry’s not quite to the level of Vonnegut, of course, but this book certainly contained some hints.

Throughout the book, we meet a number of characters—cocktail waitresses, band members, old gamblers, a ship captain, a mob boss, and a bunch of thugs—and we get to know their stories and how their lives (and sometimes deaths) all mesh together on this fateful night in the storm. I didn’t love any of the characters, though the two old dudes were probably my favorite.

Another constant side-story that really was funny was that of Newsplex Nine’s reporting on the storm. Like all the news channels today which I dislike, they adore bad news and love to dramatize every story to make it sound even worse. This storm supplies them with plenty of breaking news that’s sure to depress, but not in a way they’re used to.

I read this book purely for sentimental reasons, though I probably should have put it down early. It’s far from clean reading and it clued me into worlds of crime and sex that I definitely didn’t need to explore. It just goes to show that even your favorite “clean” writers and comedians have a dark side that, late at night, they might let loose on the world. Be careful what you read and watch. I’m telling this to myself.

In fact, it reminds me of this little tidbit verse from our study of Proverbs 17 last night. Verse 4 says,

"An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue."

I don’t have to be the one speaking or doing wicked things to participate in the wickedness: I just need to listen to (or read or watch) it. I need to do a better job at gate-keeping what I choose to let into my ears and eyes. I’ll close with another wise proverb from Solomon in Proverbs 4:23,

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."

©2023 E.T.