Dave Barry Turns 40 [Paperback]

Dave Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1991

"Just the ticket for the '90s."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
If you're too young for a nursing home yet too old to be a rock star, if your marriage is as exciting as scraping grass off the lawnmower blades, then this hilarious book by Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist and author is for you. Put on your protective eyewear and take a probing look inside your increasingly Spam-like body at: The Midlife (Yawn) Marriage; Wise Financial Planning for Irresponsible Scum Such as Yourself; Sex After 40 (or, Sex? After 40?), and other harsh, but amusing realities that leave you laughing, crying and drooling.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Is Dave Barry going mature on us? Well, no. But in Dave Barry Turns 40, he does do some thinking out loud about the aging process, aiming his thoughts at his "career-pursuing, insurance-buying, fitness-observing, Lamaze-class-taking, breast-feeding, data-processing, mortgage-paying, Parents'-Night-attending, business-card-exchanging, compact-disc-owning, tooth-flossing" contemporaries. Funny and true-to-life, especially if you were born before 1957.

From the Publisher

This October you will be treated to DAVE BARRY TURNS 50 -- but once upon a time Dave turned 40. Barry captures his historic arrival at mid-life with all the wit and irreverence that makes him a New York Times bestseller. When I started reading this book I had never read Dave Barry before. I couldn't put it down. I couldn't stop laughing. This is everything you wanted to know and a few things you didn't about mid-life including -- "planning your mid-life crisis," "the joys of geezerhood" and for the "athlete" over 40, "God had a reason for creating a barcalounger." If you are about to turn 40, and even if you are not, this is Dave Barry at his laugh-out-loud funniest.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 7, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044990587X
• ISBN-13: 978-0449905876
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.4 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The New York Times has pronounced Dave Barry "the funniest man in America." But of course that could have been on a slow news day when there wasn't much else fit to print. True, his bestselling collections of columns are legendary, but it is his wholly original books that reveal him as an American icon. Dave Barry Slept Here was his version of American history. Dave Barry Does Japan was a contribution to international peace and understanding from which Japan has not yet fully recovered. Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys is among the best-read volumes in rehab centers and prisons. Raised in a suburb of New York, educated in a suburb of Philadelphia, he lives now in a suburb of Miami. He is not, as he often puts it so poetically, making this up.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First and Best Dave Barry book I read., August 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dave Barry Turns 40 (Paperback)

One could say I was having a Midlife Crisis when I read this book- but,then, I read it when I was nine, so that would put my life span at about 18. All right, I was a downright precocious child, but it sure did give me a few more reasons to laugh at my parents. I laughed, and cried. Laughed hysterically at all the jokes (even the ones I didn't get) and cried when my mother took the book away after I asked, "What's a sex life?".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars hysterical reading, November 7, 2005

By 

E. M. Bristol "bibliophile" (boston, mass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dave Barry Turns 40 (Paperback)

"Somebody has to be the grownups, and now it's our turn," writes Dave Barry in "Dave Barry Turns 40." Indeed, and this guide will provide some assistance as well as make you laugh. Barry provides a helpful quiz for Baby Boomers who, "defined hip. We set all kinds of world hipness records and we were sure they'd never be broken." Alas, growing older means becoming less cool, at least in the eyes of the younger generation. It also means dealing with "Your Disintegrating Body." Barry also takes a look at "Midlife (Yawn) Marriage," "Planning Your Male Midlife Crisis," "Sex After 40" and "Sports for the Over 40 Person (Or God Had a Reason For Creating the Barcalounger)", among other topics. He also provides quizzes like the "Standardized Psychological Maturity Scale," and charts like "Male Lifestyle Phases," and on a more serious note, dealing with your own aging parents. Lastly, he describes "How to Geeze," hint for men "wear Bermuda shorts, black knee socks, and wing-tipped shoes. Very amusing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, Consistently Funny, April 7, 2011

By 

truefeather77 "truefeather77" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dave Barry Turns 40 (Paperback)

This was my first Dave Barry book, picked up for $1 on remainders at the Strand Bookstore in NYC while on my lunch hour. I was exhausted from working 2 jobs, and really needed a laugh. On the subway home that night, I started the book, and laughed so hard you'd think I was being wrung out like a washcloth.

Apparently this did not go unnoticed by other commuters. When I left the train at the end of the line, a man chased after me and stopped me to ask, "I've gotta know -- what was the name of that book you were reading?" When I showed him, he said, "I've got to get a copy -- I could *use* a laugh like that!"

This is for the times when you could really *use* a laugh like that. When you would swear that nothing could make you even smile, and you need a megadose of medicinal laughter. It was therapeutic.

The coolest thing is, unlike many others on this subject, Barry's humor is NEVER nasty, nihilistic, or misogynistic. It's wholesome, insidious, irreverent, and irresistible. The book should come with a warning: In case of asphyxia, close book and pause until you catch your breath.