Customer Reviews

Dave Barry Turns 50

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

OK - are you a Dave Barry fan, or is this going to be your first Dave Barry book? If you like Dave, this is another of his never-ending series of incredibly funny books. You'll get a copy, of course, and it will be one of the funniest books you've ever read, of course, since no one else (except James Lileks) is even remotely as funny as Dave Barry is. Like someone else said here, even if this one isn't his funniest, it's funnier than almost any other 'funny book' you'll read.

I'm not kidding when I tell you that I stopped carrying Dave Barry books to read on flights. It's not possible to laugh under your breath three times a minute, and I've noticed that people tend to stare if you laugh out loud three times a minute, for an hour or more.

If you're not a Dave Barry fan already - this one won't be the best place to start if you want to decide whether to join the Dave Barry club or not. Read "Dave Barry's greatest hits", or the travel one (can't remember the name).

After having read all of Dave's books, I must conclude that there is something fundamentally wrong with people who don't find him funny ... just kidding! But honestly, Dave's is a brand of humor that appeals to a surprisingly large variety of people; and this one (DB turns 50) is typical Dave.

This book consisted of three different parts, stapled together. First we have Dave's reflections on turning 50, which are, frankly, a little morbid and not that funny. (Some of these appear at the beginning and some at the end of the book). Then we have the "year-by-year" review of his life and the world around him starting from his birth (1947) to 1974 when he more or less lost interest. Problem here is that some fairly awful things happened in those years and he knows he can't make jokes about them, so he mixes his humor with moral righteousness so that you know the HE was against the war (although he doesn't seem to have done much about it except get CO status for which it's fairly clear he didn't really qualify). The juxtaposition of jokes with the tone of moral outrage doesn't go that well. And finally he has a few very funny, typically Barry, obviously stand-alone type pieces on things like how to get your kid into college. But here's what I really want to know --- I only have a few Barry books but they all mention his wife, Beth. Now his wife, as per the dedication, appears to be "Michelle" and seems to be a lot younger than he is. Did Dave make a mid-life switch? And how can he poke fun at all the other late-middle-aged peccadillos and not mention this most-stereotyped one of his own?

Dave Barry Turns 50 is less about turning 50 than it is a humorous recounting of growing up a Baby Boomer.

Barry chronicles all the major events, fads, trends and people who impacted the life of a typical boomer. Along the way Barry unleashes heavy doses of his wildly funny wit, recurring punch lines and he even throws in a bit of social and political commentary to boot.

If you're a Barry fan or an aging boomer then this book won't disappoint. Plenty of Barry humor to chuckle at and lots of references to stuff and events to which every boomer can relate.

However, if you're new to Barry's world then I suggest you start with one of his other works - Dave Barry Slept Here for example. It similar to Turns 50 in the way it's constructed and written, but the humor is turned up to high and the commentary is turned completely off (except when used to poke fun at something).

Though Turns 50 goes back to the fence...it's not a quite a home run.

This is not Dave's funniest book, nor even his best-written. But it's still very funny, and still worth reading. It has a section that involves reminiscences of the "formative" boomer years from 1947-1974, plus various ruminations on getting older, and is well worth reading when you want a few chuckles.

I thought that Dave Barry Turns Fifty was an amazing collection of humor, knowledge and history. I hope that certain readers don't get offended by the fact that I call the 50's and 60's and The Early Seventies "history", but c'mon, I'm only 17. I really learned quite a bit of factual information about various years throughout the 1950's to the 1970's. I can't believe the Pop Tart is over 20 years old... I figured it had come out in the last ten years!

I really appreciated the last couple of chapters, as they spoke to me with great conviction about some very important philosophies that I had been challenging over the last month at a program I had attended. I was very impressed that he could make me laugh until I was running out of breath, and experiencing a significant amount of pain in my sides, as well as challenging me to think on an intellectual level, and inspire me to think more seriously about certain views I held.

Is it just me or was Dave Barry much funnier 10 or 12 years ago? It seems like it used to be when I picked up a column or book written by Dave Barry I was guaranteed to laugh out loud. Now, it just seems that I smirk a little and find myself reading lines that I swear he's written somewhere else before. Is it just me or has Barry really lost his edge? He was never a biting, witty type--always a good-natured, fun type of guy. But somehow he just doesn't seem that funny anymore. If you want a real laugh, get "Dave Barry Slept Here" or "Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need." They're much better than this one.

This is one of Barry's books where he includes a lot of personal stories and like in other novels where he does this, the overall quality, entertainment and humour doesn't quite reach the high benchmark of his usual work where he just comments on the world. This book should really be called Dave Barry relives his life in the 60's and early 70's as that pretty much is all that's in this book. Even though when turning 50 Barry obviously lived must have lived through the 80's and 90's there is no commentary what so ever on these decades so if you weren't alive back in the 60's and 70's then obviously you are not going to enjoy the reminiscing factor.

An interesting look at America in the 60's and 70's but if you weren't alive back then I'd suggest better Barry non fiction books such as Boogers are My Beat and Homes and Other Black Holes. Also read Barry's fiction masterpiece Tricky Business.

Classic Barry iconoclastic humor. A real hoot for any baby-boomer. Chock full of nostalgic remembrances mixed in with a little 60's philosophy. I chuckled through nearly every page. Would also make a great birthday gift.

My husband bought this book because I was always berating him about reading Barrons and the Wall Street Journal on our vacations. He read this book by the pool, before bed, at the beach, everywhere. He never wanted to put it down... He laughed out loud on almost every page. He would read paragraphs to me and start laughing so hard he would be crying...

I think the reason he really likes this book is because Dave Barry is one year older than he is. He, also, is accused of looking younger than he really is... No one believes he is over 50 until he starts talking about Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody--just like Dave does... He managed to get in the National Guard to get out of Vietnam and was very impressed with Dave's CO status. Jim had to get an ulcer to get out all together.

I am so glad there is another guy out there that my husband can relate to. He is hanging out with too many young people now (like me.) He had to explain who Captain Video was to me. His first memory was begging his mother for a Captain Video helmet. Once he got it, he turned on the TV show and ran around in cirlces with the helmet on his head...(???)

I am so happy Dave made my husband's trip so enjoyable. I promise I will read it myself to gain insight into his psyche. (Even though he has read over 3/4 of it aloud to me already.)

Because of this book, I now know what to get him for Father's Day: the Collected Works of Dave Barry. I hope it comes in a boxed set suitable for giftwrapping.

PS We used to get Dave in our newspaper (and my husband used to cut out the articles and send them to his friends....) but now that we live in Connecticut, we don't get his column in our Stamford Advocate (or the New York Times.) If his publicist is reading this, please see if we can get his column in the New York Times... Thank you...

Dee Bragg deebragg@yahoo.com

Okay, I'll admit that Dave Barry has written books that are much funnier than "Dave Barry Turns 50". This is not his absolute best book by any means. However, and it sounds weird to say this, I learned a lot from it! As someone who wasn't alive until the early 1980's, a lot of the jokes about musical groups, politicians, etc. went over my head, but his year-by-year account of what he calls "the formative boomer years" taught me a lot about the things that were going on in the world at that point in history.

One of my favorite things about Barry is his ability to be informative, genuine, and funny at the same time. Yes, his writing can be very immature and silly at times, but he has shown himself more than once to be a man with opinions and a great deal of knowledge who just happens to have a juvenile side. I especially enjoyed reading the section about the Vietnam war, the draft, and the protests that went along with it. This is a great book, as Dave Barry books usually are. I hope he keeps writing, even though he's getting to be an "old fart" :-)