Book summary

This novel by humorist Dave Barry is about an offshore gambling ship, "The Extravaganza of the Seas," and the gamblers and other characters (including a band called Johnny and the Contusions) who are aboard when a devastating tropical storm strikes the Florida coast.

Media reviews

"The characters wear their flaws like brand logos, identifying them as the rotters they are and will continue to be. Barry isn't so much a satirist as a savvy shopper, picking brands from a set stock. This shorthand serves him well in his columns, which tame the chaos of an unruly world by reducing it to a familiar comedy of manners....But the same device flattens his fiction, which has to invent characters from the mess. Once he defines his characters by their tics, they can only repeat themselves."