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    Lunatics: A Novel
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    Lunatics: A Novel
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    Lunatics: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Lunatics: A Novel

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    One of them is a bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. The other is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Together, they form the League of Comic Justice, battling evildoers in the name of . . . Okay, we made that line up. What they do form is a writing team of pure comic genius, and they will have you laughing like idiots.

    Philip Horkman is a happy man-the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for kids' soccer. Jeffrey Peckerman is the sole sane person in a world filled with goddamned jerks and morons, and he's having a really bad day. The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, terrorists, subversives, bears, and a man dressed as Chuck E. Cheese.

    Where that all takes them you can't begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration and mayhem. But what else would you expect from the League of Comic Justice?

    AUTHOR BIOS: Dave Barry's recent bestselling books include his Peter Pan prequels, written with Ridley Pearson; Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far); and I'll Mature When I'm Dead. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida. To learn more about Dave Barry, please visit www.davebarry.com.

    Alan Zweibel is one of the original Saturday Night Live writer, the winner of multiple Emmy Awards for his television work and the Thurber Prize for his novel The Other Shulman, and collaborator with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning play 700 Sundays. He lives in Short Hills, New Jersey. To learn more about Alan Zweibel, please visit www.alanzweibel.com.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 10, 2012
    ISBN9781101548639
    Unavailable
    Lunatics: A Novel

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    Reviews for Lunatics

    3.5/5

    148 ratings41 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book comes with an advisory: "Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel have both written books for children. This is definitely not one of them." It's not, but I love that such a nonsensical book was written for adults. The whole plot line is just silly - everything happens by chance, is misinterpreted, and then leads to something else crazy happening. It's delightful. I laughed out loud at least once a chapter, and most chapters were just a couple of pages. If you want to read something fun that will make you think a little and laugh a lot, this is your book. And the laughs aren't limited to the text itself: a blurb on the back reads "Reading Alan Zweibel makes me laugh out loud. And yet it is not a particularly funny name." - Eric Idle; and the page that dedicates the book to the authors' wives, "who, if we had discussed the idea with them ahead of time, would definitely have discouraged us."
    • 3/5
      What an odd experience this book was. I hated the characters, I don't like humor so obvious that each joke is like a blunt object to the side of the head and frankly, I was reading to get away from the news of the day...so when Trump came up as a character and it was even throwing around his presidential run (this book was released in 2012) it was still a little too much reality. Yet, here and there, I laughed out loud. Not often and not long, but just enough to not make me want the time I spent reading this book back. Honestly, I thought the funniest part of the book was the quote from Eric Idle on the back jacket, "Reading Alan Zweibel makes me laugh out loud. And yet it is not a particularly funny name. "Dave Barry can be funny with little snippets in articles and columns, but I don't think his long-form is for me.
    • 4/5
      How wonderful to read a comedy book that was actually funny, you hearing me Bossypants (not funny, except for Fey's bad hair pic). Granted a lot of the humor was of the potty variety, but I found myself laughing out loud throughout the whole crazy book. This is not great literature,nor is meant to be anything but just plain fun. What a great escape from everything I've been trying to get through lately. The two authors were definitely trying to "one up" each other chapter after chapter and they managed to do that in spades.
      Thanks goodreads for sending me this winning comedy novel!
    • 1/5
      It was a terrible book. Rude jokes. Annoying characters. I felt like I was reading the script of an Adam Sandler movie.
    • 3/5
      I received an ARC of this free from LTER. I like Dave Barry's writing. I do. I enjoy the over-the-top zany tone of this book. But there was less to it than there should have been. I don't know what it was missing for me, but it was something key.The main problem I had was that it was really predictable. By page 30 I had started calling each shot and by the middle I was thinking, "I'm sure I've seen this movie before." There just wasn't enough new there for me. Can't put my finger on why I feel there was no "there" there, but this book was a disappointment.
    • 3/5
      I borrowed this audio book from the library for something to listen to during a long car trip with my husband. While I've always enjoyed Dave Barry's nonfiction, this novel is so far over the top and unbelievable, I just couldn't get into it. It did have some laughs, but I could've done without the toilet humor. 2.5 stars (2 from me, 3 from my husband, so I split the difference)
    • 5/5
      laugh-out-loud funny! Hi-jinks & shenanigans, be sure to pay attention to the name on the chapter to keep the intertwining story line straight. Highly recommend
    • 3/5
      Lunatics is a book for those who like ridiculous humor and just want a good laugh. There is nothing deep or earth shattering here. Just pure page turning escapism. A good break from serious literature.
    • 3/5
      Early on in the book I was offended by the profanity and racism of one of the characters. Then I began to muse that this is the kind of story line that a couple of very very high guys might come up with. Then I stopped thinking and more or less enjoyed the rest of the ride. Nice break from more serious topics I read for my book club.
    • 4/5
      A wild comedic thriller that races at a breakneck pace around the world. An obnoxious forensic plumber and a mild-mannered owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop have an altercation involving a lemur; the cover copy describes them as being "pursued by the police, soldiers, subversives, bears, revolutionaries, a black ops team... and a terrorist dressed as Chuck E. Cheese," and they are, but that doesn't even capture a fraction of the delicious absurdity. If this were a movie, it would be like The Blues Brothers and My Fellow Americans had a baby, only with more bodily functions. I haven't read any of Alan Zweibel's previous books (although since apparently he was an original writer for SNL, I was expecting him go be good), but as a Dave Barry fan, this is exactly what I was hoping for.
    • 4/5
      A wild comedic thriller that races at a breakneck pace around the world. An obnoxious forensic plumber and a mild-mannered owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop have an altercation involving a lemur; the cover copy describes them as being "pursued by the police, soldiers, subversives, bears, revolutionaries, a black ops team... and a terrorist dressed as Chuck E. Cheese," and they are, but that doesn't even capture a fraction of the delicious absurdity. If this were a movie, it would be like The Blues Brothers and My Fellow Americans had a baby, only with more bodily functions. I haven't read any of Alan Zweibel's previous books (although since apparently he was an original writer for SNL, I was expecting him go be good), but as a Dave Barry fan, this is exactly what I was hoping for.
    • 4/5
      A Prius-driving, volunteer ref for youth soccer, pet shop owner and all-round nice guy clashes with the d-bag idiot father of one of the soccer players over one of his calls. And then the next day they clash again over a fat joke aimed toward a kid and a stolen lemur. And it only gets weirder and wilder from there, until they find themselves wanted terrorists/world heroes.A fun and funny romp, as only Barry can deliver. Recommended if you like his ridiculous sense of humor.
    • 4/5
      Two shlubby guys from Jersey get into increasingly preposterous situations. It’s funny, but gets to be a bit much. Trump appears in a strangely prescient scene (the book came out in 2012).
    • 5/5
      Lunatics is a very appropriate title for this crazy novel as are the names of the two main characters, Jeffrey Peckerman, who is a real peckerhead, and Phillip Horkman, who is like something bad you horked up. Though of the two, I prefer Phillip, but that isn't saying much. These two are a pair of walking dominoes or dynamite, who touch things and set them in motion in a big way while still being the biggest idiots ever.It starts with Horkman making a possible bad call at a soccer game against Peckerman's daughter. The two believe that they'll never see each other again, but fate has plans for them. Peckerman, a forensic plumber by trade, is out on a job when his wife calls and asks him to pick up a bottle of wine for her Oprah book club. He stops at the business called The Wine Store which is owned by Horkman. Only Horkman doesn't sell wine there, he sells pets. Wine is his in-law's last name and they insisted when they loaned him the money to open the store that he use their name for the store. Peckerman, of course, blows his lid at not finding wine there and Horkman reacts to that and pretty soon you have Peckerman beating a hasty retreat with a lemur.Horkman, desperate to get his lemur, and pissed off that Peckerman ran over his foot, finds his address and goes over there to get his lemur back. Inside the house, the lemur gets loose during the book club right when Debbie is showing off her insulin pump, which the lemur snatches and takes off with right out the front door where Horkman grabs him and takes off. The lemur jumps out of the window, however, without the pump. Later, Debbie shows up at Horkman's children's concert with the lemur and threatens to throw it off the George Washington Bridge if he doesn't give her back her insulin pump. A chase ensues between Peckerman, Horkman, and Debbie. Peckerman's wife has made him go after Debbie and try to help her get her pump back.While at the toll booth, Horkman finally sees the pump in his car and gets out to give it to her as she is just two cars ahead of him, but she drives away before he can. Desperate to catch her he drives through the toll without paying. He's out of gas in his Prius so he's only able to go 35mph and the cops are chasing him with a helicopter above him. He has no idea what's going on so he pulls over and they grab the pump and blow it up thinking it was a bomb. Peckerman was ahead of him and rear-ended Debbie who is passed out in her car. Peckerman goes to the cops to try to get medical help for Debbie and the cops believe that Peckerman is with Horkman and try to arrest him too. The lemur appears and jumps on the cops causing one of them to fire off a shot into the helicopter hitting the cop in the helicopter in the scrotum.In the chaos, Peckerman and Horkman both leave but wind up meeting up together again, but fate will not keep these two men apart for long. On the run, as they are now being called terrorists, but not everyone who is hunting them down wants to turn them into the cops. This book is hilarious, which is nothing less than what you'd expect from a Dave Barry book. Zweibel wrote for Saturday Night Live, Gary Shandling's Show, Monk, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, winning Emmy's for his work. As you read it you cannot imagine what can possibly happen next, but you do know it will be laugh-your-ass-off funny. Quotes She said this with that voice women develop at a very early age, the one where whatever happens—the cable goes out, they have a headache, a lemur is shitting on the bed—it’s your fault.-Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (Lunatics p 23)“She’s hot for you.” “Oh, that’s just the diabetes talking,” I told him. “Diabetes doesn’t’ talk. High fevers talk. Alzheimer’s talks. Certain infectious diseases don’t shut up for a second. But diabetes? NO. Diabetes comes stag and pretty much sucks the air out of the party.” “Okay, then it’s the insulin that’s talking!” I shouted back. “I’m telling you , she has no idea what she’s saying.” “Insulin doesn’t talk either. Serotonin talks Dopamine talks. Ultracet. A lot of your ADD and ADHD medications can be quite chatty. As can certain kinds of marijuana, cocaine and other street drugs. Bu insulin? Hell no. As boring as diabetes is, it’s a veritable one-man band compared to insulin.”-Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (Lunatics p 50)There are precious few activities that grown men should do while naked. Showering. Swimming when no one else is around. Sex, whether someone else is around or not. And anything that takes place in front of blind people. Beyond that, all unclothed activities performed in the presence of those who’re sighted should be filed under the heading “Dear Lord, If He Bends Over One More Time I’m Going to Hang Myself.”-Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (Lunatics p 93)“Fuck her yet?” “Excuse me?” “The nun. A word to the wise, Horkman. Nuns consider themselves married to God, so I’d watch my step if I were you, “he said, pointing skyward. “That is one jealous husband you don’t want to piss off. He’s God, for God’s sake! Fucking guy can turn your dick into a fried wonton just like that,” he said while snapping he stubby little fingers.-Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (Lunatics p 145)
    • 4/5
      A farcical comedy of errors finds our two "heros" alternately a putz and an asshole traveling around the world. They hate each other but through the bizarre actions and incidents they bring hope to the world. Overall, I enjoyed it, but for a short book, I got tired of it after awhile.
    • 4/5
      I love Dave Barry and have enjoyed Alan Zweibel's comedy writing. The two of them together was just boy humor amplified. Lots of bad language, but that doesn't bother me. The two-man writing format worked well for these guys, and the story was wild, but funny. Dave can always get me to laugh and if you are a fan, I would recommend it just for that fact. I liked the updates at the end.
    • 4/5
      For what the book was trying to be, I should have given it 5 stars. It was silly beyond imagining (unless one has an imagination like Dave Barry, evidently), which fulfilled its mission admirably. But really! I am passing it along to my 18 year old college freshman nephew. I am certain he will get a kick out of it. If he does't, I'll take away the half star!
    • 3/5
      Mild-mannered Philip Horkman is the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop. Jeffrey Peckerman is a forensic plumber and (dare I say it?) a bit of a redneck. Philip is the referee of a soccer game,and puts the wheels in motion when he calls an offside on Jeffrey's daughter Taylor when she kicks the tying goal. One thing leads to another, and in a story told alternately by both men, they end up pursued by everyone from the police to Chuck E. Cheese, along the way going from Most Wanted to Great American Heroes. It's a fun romp, but I have to say that the characters both really got on my nerves. Especially Peckerman. And having the perspective change every 5 pages got to be very annoying. It's not a bad book, and it's a fairly easy read. Just not up to the standards I would have expected.
    • 2/5
      Written in the format of an over-the-top, Jim Carrey-esque slapstick comedy. Unfortunately, that style doesn't translate well to literature and it generated more eye-rolling than chuckles for me.
    • 4/5
      Lunatics, the latest book coauthored by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (and to my knowledge, the only one), follows the lives of two diametrically opposed men in New Jersey whose lives keep intersecting, resulting it greater and greater impact to their families, their communities, and eventually, the whole world.Phillip Horkman is a pet store owner who also referees youth soccer. He loves his family, cares about his planet, and supports his children, regardless of weight problems or other unsavory factors. Jerry Peckerman is a forensic plumber who doesn’t put up with crap very easily (though he’d word it a bit more colorfully). He’s the kind of guy who finds a guy like Horkman to be extremely irritating.After the two meet at a youth soccer game, Peckerman’s daughter being called off-sides by Horkman, the two seem to run into one another again and again, much to their mutual chagrin. This sad fate grows and grows until, due to complete misunderstandings, they are deemed terrorists, and must mutually flee the country.The book is a mile-a-minute romp across the world where these two keep making a bigger and bigger bleep on the public radar screen, all the while, they’re both relatively unaware the worldwide impact they’re having. Mixed with jokes and other hilarity, the book can get most people to smile.However, as it says in the book’s disclaimer: Even though Barry and Zweibel are household kid-friendly book writers (Barry’s penned a Peter Pan series for Disney while Zweibel’s possibly best known for writing the basis for the Elijah Wood film North), this is definitely not one of them. Just about every chapter is laced with Peckerman’s liberal peppering of his speech with a melange of offensive words. Reader beware!If you can get past the language, however, this book, while not an epic gem of a masterpiece, is definitely a humor-filled read, similar to Barry’s other “international thrillers.” Worth it if you’re an older fan of Barry or Zweibel. Possibly could merit skipping for everybody else.
    • 5/5
      This was absolutely hilarious. I had reservations about the two author format, but Zweibel and Barry pulled it off very well. It starts off very slow, but gets very fast and very funny really quick. You don’t want to read this in public if you don’t want people to wonder who the laughing lunatic is.
    • 5/5
      At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like the book. I found it amusing at first but it seemed to be escalating at such a rate thought it would become ridiculous. Well it did, but in a good way. Two guys get in a pissing match over an elementary girls soccer game and before you know it they are wanted by the police for attempting a terrorist attack. As much as they don't like each other they end up sticking together our of necessity . It is the ultimate comedy of errors. Each chapter alternates between each of the men. At first I thought meh. But by the middle I was laughing out loud regularly. I thought it was hilarious. It was a little crud so if that offends be warned. But like any comedy someone will be offended by this book. Doesn't matter it was great.
    • 3/5
      I didn't like this book when I first started reading it. I love Dave Barry and think he's usually quite funny, although his more recent stuff had left me a little cold. Lunatics alternates chapters being told by each of the main characters, with occasional transcripts of news media to fill in gaps in the narrative. This took some getting used to and things weren't particularly interesting or funny until we get to the Windsong portion of the book.Things really picked up on the cruise ship and I was really enjoying myself until the boys found themselves back on US soil. Then I was bored again. And tired.Lunatics is slapstick meets bizarre. I think if you're a fan of Gonzo lit., absurdist or stream of consciousness, you'll probably get a kick out of this.For myself, I found it simply ok. It passed the time while I was on the train and I even laughed out loud once or twice. If you need something to read and you don't want anything that takes itself too seriously, this is probably the book for you.
    • 4/5
      While this book won't change your life long-term, it certainly will make you laugh. Barry and Zweibel write characters who are at opposite ends of the spectrum, neither believable on their own to me, but who play off one another perfectly, finding a balance between them.This is the story of Horkman and Peckerman, two men who take a trip so fantastic and surreal, yet vividly close to home, I wonder how soon until I hear about them on NPR as real life news stories.As the political conventions are coming up, I hope to Bob we have our own versions of Horkman and Peckerman who ride into the parties on their white horses.
    • 3/5
      I am a huge fan of Dave Barry and eagerly await any new publication of his, so I was excited to run across this book. If you have read Barry's Big Trouble or Tricky Business, then this new book will seem a bit familiar. It has the same zany, who-knows-what-will-happen-next plot, with lots of unexpected characters and situations. The two main characters, Horkman and Peckerman, two opposing personalities thrown together by the whimsy of circumstance, are also a bit reminiscent of Forrest Gump, in that they have no idea what they are doing yet end up causing history-changing events. It was fun to keep reading and see what would next befall the hapless pair!

      The one drawback from my point of view is the authors' reliance on scatological humor; diarrhea, in particular, affects the outcome of several pivotal events, but the writers make sure to include urine, gas, and masturbation in the plot line as well. Maybe it's a guy thing...

      Overall, I found the book entertaining. If you don't mind bathroom humor, it's quite a trip.
    • 4/5
      The first half of this book is definately better than the second half. This is a rather amusing story told from 2 perspectives about what happens to Phillip and Jeffery, after their first chance encounter. the chapters alternate between each character, and by mid way through the book spin completely out of control, but not in a good way. I like crazy warped writing (see Tim Dorsey) but eventually this book is just not funny, it becomes cliched and dumb. First half very funny, but by the time they get to Cuba, the book begins to lose stream.
    • 3/5
      Just ridiculous (in the best way) and fantastic. Two men (Horkman and Peckerman) become embroiled in political intrigue through no fault of their own. Rushed from place to place they save the world (kind of). Oh, and they can't stand each other. Just great comedic writing.
    • 4/5
      If you are looking for a hilarious good time (and don't mind vulgarity), then Lunatics is the book for you. The audio book was read by the authors, which I think added an extra dimension of funny to it. There were times that I was laughing out loud. The end was a little of a let down, but the very end, where they did a "where are they now" recap of the characters ended on a very high note.
    • 2/5
      In all fairness, I went into this book somewhat blind. All I know about Dave Barry is that he is supposed to be funny -- I think I've read a couple of columns and one children's book by him -- and the sum total of my experience was not sufficient to prepare me for this novel. I received this copy from an Early Reviewers bonus batch here on LT and, since I felt the need for something funny, thought I would give it a try.At first, its vulgar satire and extreme stereotypes were funny. Toward the early middle of the novel, even within the context of violence-as-hilarity, the book actually did make me laugh out loud. Our two narrators are at opposite ends of the American stereotype spectrum: both white Jewish males from New Jersey, but one is the goody-two-shoes-sunny-side-up environmentally conscious, politically correct perfectionist priss while the other is the foul-mouthed, slur-slinging, unhygienic and ignorant bigot. In other words, neither of them is likable, and they aren't supposed to be. The two have a typically suburban conflict over a children's soccer game that escalates in the first part of the novel into a massive case of overblown violence and mistaken identity. In this case, our two characters are mistaken for international terrorists on the lam and things get a bit worse from there. Also, there is a lemur. Obviously, a send-up of the most extreme ends of our cultural personality spectrum in this country has been done before to good effect and so, despite the fact that one instantly feels the urge to slap both narrators across the face, the potential for amusement at the beginning of the book is good. Also, there is a lemur. What could go wrong? Plenty does go wrong inside the plot, which makes for some solid laughs, but the book as a whole goes a bit wrong too.Unfortunately, after the first few mistaken-identity political plays, the novel settles into a repetitive pattern of slapstick that quickly tires out. There are only so many times that one can read about a man crapping his pants and still find it funny. Also, the descriptions of violence amp up -- at one point there is a reference to a man's head exploding like a watermelon in a woodchipper, for example -- to the point that a reader like me gets squeamish. And perhaps that's really the problem: this book was not written for a reader like me. I hate to carry on stereotypes, but I think perhaps this is a book for the straight male of a certain age and personality type. Certainly I can see the appeal to a high-testosterone demographic : violence, slapstick, political/cultural satire, fart and poop jokes, and female characters that largely stand around to act as convenient objects, foils, or bitches. If that sounds like fun to you, you'll probably find a lot to love in this book. Even so, and I say this as someone who occasionally enjoys a good fart joke, I can't imagine that anyone widely read, of either gender, would be able to enjoy the sheer redundancy of the pattern, specifically in the second half of the novel. Had the novel been shorter -- or, you know, more varied in its "abduction -- screw up -- crap pants --sissy fight -- mistaken identity -- abduction" structure -- I think I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, I ran out of laughs (and lemurs) long before I ran out of pages.While I did like how it ended -- I thought that it had the perfect wrap-up for what it was -- I don't think I'll be picking up anything else by Dave Barry and co. any time soon.
    • 5/5
      I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one before. I read lots of novels with fall-out-of-your-chair-funny bits, but never an actual book advertised as humor. I thought they'd get stale pretty fast, or run out of steam, or inevitably veer off into seriousland. But this was actually really fun!Lunatics describes the implausible bumblings of two New Jersians as a manly dispute at a junior league soccer game turns into a global manhut as the pair are pursued as terrorists by their own nation. But one man's terrorist is another's liberator, and soon the pair are sought out by actual (potential) terrorists, contra revolucionarios Cubanos, pirates and Mossad.The book's PoV alternates between the Jersians with each short chapter (each timed to be read during one visit to the toilet?). I suspect the authors may have each claimed one of them to keep a consistent voice, but the dual-author thing works well in this case. I liked Dave Barry's non-fiction books a long time ago, and this novel inspired me to go pick a few of them back up again. I haven't heard of Alan Zweibel, but might go look up some of his work.