Understanding the urgent need for a deeply thoughtful, balanced book to explain our national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Though he himself has covered many campaigns, run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will spare nothing for his art), Barry has instead outdone himself.

Below the Beltway includes Barry's stirring account of how the United States was born, including his version of a properly written Declaration (When in the course of human events it behooves us, the people, not to ask "What can our country do for us, anyway?" but rather whether we have anything to fear except fear itself) and a revised Constitution (Section II: The House of Representatives shall be composed of people who own at least two dark suits and have not been indicted recently).

Dave also cracks the income-tax code and explains the growth(s) of government, congressional hearing difficulties, and the persistent rumors of the influence of capital in the Capitol. Among other civic contributions, his tour of Washington D.C. should end school class trips forever.

In past collections, Dave Barry has satirized American government; this time he focuses his comic genius completely on its stupidities and embarrassments. Barry skewers the media, the American educational system, lawyers, giant zucchini (seriously), teenagers and their music, and a dozen other topics in a string of digressions that he somehow manages to weave into the flow of his narrative. Barry skillfully replicates and exaggerates the language used in civics textbooks, campaign ads, and legal cases, producing a string of zany images and colorfully mixed metaphors. Dick Hill's narration is wonderfully flexible but occasionally overemphasizes jokes that would be funnier delivered straight. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

 

Dave Barry has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His columns for the Miami Herald were syndicated worldwide, and he is the author of a number of bestselling books, including the recently published Peter and the Starcatchers with Ridley Pearson. He lives in Miami, where he drives very nervously.