Novel: Insane City

Overview
Dave Barry’s Insane City is a fast, screwball caper about a destination wedding that turns Miami into a pinball machine of mishaps. Over one long, chaotic weekend, a nice-guy groom from a modest background is swept into a swirl of lost jewels, social media frenzies, hustlers, tycoons, and an orangutan, while trying not to ruin the lavish marriage his fiancée’s powerful family has planned. Beneath the slapstick, the novel needles America’s obsession with status and spectacle, and wonders what decency looks like when the spotlight is blinding.

Setup
Seth, well-meaning and easily overwhelmed, flies to Miami with his Groom Posse for a beach wedding to Tina, the smart, driven daughter of a spectacularly rich and controlling father. The plan is simple: stay out of trouble until the vows. The plan lasts about five minutes. A detour to South Beach leads to an encounter with strippers, the disappearance of a spectacular engagement ring, a late-night rescue attempt that goes sideways, and a chance meeting with a Haitian woman and her children who are desperate to avoid deportation. Seth, who cannot resist trying to do the right thing, makes a promise to help them, and suddenly his weekend now includes hiding people in hotel rooms and dodging questions from security.

Escalation
The wedding itself is a production, beachfront, precision-choreographed, and under the eye of a publicist who treats it as a brand event. Tina’s father wants perfection and control; Seth is juggling secrets and a missing ring that could blow everything up. His friends launch a frantic (and profoundly inept) recovery mission that ricochets through strip clubs, luxury condos, the Everglades fringe, and a mega-yacht. Along the way they cross paths with hustlers of every stripe, reality TV operators, and an orangutan intended as a party prop who becomes an unlikely co-conspirator. One madcap set piece begets another, bar fights, mistaken identities, police interest, viral photos, and the city’s talent for turning nonsense into headline news kicks in. Soon the internet is obsessing over the wrong thing for the right reasons, and the stakes for Seth’s promise to the Haitian family keep rising.

Turning point
As the ceremony looms, all the trajectories collide. The ring surfaces in the most public, inconvenient way possible. The refugees Seth has shielded are at risk of being exposed. The orangutan’s unexpected celebrity becomes leverage. Tina, who has been balancing loyalty to her family with affection for Seth, is forced to decide how much chaos she can accept. Seth, cornered by lies of omission and the spectacle of wealth, finally tells the truth, confronts his future father-in-law, and demands compassion over optics. The resulting compromise is untidy, costly, and very Miami, a solution shaped less by justice than by what looks good on camera.

Resolution
The wedding does not go as planned, but it does go on, refocused away from theatrics and toward the couple at its center. Seth keeps his promise to the Haitian family, aided by the absurd coalition of friends, unexpected allies, and a city that sometimes rewards chutzpah. Tina proves more flexible and more principled than the machinery around her. The weekend ends with bruises, bills, and a marriage tested early, founded on clearer-eyed love rather than borrowed glamour.

Themes and tone
Insane City is a satire of class and performative philanthropy, poking at how wealth can turn even a wedding into a media event. It lampoons viral culture and the way empathy and outrage are choreographed online. Yet it never loses sight of heart: ordinary kindness, loyalty among friends, and the stubborn belief that one person can still do something decent amidst the noise. Miami, rendered as a gorgeous, unhinged character, supplies the heat, the hustle, and the punchlines.