Publishers Weekly
Although Barry retired his column in 2004, he continues to examine current events with his annual "Year in Review" surveys, and the ones he wrote between 2000 and 2006 are collected here. He opens with a 33-page outline of history (from 1000 to 1999) in which we learn that the first book Gutenberg mass produced in 1455 was Codpieces of Passionby Danielle Steel, and that computer pioneer Charles Babbage "died in 1871, still waiting to talk to someone from Technical Support." In 2002, airline industry losses prompted "America West, in a cost-cutting measure, to eliminate the cockpit minibar"; 2003: Jayson Blair, leaving the New York Times"thoroughly disgraced, is forced to accept a six-figure book contract"; 2004: Abu Ghraib photos revealed "soldiers repeatedly forcing prisoners to look at the video of Janet Jackson's right nipple"; 2006: Osama bin Laden released "another audiotape, for the first time making it downloadable from iTunes." As a time line of humor, some of Barry's jokes were probably funnier the year they were written, but it's still a breezy and entertaining read. The 32 clever cartoon illustrations brighten the book's pages. (Sept. 17)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Kirkus Reviews
With the third millennium more than one half of one percent finished, humorist/novelist Barry (The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Dog, 2006, etc.) is the first kid on the block to decide it's high time for its history. Ah, the nostalgia! Those magnificent Enron years-or maybe they were great WorldCom years-seem like only yesterday! How could we have forgotten The Election from Hell, Kelsey Grammer, color-coded security alarms, Elian Gonzalez or a man named Dan Rather? Month by month, historian Barry carefully chronicles the science, the politics and the necrology of those years so long ago. He covers the usual scourges (Iraq, hurricanes, killer spinach and lawyers), the laughs (Congress, "coalition forces" and lawyers) and the criminals (Osama, Winona Ryder and Martha Somebody). Ever the environmentalist, Barry recycles. In this case, his text is largely reclaimed from annual newspaper columns. Because it was just so rotten, the year 2001 is entirely omitted. But an added feature, sure to be of value to students everywhere, is a 30-page survey of the delightful previous millennium, Y1K. Some years are skipped to get to the good parts, and Barry is up to hoary old tricks: non sequiturs, running gags, mish-mashed metaphors. This is history willy-nilly, and, unusual for Barry, it's entirely booger-free. A book that's fearless in the face of fact. First printing of 175,000
DEC 07/JAN 08 - AudioFile
Dave Barry is at his best when he’s short and sweet, which is one reason to enjoy DAVE BARRY’S HISTORY OF THE MILLENNIUM (SO FAR). Patrick Frederick is the latest in a line of readers of Barry’s work, and perhaps the closest to Barry’s tone. Frederick lets the humor flow naturally. This is an irreverent, deliberately misinformed history of civilization, unless Peter Minuit really did purchase Manhattan for $64 plus $167,000 a month in maintenance fees. Barry is brutal in his assessment of the Bush administration(s), all of them. But he doesn’t spare the Democrats either. This is a perfect dose of Barry’s oddball humor, which is great in small doses, say a couple hundred years at a time. M.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
