Thank You for Smoking
Christopher Buckley
This book was wonderful. It is just what I was looking for in a satire, a book that you can sit back and enjoy while at the same time being informed and, of course, laughing out loud. It would seem to me that a book with a tobacco lobbyist would only seek to infuriate, but Buckley takes his (highly unpopular) mix and creates a character who is shockingly real. Buckley's Nick Naylor is so sympathetic to me that when he found himself in dire straits, I was absolutely infuriated at the world, ready to go to bat for the mistreated merchant of death.
The book's humor is subtle, a feat that is not easily accomplished but that is much appreciated. In fact, the very notion of portraying a tobacco executive as a sympathetic character is in itself sly and cunning, two traits I appreciate in my humor writers. Buckley's characters may be laughable, but at the same time they are realistic, so that the reader views the book's insights into Washington power plays as fact, rather than fiction. What Buckley does is play into the anti-smoking lobby's lust for blood by creating morally reprehensible characters, but his genius lies in the way he twists the world back around in on them. Nick's gradual redemption is not certain, and the real beauty of the book is that the reader leaves unsure as to his motives.
Thank You for Smoking is a brilliant work that manages to play on our emotional need for martyrs and our sympathy for them, offering interesting insight into the ferocity of anti-smoking groups. Buckley's cover-ups for Big Tobacco, which are placed onto the tongue of the shining mouthpiece, are not foreign to the MSNBC-loving crowd and are delightful to liberals and conservatives alike. The former recognize the gall of them and the latter agree; Buckley has managed to craft a fine plot and a compelling human-interest story in the moral morass that is American politics, and he comes out swinging, his strokes right on target.
Grade: A
Christopher Buckley
This book was wonderful. It is just what I was looking for in a satire, a book that you can sit back and enjoy while at the same time being informed and, of course, laughing out loud. It would seem to me that a book with a tobacco lobbyist would only seek to infuriate, but Buckley takes his (highly unpopular) mix and creates a character who is shockingly real. Buckley's Nick Naylor is so sympathetic to me that when he found himself in dire straits, I was absolutely infuriated at the world, ready to go to bat for the mistreated merchant of death.
The book's humor is subtle, a feat that is not easily accomplished but that is much appreciated. In fact, the very notion of portraying a tobacco executive as a sympathetic character is in itself sly and cunning, two traits I appreciate in my humor writers. Buckley's characters may be laughable, but at the same time they are realistic, so that the reader views the book's insights into Washington power plays as fact, rather than fiction. What Buckley does is play into the anti-smoking lobby's lust for blood by creating morally reprehensible characters, but his genius lies in the way he twists the world back around in on them. Nick's gradual redemption is not certain, and the real beauty of the book is that the reader leaves unsure as to his motives.
Thank You for Smoking is a brilliant work that manages to play on our emotional need for martyrs and our sympathy for them, offering interesting insight into the ferocity of anti-smoking groups. Buckley's cover-ups for Big Tobacco, which are placed onto the tongue of the shining mouthpiece, are not foreign to the MSNBC-loving crowd and are delightful to liberals and conservatives alike. The former recognize the gall of them and the latter agree; Buckley has managed to craft a fine plot and a compelling human-interest story in the moral morass that is American politics, and he comes out swinging, his strokes right on target.
Grade: A
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