Thank You for Smoking: A Novel
by Christopher Buckley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher BuckleyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-14
ISBN: 0812976525
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Thank You for Smoking: A Novel
Book Review: A Great "Non-PC" Satire
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard to find someone who roots for the tobacco industry. I sure don't, having lost loved ones, directly and indirectly, to smoking. I guess I'd be listed as, in Nick Naylor-ese, a "Gasper." Yet you can't help but love a guy who is depicted as completely, utterly, amoral, as Chris Buckley has done in this great book.
Nick Naylor is, in fact, a tobacco spokesman working for a large tobacco lobbyist. Able to hide his knowledge behind distracting language, good looks, and an uncanny ability to deflect the main issues toward a discussion of utter nonsense, he is the perfect person for such a job in this novel set in the '90s. He's able to because this is just before the record tobacco settlement where "Big Tobacco" HAD to divulge most of its "trade secrets." Nick is not ignorent, just dedicated to doing the best job he can. He's not perfect, in fact, he's too smart for his own good, a character flaw that he realizes later. His journey takes him from the main office of his boss, who is trying to replace Nick with his pseudo-dominatrix girlfriend, to the stage of the Oprah Winfrey show, viciously attacking a Health and Human Services shill while surrounded by societal do-gooders and an unfortunate high schooler stricken with cancer. In short, Nick is "us," a man stuck with a thankless job dealing with a loathsome boss and trying to relieve this tension by doing what "Yuppie-enablers" do - namely becoming the lobby chairman's fair-haired boy, being electrocuted-as-therapy by his osteopath, drinking his midday meals with fellow "Merchants Of Death" (fellow spokespeople for the gun and alcohol lobbies), endless sex with said boss' girlfriend, reporters, and his secretary, and, of course, smoking, smoking, smoking.
Chris Buckley is as erudite as his father, while not assuming everyone else is less intelligent. He also has a fair way with wit and satire, depicting folks we'd rather see as villains being heroes by showing them in mere extensions of what we deal with every day, except that the heroes here work with things that will kill us. It's the normalcy mixed with the ridiculous that makes "Thank You" work as pure comedy. The reader finds that it's the very things that we think are bad are actually funny - if one is stuck in the tough job of making them palatible to the general public. Yes, there is salvation for Nick and his friends - the one thing in the whole book that seems rushed and ill-planned - but in the end, Nick remains Nick, and that makes the book sweet.
By the way, the movie based on this, while still uproariously funny and true to its spirit, is significantly different in story. But equally as enjolyable.
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