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monty_reads's review
4.0
When it comes to naming our best contemporary satirists, the default response usually (and accurately) settles on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The Onion, too, and certainly anything Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It; In the Loop; Veep) creates. But I never hear Christopher Buckley's name mentioned, which is a shame. He's made a career out of skewering various American power structures – the stock market, the justice system, the State Department, etc. – and I'm glad that I finally got around to reading Thank You for Smoking,, which has to be his best work to date.
Here, Buckley sets himself the herculean task of turning Nick Naylor, the tobacco industry's chief spokesman, into a sympathetic character. No easy feat when Naylor regularly appears on Oprah and Larry King Live to tout the health benefits of smoking and then follows it up by meeting his counterparts in the alcohol and firearms lobbies for dinner – an unofficial social club which they've named "The Mod Squad" (short for Merchants of Death).
But somehow Buckley manages to make Naylor a character worth rooting for. He accomplishes part of this by making Naylor smart and funny and sort of "aw, shucks" about his own duplicity – a genial fellow who can't help but make up statistics about how nicotine slows the onset of Parkinson's. But the bigger part is that he makes Naylor a victim – first of his boss (who's an even bigger asshole than Nick), then of a kidnapper, then of the FBI who suspect Nick in his own abduction. Because Nick seems like such a decent guy, who can't help but feel sorry for all the stuff he's going through, even while he's paying off a celebrity lung cancer victim to stop speaking out against the tobacco industry (a thinly-veiled Marlboro Man, who actually did die of lung cancer in 1992).
The whole thing is pitch-black and very, very funny. Take this advice, which Nick gives his 12-year-old son:
'"The important thing is...is to feel tired at the end of the day.' Aristotle might not have constructed an entire philosophy on it, but it would do. True, Hitler and Stalin had probably felt tired at the end of their days. But theirs would not have been a good tired."
If acidic commentary is your thing and you don't know Buckley's work, start here and don't look back.
Here, Buckley sets himself the herculean task of turning Nick Naylor, the tobacco industry's chief spokesman, into a sympathetic character. No easy feat when Naylor regularly appears on Oprah and Larry King Live to tout the health benefits of smoking and then follows it up by meeting his counterparts in the alcohol and firearms lobbies for dinner – an unofficial social club which they've named "The Mod Squad" (short for Merchants of Death).
But somehow Buckley manages to make Naylor a character worth rooting for. He accomplishes part of this by making Naylor smart and funny and sort of "aw, shucks" about his own duplicity – a genial fellow who can't help but make up statistics about how nicotine slows the onset of Parkinson's. But the bigger part is that he makes Naylor a victim – first of his boss (who's an even bigger asshole than Nick), then of a kidnapper, then of the FBI who suspect Nick in his own abduction. Because Nick seems like such a decent guy, who can't help but feel sorry for all the stuff he's going through, even while he's paying off a celebrity lung cancer victim to stop speaking out against the tobacco industry (a thinly-veiled Marlboro Man, who actually did die of lung cancer in 1992).
The whole thing is pitch-black and very, very funny. Take this advice, which Nick gives his 12-year-old son:
'"The important thing is...is to feel tired at the end of the day.' Aristotle might not have constructed an entire philosophy on it, but it would do. True, Hitler and Stalin had probably felt tired at the end of their days. But theirs would not have been a good tired."
If acidic commentary is your thing and you don't know Buckley's work, start here and don't look back.
rbriese7's review
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
stephen_delavue's review
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
So I first watched "Thank You For Smoking" my junior year or highschool without knowing that it was based off of a book. And while I still enjoy the movie to this day I'd have to say that I find the book to be a bit more interesting as there are quite a few differences between the two. The book is more so concerned with themes of corruption along an individual, corporate, media, and governmental level. It's, as far as my interpretation lends it, a critic against the idea of lobbyist in general. Where as the movie is more so an out an out Libertarian's you should be able to put whatever you wish in your body as long as you're not hurting another person.
The book's sense of humor and style of comedy are genuinely phenomenal, although the first part chunk of the book seems a bit meandering as it feels very slice of lifey until the plot really kicks in. It was really this aspect that made my reading of it Abit slower than I would've liked. The book also has what might be the best opening that I've read since Rook. All in all I'd recommend it.
3.75 Stars
The book's sense of humor and style of comedy are genuinely phenomenal, although the first part chunk of the book seems a bit meandering as it feels very slice of lifey until the plot really kicks in. It was really this aspect that made my reading of it Abit slower than I would've liked. The book also has what might be the best opening that I've read since Rook. All in all I'd recommend it.
3.75 Stars
harvio's review against another edition
5.0
- I have also read, and quite enjoyed, Buckley's "No Way To Treat A First Lady" and "Little Green Men (4/5)", but this novel is my favourite of the three. The protagonist, Nick Naylor, is the Chief Spokesman for the Academy Of Tobacco Studies (which translates into the #1 Public Relations Man for a group of cigarette manufacturers). He is used to being compared to Nazi War Criminals, and even to Satan, but now it would appear that he has so offended an anti-smoking zealot that his life is in danger. FUNNY, quirky, well-written, plausible, and . . . oh yeah, did I mention FUNNY!
erin_boyington's review
4.0
Big Tobacco spokesman Nick Naylor slings BS to pay his mortgage - but after getting death threats he worries that he may have smoked his last cigarette.
Nick's boss, BR, has his eye on making room for his secretary in the VP slot, so Nick has to keep spinning inventively to keep ahead of the ax. His rhetoric is sharp and he's nimble in an argument: switching seamlessly from ad hominem to reductio ad absurdum, poking holes in his sanctimonious opponents, and scoring temporary victories to keep tobacco sales up. The truth doesn't trouble him (much), since he only gets paid to blow smoke.
My favorite scenes are the conversations between Nick and his lunch buddies from SAFETY (the pro-gun lobby) and the Moderation Council (wine, beer, and spirits). Their chatter is hilariously honest as they discuss their goals of getting their products into the hands of consumers, and it's like reading The Screwtape Letters set in a bar in D.C. They refer to themselves as the Mod Squad: Merchants of Death.
There are also a few very funny sex scenes - all weird suggestion and grunting. This book is hardly PC in its depiction of women, but does that surprise anyone? Women in Nick's white, male-dominated world are either sexy or scary - there's no in-between, though some do manage to be both.
The dialog and character descriptions are razor-sharp: some important celebrities - Oprah! - and politicians - Margaret Thatcher! - get skewered (and though it was written in 1994, this book may just as well have been published last year when it alludes to politicians' transgressions). I love the hilarious movie starring Aaron Eckhart (a movie about smoking in which no one smokes!) Fans of one will certainly love the other - though there are some substantial differences, most notably with the character of Nick's son and the ending.
Christopher Buckley has written other political satire, including Boomsday, about a blogger who suggests that the government encourage people over 75 to off themselves to relieve the overburdened Social Security system. Buckley's father was William F. Buckley, a well-known libertarian writer who died of emphysema in 2008. He wrote an opinion piece before his death entitled "My Smoking Confessional", about his personal experience and views on tobacco.
So Quotable:
"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan." - 3
"A direct steal from the Jesse Jackson School of Meaningless but Rhymed Oratory, but it worked." - 4
"It was crucial not to pause here to let the stunning non sequitur embed itself in their neural processors." - 5
"The Mod Squad in ways resembled the gatherings of Hollywood comedy writers who met over coffee to bounce new jokes off one another. Only here it was sound bites deemphasizing the lethality of their products." - 24
"They were the Cavaliers of Consumption aligned on the field of battle against the Roundheads of Neo-Puritanism." - 29
"He had seven daughters: Andy, Tommie, Bobbie, Chris, Donnie, Scotty, and Dave, upon whom the burden of her father's frustrated desire for a male heir had perhaps fallen hardest." - 53
"Ninety-nine percent of everything that is done in the world, good and bad, is done to pay a mortgage. The world would be a much better place if everyone rented." - 89
"I don't have all the answers on that. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a facilitator. All I do is bring creative people together. What information there is, is out there. People will decide for themselves. I can't make the decision for them. It's not my role. It would be morally presumptuous." - 170
"In a hot medium, coolness is all, limpidity is better, and not picking your nose is key." - 195
"A bit tortured, perhaps, but he'd at least kicked a little putative dirt onto the shoes of a venerable doctor, a pediatric surgeon, at that. A men who saved the lives of ... little children. Don't think about that! Thank God Koop looked like Captain Ahab with that scary beard of his." - 197
Nick's boss, BR, has his eye on making room for his secretary in the VP slot, so Nick has to keep spinning inventively to keep ahead of the ax. His rhetoric is sharp and he's nimble in an argument: switching seamlessly from ad hominem to reductio ad absurdum, poking holes in his sanctimonious opponents, and scoring temporary victories to keep tobacco sales up. The truth doesn't trouble him (much), since he only gets paid to blow smoke.
My favorite scenes are the conversations between Nick and his lunch buddies from SAFETY (the pro-gun lobby) and the Moderation Council (wine, beer, and spirits). Their chatter is hilariously honest as they discuss their goals of getting their products into the hands of consumers, and it's like reading The Screwtape Letters set in a bar in D.C. They refer to themselves as the Mod Squad: Merchants of Death.
There are also a few very funny sex scenes - all weird suggestion and grunting. This book is hardly PC in its depiction of women, but does that surprise anyone? Women in Nick's white, male-dominated world are either sexy or scary - there's no in-between, though some do manage to be both.
The dialog and character descriptions are razor-sharp: some important celebrities - Oprah! - and politicians - Margaret Thatcher! - get skewered (and though it was written in 1994, this book may just as well have been published last year when it alludes to politicians' transgressions). I love the hilarious movie starring Aaron Eckhart (a movie about smoking in which no one smokes!) Fans of one will certainly love the other - though there are some substantial differences, most notably with the character of Nick's son and the ending.
Christopher Buckley has written other political satire, including Boomsday, about a blogger who suggests that the government encourage people over 75 to off themselves to relieve the overburdened Social Security system. Buckley's father was William F. Buckley, a well-known libertarian writer who died of emphysema in 2008. He wrote an opinion piece before his death entitled "My Smoking Confessional", about his personal experience and views on tobacco.
So Quotable:
"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan." - 3
"A direct steal from the Jesse Jackson School of Meaningless but Rhymed Oratory, but it worked." - 4
"It was crucial not to pause here to let the stunning non sequitur embed itself in their neural processors." - 5
"The Mod Squad in ways resembled the gatherings of Hollywood comedy writers who met over coffee to bounce new jokes off one another. Only here it was sound bites deemphasizing the lethality of their products." - 24
"They were the Cavaliers of Consumption aligned on the field of battle against the Roundheads of Neo-Puritanism." - 29
"He had seven daughters: Andy, Tommie, Bobbie, Chris, Donnie, Scotty, and Dave, upon whom the burden of her father's frustrated desire for a male heir had perhaps fallen hardest." - 53
"Ninety-nine percent of everything that is done in the world, good and bad, is done to pay a mortgage. The world would be a much better place if everyone rented." - 89
"I don't have all the answers on that. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a facilitator. All I do is bring creative people together. What information there is, is out there. People will decide for themselves. I can't make the decision for them. It's not my role. It would be morally presumptuous." - 170
"In a hot medium, coolness is all, limpidity is better, and not picking your nose is key." - 195
"A bit tortured, perhaps, but he'd at least kicked a little putative dirt onto the shoes of a venerable doctor, a pediatric surgeon, at that. A men who saved the lives of ... little children. Don't think about that! Thank God Koop looked like Captain Ahab with that scary beard of his." - 197
daveagans's review
5.0
This is the book that introduced me to Christopher Buckley's very entertaining satires. Enjoyed it so thoroughly I read everything else of his I could find.
survivalisinsufficient's review
3.0
This is really more of a 3.5. It's very similar to the movie in tone, though the plot is pretty different, especially at the end. It does have some funny bits. I was annoyed by all the talk about authoritative black women and how he has to do what they say (wtf?) Plus, I could have done without some of the fantasizing.
bent's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very funny book. I read it many years ago but I still remember if very well. Buckley does a great job satirizing business people and corporate culture, and reveals the cynicism that all sides bring to the debate.
claudiaswisher's review
4.0
Funny! I've begun to really appreciate Buckley's humor. Nick is a PR man for a tobacco lobby, and in the course of his job he must say outrageously false things with a sincere face...and he does. His best friends work as lobbyists for the booze firearms industries. They call themselves the MOD Squad: Merchants of Death. Nick gets sideways with his boss and the fun (and double crosses) begins. Buckley's literary allusions remind me he was raised in an extremely literate home: "Call me Ishmael and hand me a Coca Cola," and my favorite: "The Soma crept in on little cat feet."
This one is really clever and demented. I think these are adjectives that could describe any of his novels. I'll be looking for another one to read. Soon.
This one is really clever and demented. I think these are adjectives that could describe any of his novels. I'll be looking for another one to read. Soon.