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A review by jephapha
Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley
3.0
Perhaps I'm too naive to be able to fully appreciate this book, perhaps my sense of humor isn't as sophisticated as Buckley's intended audience, perhaps I need to experience the intricacies of Washington and the political sphere to understand the underlying motivations of this book and its characters, or perhaps this book is just overly pretentious and just mediocre at what it attempts to do.
I did find it fascinating that the book really does have the reader cheering for a pro-smoking spokesman for Big Tobacco. But that doesn't mean the book was good. The relationships between the main character Nick and his coworkers, friends, and industry peers, not to mention the media and the public, interfere with the plot and development overall. I spent more time playing the "who's who" game than I did enjoying the cat and mouse that is public relations for an outdated despicable industry of tobacco.
Unnecessary plot lines and pretentious characters and language made the book drab and annoying. I like books that make you have to think a little, but this book didn't even do that with its characters, nuance, language, or plot. That all came together to create this world that you already need to know about in order to appreciate, and the book comes across as irritating and full of itself.
And yet, in the end it was enjoyable to an extent, though I wouldn't recommend it. Nick's character is sarcastic and smart and clever which I loved, and even though you hate him, you want him to succeed and that was what carried me to the end of the book.
I did find it fascinating that the book really does have the reader cheering for a pro-smoking spokesman for Big Tobacco. But that doesn't mean the book was good. The relationships between the main character Nick and his coworkers, friends, and industry peers, not to mention the media and the public, interfere with the plot and development overall. I spent more time playing the "who's who" game than I did enjoying the cat and mouse that is public relations for an outdated despicable industry of tobacco.
Unnecessary plot lines and pretentious characters and language made the book drab and annoying. I like books that make you have to think a little, but this book didn't even do that with its characters, nuance, language, or plot. That all came together to create this world that you already need to know about in order to appreciate, and the book comes across as irritating and full of itself.
And yet, in the end it was enjoyable to an extent, though I wouldn't recommend it. Nick's character is sarcastic and smart and clever which I loved, and even though you hate him, you want him to succeed and that was what carried me to the end of the book.