Nick Naylor likes his job. In the neo-puritanical nineties, it's a challenge to defend the rights of smokers and a privilege to promote their liber...
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Mar 18, 2009
Natalie
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Funny little biting political satire on the nonsense that goes on in Washington (and Hollywood, to a lesser extent); the money that changes hands, the souls that are sold, the amoral deals that are made, the shrieking hysterical harpies on each side of a divisive issue (smoking, in this case) that are convinced they just want what's best for the American public.
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Jun 03, 2011
Rebecca
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I saw the film in the theatre in the spring and really liked it a lot, so of course, I picked up the book. It was smartly written and had the same tone as the film, which is always great. The movie dealt more with Nick and his family, especially his son, while in the book, they where in it for like one, maybe two chapters, out of thirty. they hardly made a dent. He dealt more in the book with his job as a spokes person for a pro-tobacco company and his relationship in the MOD (Merchants of Death
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Feb 19, 2011
Leah
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This was a rip-roaring good read. I haven't had as many good laughs reading a book in ages. On that note, I suggest to everyone that you avoid reading this in public. I was reading this a few minutes before my Chinese literature class started, and chortled at a particular paragraph, which got me the famous line I never thought I'd hear outside of elementary school: "Care to share what's so funny with the rest of the class, Leah?"
This time though, I got lucky. I made my professor More...
This time though, I got lucky. I made my professor More...
Nov 07, 2010
Book Concierge
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A political satire skewering the tobacco, alcohol and gun lobbyists, the media, and the politicians who all have a role in public policy regarding these “legal vices.”
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a organization funded entirely by the big tobacco producers. As such, he is frequently vilified, and the target of threats. His boss, BR, and his chief rival at the Academy, Jeanette (who happens to be the boss’s “main squeeze”) seem to be trying to More...
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a organization funded entirely by the big tobacco producers. As such, he is frequently vilified, and the target of threats. His boss, BR, and his chief rival at the Academy, Jeanette (who happens to be the boss’s “main squeeze”) seem to be trying to More...
Sep 07, 2010
MacK
rated it:
As I continue my long strange voyage through Chris Buckley's assembled work, I was surprised at how underwhelmed I was by Thank You for Smoking. Perhaps it steams from the fact that I watched the Jason Reitman film first, or from the fact that I've become used to his more mature style. Whatever the case, while I read, and chuckled and enjoyed Thank You for Smoking this might well be the first Buckley book I feel no temptation to read again.
With a plot that scatters like buckshot and a More...
With a plot that scatters like buckshot and a More...
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Nov 04, 2009
Barky
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Corporate spokesperson for the tobacco industry has the unenviable job of having to promote smoking while denying that it has any detrimental effects on people's health. He's about to lose his job to a more attractive candidate when his appearance on Oprah turns everything around. Suddenly he's hot stuff, he's made smoking look cool again, and he's receiving death threats.
Premise was rather amusing, execution was ok. I became disenchanted, however...and probably at a turning poi More...
Premise was rather amusing, execution was ok. I became disenchanted, however...and probably at a turning poi More...
Sep 06, 2011
Beth
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This was a fun read that went very quickly. Buckley's humor is subtle, depending on things like the names of characters and organizations. But he also has a sense for the absurd; part of what makes the situations his main character finds himself in is the fact that you can picture them actually happening, goofy as they are.
The book is about a major spokesperson for the tobacco lobby named Nick Naylor. He and his friends (Billy Jay, spokesperson for the gun lobby, and Polly, spokespe More...
The book is about a major spokesperson for the tobacco lobby named Nick Naylor. He and his friends (Billy Jay, spokesperson for the gun lobby, and Polly, spokespe More...
Oct 03, 2010
Teresa
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As chief spokesman for the Academy for Tobacco Studies, Nick Naylor pays his mortgage by trying to convince the world that tobacco is not damaging to your health. Christopher Buckley s 1994 novel about Nick is outrageous from beginning to end. There s almost no tactic that Nick and his cohorts won t stoop to. If you ve ever wondered if those talking heads on Larry King and the like can be trusted, this book will do nothing to inspire confidence. [return][return]For me, the book was at its be
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Jul 31, 2011
Spencer
rated it:
Thank You For Writing, Chris Buckley
This book is a must read for anyone who likes witty humor or political satires. Christopher Buckley comes from a conservative political background (his dad being William F. Buckley), and it shows in his writing. I liked how he uses the tobacco lobby as a metaphor for all corporations in Washington D.C. His characters and dialogue are genuine and keep the reader's attention. I was eager to turn all 277 pages.
The protagonist, Nick Naylor, More...
This book is a must read for anyone who likes witty humor or political satires. Christopher Buckley comes from a conservative political background (his dad being William F. Buckley), and it shows in his writing. I liked how he uses the tobacco lobby as a metaphor for all corporations in Washington D.C. His characters and dialogue are genuine and keep the reader's attention. I was eager to turn all 277 pages.
The protagonist, Nick Naylor, More...
Aug 06, 2011
Nikole
rated it:
Nick Naylor is a spin doctor. His forte? The tobacco industry. Naylor’sjob is to keep people smoking, and hopefully gain a few new customers along the way.
In this entertaining, and extremely addictive novel, Christopher Buckleyshows us the live of Nick Naylor as he gains power working for the leading tobacco company in the US. His job is to convince the public that contrary to what they are being shown again and again, smoking isn’t bad for you. As the novel progresses, Naylor’s job, a More...
In this entertaining, and extremely addictive novel, Christopher Buckleyshows us the live of Nick Naylor as he gains power working for the leading tobacco company in the US. His job is to convince the public that contrary to what they are being shown again and again, smoking isn’t bad for you. As the novel progresses, Naylor’s job, a More...
Jun 17, 2009
Sidna
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Buckley has a very dry sense of humor. A good example is the name of the main character, Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for the tabacco industry. "Nick" for nicotine and "Naylor" for coffin nails. a euphemism for cigarettes. The other lobbyists featured in the book are for alcohol and guns (firearms). The three main lobbyists in the book are anti-ATF.
To me, Nick is a modern-day Scrooge. Not many people remember that at the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is said to kee More...
To me, Nick is a modern-day Scrooge. Not many people remember that at the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is said to kee More...
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Aug 19, 2010
Melissa
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Sep 14, 2011
Veronica
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After having read his autobiographical book on the passing of his parents ("Losing Mum and Pup"), I really wanted to read Buckley's fictional work as well.
This fictional tale about the tobacco lobbyist's PR guy in Washington and his efforts to promote smoking rings true. Of course, the lobby has a great name (The "Academy of Health Studies") and they spend most of their time sowing distrust in the medical and scientific studies that show smoking to kill nearly half More...
This fictional tale about the tobacco lobbyist's PR guy in Washington and his efforts to promote smoking rings true. Of course, the lobby has a great name (The "Academy of Health Studies") and they spend most of their time sowing distrust in the medical and scientific studies that show smoking to kill nearly half More...
Dec 01, 2008
Claudia
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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 Ishmae
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Jun 26, 2010
Travis
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As you may recall, one of my 2009 reading goals is to get to some of the books that have been the basis for some of my favorite films. Thank You for Smoking was adapted and directed by Jason Reitman in 2004, and quickly became one of my top twenty favorite films of all time thanks largely to the sardonic humor and Aaron Eckhart's irresistibly charming portrayal of lead character Nick Naylor. It's always difficult coming to a written work after seeing the film version of it, because of two things
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Nov 18, 2011
Lindsay
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I saw the movie for this first...which I normally refuse to do. But the book was definately better.
I really enjoyed this book (I knew I would because the movie was great too!).
The characters are witty and hilarious.
We read about a Nick Naylor chief lobbyist at the Academy of Tobacco Studies in Washington. He makes his money by lying to America about tobacco. Nick gives several interviews about how smoking is NOT harmful. As mush as you know he is a liar and BSer, you like h More...
I really enjoyed this book (I knew I would because the movie was great too!).
The characters are witty and hilarious.
We read about a Nick Naylor chief lobbyist at the Academy of Tobacco Studies in Washington. He makes his money by lying to America about tobacco. Nick gives several interviews about how smoking is NOT harmful. As mush as you know he is a liar and BSer, you like h More...
Jan 30, 2011
Karyl
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Nick Naylor is the spokesman for the tobacco lobby in Washington. He's got his work cut out for him, as so many people die of lung cancer, caused by smoking, each year. Each time he's asked about the scores of people dropping dead of cancer, he insists that the science tying the cancer to smoking is tenuous at best. Even though you realize that Naylor is pretty much a schmuck, as evidenced not only by his choice of career but also that he's a divorced man who hops from bed to bed, you end up
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Mar 13, 2011
Bonnie
rated it:
In a word: underwhelming. It was funny, but it felt like sit-com funny when you know exactly what the jokes will be about as soon as i.e.) Jerry Seinfeld gets to the dentist/buys an old car/gets a new girlfriend. In fact, in the end I thought that Buckley left good material out and missed a few potential jabs. All in all it was unsatisfying. I only laughed out loud once (and I was alone, driving up to DC, so I had ample opportunity to snort/laugh obnoxiously). I loved Boomsday and I hoped this w
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Apr 30, 2011
Angela
rated it: 
I loveed this book!! It was hilarious and so fun to read!! I couldn't stop reading it, I finished it in a couple of days! It shows you the point of view of the tobacco industry from the "evil" tobacco man himself, the man who makes a living from telling people cigarettes are not bad for you. Even though he may be a "bad" person, I feel for his character and actually kinda like him because he just seems like a funny, charming guy but he just happens to have a "bad" j
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Oct 05, 2009
Cassy
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 19, 2009
Freda
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The movie of this book... is possibly the worst I've seen of a movie from a book... The movie totally butchered the story altogether... they skipped Jeanette all together and the kidnapping wasn't even a main part... If you haven't watched the movie, read the book first. If you have, you should still read the book cause it's awesome and very different then the movie, it's almost like they're two separate stories altogether. The ending of this book though, was HORRIBLE. He attempted to wrap every
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Jan 16, 2010
Rich
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A corporate spokesman for the tabacco industry has the job of promoting somoking. Which as you can tell by context is extremly dificult. His main internal conflict is that he might loss his job.His main external conflict trying to dying the efect smoking has on ones healt.
While reading this book i made a text-to-self connection. Based on how my dad use to smoke cigirats. It took him a very long time to stop. So he stil smokes cigars.
While reading this book Gave it fou More...
While reading this book i made a text-to-self connection. Based on how my dad use to smoke cigirats. It took him a very long time to stop. So he stil smokes cigars.
While reading this book Gave it fou More...
Mar 01, 2009
Mark
rated it:
Christopher Buckley does a good job keeping the reader interested, using quite a bit of dry humor mixed with seemingly true (but sad) "facts" about smoking and the power of marketing. I do not read so many novels, and perhaps this is why when I do they seem like easy reads. This one is no different. Easy, interesting, but a bit disappointing in the end. Buckley seems to stumble over the "mystery-intrigue" part of the novel. The humor makes up for it, however. Want a qui
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Nov 28, 2011
Guy
rated it:
There was something about the style of writing that made this more like an outline with the blank parts colored in than a naturally evolving narrative. The story is told in third person limited style, making the inclusion of a couple of redundancies in the novel obvious errors on the part of the author/editor. Those errors increase that experience of being told a story by someone who considers themselves witty, as opposed to reading a witty story.
There are the obligatory, tired, cut-an More...
There are the obligatory, tired, cut-an More...
Feb 05, 2011
Artha
rated it:
Novel ini menawarkan sisi pekerjaan yang unik. Pekerjaan seorang juru bicara asosiasi tembakau. pekerjaan yang membuat nick dibenci lebih dari setengah penduduk amerika. Namun nick merasa dirinya mampu di bidang ini, nick yakin pada dirinya sendiri. Meskipun pekerjaan ini membuat dia dibenci semua orang [di luar perusahaan tembakau:]
Novel ini juga membuat saya kagum akan setiap "balasan balik" nick untuk pembelaan mereka terhadap tembakau. Raja ngeles sejati dia ni.... buku More...
Novel ini juga membuat saya kagum akan setiap "balasan balik" nick untuk pembelaan mereka terhadap tembakau. Raja ngeles sejati dia ni.... buku More...
Jun 14, 2009
Jared
rated it:
It was so absurd that it was hilarious. The author is great at exaggerating the politics surrounding the tobacco companies. The main character spends his career trying make people believe that smoking is not bad for you by making false statements, trying to get Hollywood to get people to smoke in movies and paying off victims of lung cancer to keep their mouths shut. He is also very charismatic while he is doing all of these things so I could not help but really like him. It's funny and ridiculo
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Dec 13, 2009
Stacy
rated it:
Christopher Buckley is my new favorite author (even though this is the first of his books that I've read). The characters were so nuanced they practically leaped off the page.
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco in the 90s, and he is a brilliant spin doctor. He is the guy whom you see on talk shows that makes you want to throw things at the TV. Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth (gems such as "There is no scientific proof that cigarettes are bad More...
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco in the 90s, and he is a brilliant spin doctor. He is the guy whom you see on talk shows that makes you want to throw things at the TV. Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth (gems such as "There is no scientific proof that cigarettes are bad More...
Jan 05, 2009
Read the STOP SMILING interview with Thank You For Smoking author Christopher Buckley:
HUMOR IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
By Chris Haskell
(This interview originally appeared in the STOP SMILING DC ISSUE)
There are many ways of defining Christopher Buckley. He is the son of William F. Buckley Jr., the late host of Firing Line and the so-called father of modern conservatism. He is a novelist, a political satirist concocting outlandish, though eerily real st More...
HUMOR IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
By Chris Haskell
(This interview originally appeared in the STOP SMILING DC ISSUE)
There are many ways of defining Christopher Buckley. He is the son of William F. Buckley Jr., the late host of Firing Line and the so-called father of modern conservatism. He is a novelist, a political satirist concocting outlandish, though eerily real st More...
Aug 08, 2008
Mel
rated it:
Christopher Buckley’s book Thank you For Smoking is a satirical jab at the nation’s smoking industry. Buckley also makes bold and unflattering statements about office politics, journalism, and the Washington machine that we call our government. No one is spared.
The book differs in many aspects from the film – including the very different ending; however both work have merit. Both demand of the viewer/reader some critical thinking about the world in which we live and how much we part More...
Oct 15, 2008
Kerry
rated it:
Epping genius. If I didn't have a soul or some sense of morals (waiiit a minute...I don't!) then I'd probably be very good at such a job as well. If only I didn't hate smoking so much, it might be feasible with how smarmy and wily I am.
Ok, I should really stop complimenting myself so much, I'm going to get an ego. All I'm saying is I'm pretty good at polishing a turd. Thus why I've made it my life's work. =)
The book is incredibly witty and facinating. I mean really, yes, More...
Ok, I should really stop complimenting myself so much, I'm going to get an ego. All I'm saying is I'm pretty good at polishing a turd. Thus why I've made it my life's work. =)
The book is incredibly witty and facinating. I mean really, yes, More...
