false 5 0 true false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 17:00:38 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 16:28:04 -0800 2008 Fight Club, Thank You For Smoking (TYFS) was one of the very few books I've picked up after seeing the movie adaption first. And like Fight Club, TYFS was one the very few where I think the movie was better.

They made some interesting adaptions for the big screen. For one, Aaron Eckhart's "Nick Naylor" is a very different creature from the novel's. Whereas Buckley's protagonist is a morally compromised figure peddling a product he inwardly believes to be evil, Eckhart effuses with boyish enthusiasm that there's no such thing as evil at all. Which makes the movie Naylor a more interesting character, superficially lighter but spiritually darker. (I cannot wait to see Eckhart's Two-Face in the new Batman movie.) The movie's jettisoning of Naylor's dominatrix girlfriend from the plot in favor of a wholly new bit exploring Nick's role as a father also worked, although it left the film without a real denouement, a sin atoned for in one brilliant line of unrepentant kicker dialogue about cellphones.

So why, after two grafs extolling the movie as the superior version, do I give the book five stars? Simply, this book is jam-packed with lulz. Buckley is a genuinely gifted comic writer with a very incisive take at life at the politics/journalist/lobbyist Washington DC conflux. TYFS is not a timeless classic speaking to universal human truths, the book is about America during the Bush/Clinton bi-dynasty and it's dead-on. A highly enjoyable breezy read, even if you've seen the movie and already know half of the best lines. Recommended.]]>