What: In the novel Thank You for Smoking, author Christopher Buckley sends up the tobacco industry. Big Tobacco comes personified in the form of Nick Naylor, our smarmy antihero. The book was published in 1994, but it was ten years before it became a movie.
It's a bit alarming that they didn't have to change much to keep it relevant. Luckily, the satire is funny enough to keep you from succumbing to despair over the fact that we need a satire for this sort of thing in the first place.
Comparable to: A handsome, smooth-talking, sell-anything-to-anyone antihero with questionable motives and morals? It might ring some Mad Men bells for you.
Representative quote: "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."
You might not like it if: It comes across as trite and/or glib to you.
How to get it: It is in print and also Kindle-able. Also, after you read the book, I recommend seeing the 2005 movie adaptation, if for no other reason than Rob Lowe's brief but memorable performance (which, in retrospect, really seems like an audition piece for his role on Parks and Recreation).
Comparable to: A handsome, smooth-talking, sell-anything-to-anyone antihero with questionable motives and morals? It might ring some Mad Men bells for you.
Representative quote: "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."
You might not like it if: It comes across as trite and/or glib to you.
How to get it: It is in print and also Kindle-able. Also, after you read the book, I recommend seeing the 2005 movie adaptation, if for no other reason than Rob Lowe's brief but memorable performance (which, in retrospect, really seems like an audition piece for his role on Parks and Recreation).
[Originally posted 3/27/11.]
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