On the HahaFiction shelf
Florence of Arabia
State Department official Florence turns to television after a friend suffers at the hands of the royal family of Wasabia. A covert mission sends her to neighboring Matar to make programs that encourage women to challenge the rules imposed on them.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Her weapon: TV shows.”Read the full description at Penguin Random House publisher description
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What makes it funny?
TV Matar’s proposed schedule includes a soap opera whose royals look suspiciously familiar and a sitcom about bumbling religious police. Kirkus also singles out Buckley’s steady supply of puns and his willingness to make a joke about camel gas.
The comedy at work
Buckley treats daytime television and sitcoms as tools of international intervention. The US officials running the operation face ridicule alongside the rulers and religious authorities Florence wants to undermine.
Try this if…
A choice for readers interested in political satire about diplomacy and the media, with broad wordplay and bodily jokes.
Good to know
The comedy accompanies executions, deadly bombings and threats against the television staff. Religion, patriarchal rule and American intervention are central satirical targets.
A few distinguishing details
- Television as a covert political weapon
- A soap opera aimed at a royal family
More funny spy & espionage
Sources & further reading
- Kirkus review
Review
- Publisher
Publisher
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