On the HahaFiction shelf

Thank You for Smoking

Nick Naylor earns his living making cigarette companies sound reasonable on television. It's a useful skill at the Academy of Tobacco Studies, until his professional success attracts anti-tobacco militants and the FBI.

Contemporary & literary Workplace comedy Dark comedy Satire

From the publisher’s blurb

“Nobody blows smoke like Nick Naylor.”

Read the full description at Penguin Random House publisher description

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What makes it funny?

At Nick's office, the boss gives the spokespeople a generous allowance to dress better for the cameras. Half of them return to their desks and discover they've been fired.

The comedy at work

Nick treats defending tobacco as a job with the usual worries about bills and children. His closest friends speak for the alcohol and firearms industries. Their lunches give Buckley a way to let professional justifications pile up around the table.

Try this if…

For readers who like quick political satire about selling an argument. Kirkus praised the pace while finding the characters stereotyped, so the appeal lies chiefly in the exchanges and public-relations maneuvers.

Good to know

Smoking-related illness and a kidnapping involving nicotine patches figure in the story. Its jokes take on the harms of the tobacco business as well as the behavior of its opponents.