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[bedsitter23]

They Eat Puppies, Don't They? by Christopher Buckley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Here’s something that makes little sense. This book came out in 2012 and I was such a huge Buckley fan that I didn’t read it.

This was probably the height of Buckley’s career and my fandom. I was devouring his books. A film based on his book “Thank You for Smoking” had been made a few years earlier. He was on The Daily Show and other media outlets and talks were that his other novels would soon be adapted to film.

You also have to know a little bit about me in 2012. I would tune in religiously to C-Span’s weekend programming “Book TV”. While it still continues today, I think this was also probably the time frame it had been the most successful. That meant I was watching as many authors and historians talk as my schedule would allow.

It was then that Buckley released “They Eat Puppies, Don’t They” and every press stop he would make, he would read a bit from his book and of course, I tuned in.

So I decided it probably made sense to take a pause so I would forget some of the spoilers. Oh boy, I didn’t mean for it to be this long.

TEPDY somewhat suffers in that Buckley skewering politics in the Obama years, doesn’t take into account how surreal politics would become. There is no way he could have anticipated the Gulf of America, the proposed banning of TikTok or the deployment of the National Guard on American cities.

Truth is not just stranger than fiction, it’s no longer in the same league. That said, the general conceit of this book (let’s find a country to start a war with) was done before and much funnier in the Michael Moore film “Canadian Bacon”.

I also don’t think it’s outrageous to say it’s not his best work. Buckley had just ripped a succession of four novels in the decade prior. This book just didn’t quite deliver as consistently and was not as laugh out loud funny.

That said, it was a fairly quick read with some decent moments and snappy dialogue. Maybe there wasn’t enough material there like he thought there was, or maybe satire is becoming obsolete in this day of outrageousness



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