Details
Rent They Eat Puppies, Don't They?
Author:
Narrator: Petkoff, Robert
Format: Unabridged-CD, Paperback
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: May 2012
Genre: Fiction - Humorous
Retail Price: $29.98
Discs: 9
Synopsis
In an attempt to gain Congressional approval for a top secret weapons system, Washington lobbyist "Bird" McIntyre and sexy Neo-Con wonkette Angel Templeton start a rumor that the Chinese secret service is trying to assassinate the Dalai Lama. Their outrageous scheme provokes a series of crises involving the White House, the CIA, and a strangely sympathetic and vulnerable Chinese president, with both countries veering perilously towards war.
Buckley has drawn his most convincing and outrageous characters to date: Bird, failed novelist of amusingly awful Clancy-esque thrillers; Angel, combination Anne Coulter and Ayn Rand; Bird's demanding, equestrian wife, Myndi; Bewks, his feckless but endearing Civil War re-enactor brother; the mild-mannered Chinese President Fa and his devoted aide Gang, maneuvering desperately against sinister Politburo hard-liners Minister Lo and General Han.
Blending the skewering genius of Thank You For Smoking with Dr. Strangelove's dark comedy, THEY EAT PUPPIES DON'T THEY? has something to offend -- and amuse -- everyone.
Reviews
As I listened to Buckleys latest political/social satire it became clear that he was not happy with the disstaff side while writing this. I subsequently learned that he was in the process of getting a divorce during this time, which helps to explain why the two principal women the Ann Coulter type and the wife of the hero are both amoral, selfabsorbed, reprehensible and just plain ugly human beings. The book would have been more enjoyable for me if such unsparingly awful women were not such central characters in the story. Boomsday and Supreme Courtship were both better read and funnier. The absurd aspects of those stories were hilarious, but sitll credible, whereas the absurd solution to this books central issue is, well, absurd. Nevertheless, like all of Buckleys work, Eat Puppies has plenty of perfectly placed barbs that skewer the behavior of ideologues across the political spectrum. So if you think all women are bloodsucking jerks, you will probably enjoy this book even more than his earlier work.