How do you write funny about one of the world’s unfunniest topics, the treatment of women in Arab countries? Somehow, Christopher Buckley finds away.
Taking the day’s headlines and adding only the slightest dash of exaggeration, we are witness to the atrocities of the oil and Prince rich desert nation of “Wasabia” and its very friend-to-the-infidel neighbor of “Matar.” A CIA-led (kinda) black operation to bring about change is led by a TV producer with an eye toward a Muslim version of the Lifetime Network.
If all good comedy comes from a place of pain, there’s more than enough of it here. Imagine the wit of Buckley’s Thank You For Smoking or Little Green Men, but driven from legitimate outrage. It’s a terrific book and the spy/thriller elements aren’t so bad either.
