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Published Sep 2022
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From the bestselling author of Thank You for Smoking and Make Russia Great Again comes a comic tour de force, the story of one man's spiraling journey through lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, an aging screenwriter is holed up in a coastal South Carolina town with his beloved second wife, Peaches. He's been binge-eating for a year and developed a notable rapport with the local fast-food chain Hippo King. He struggles to work—on a ludicrous screenplay about a Nazi attempt to kidnap FDR and, naturally, an article for Etymology Today on English words of Carthaginian origin. He's told Peaches so often about the origins of the world mayonnaise that she's developed an aversion to using the condiment. He thinks he has Covid. His wife thinks he is losing his mind. In short, your typical pandemic worries. Things were going from bad to worse even before his doctor suggested a battery of brain tests. He knows what that means: dementia!
But even in these scary times, there are plenty of things to distract him. His iPhone is fat-shaming him. He's been trying to read Proust and thinks the French novelist missed his true calling as a parfumier. And he's discovered nefarious Russian influence on the local coroner's race. Why is Putin so keen to control who decides who died peacefully and who by foul play in Pimento County? Could it be the local military base?
Has Anyone Seen My Toes? is a hilarious romp through a time that has been anything but funny.
"This is Buckley at his comic, mischievous best...Buckley delights in exploring the intersections of plausible and absurd as they arise in an off-kilter mind that resembles the author's for all its allusive gymnastics and silliness." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This is one of Buckley's funniest books—there's a big laugh on nearly every page, often more than one—and, perhaps unexpectedly, it's also one of his most compassionate. A delight, with bite." - Booklist (starred review)
"A laugh-out-loud take on the writerly life." - Publishers Weekly
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Christopher Buckley is a novelist, essayist, humorist, critic, magazine editor and memoirist. His books have been translated into sixteen foreign languages. He worked as a merchant seaman and White House speechwriter. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and has lectured in over 70 cities around the world. He was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence.
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