Wet Work

by Christopher Buckley

The drug-overdose death of his beloved only granddaughter leads businessman Charlie Becker on a dangerous quest in search of the individual responsible, a search that propels him into the vicious drug culture and White House inner circles

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Thriller, Satire

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 1991

About the author

Christopher Buckley graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1976. He shipped out in the Merchant Marine and at age 24 became managing editor of Esquire magazine. At age 29, he became chief speechwriter to the Vice President of the United States, George H.W. Bush. Since 1989 he has been founder and editor-in-chief of Forbes Life magazine.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

He is the author of twelve books, most of them national bestsellers. They include: The White House Mess, Wet Work, Thank You For Smoking, God Is My Broker, Little Green Men, No Way To Treat a First Lady, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday and Supreme Courtship.

Mr. Buckley has contributed over 60 comic essays to The New Yorker magazine. His journalism, satire and criticism has been widely published—in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Washington Monthly, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Esquire, and other publications. He is the recipient of the 2002 Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. In 2004 he was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

“What a country, America. A lunatic asylum, without enough attendants or tranquilizers.”

Wet Work - Christopher Buckley's international thriller about an American billionaire turned obsessive maniac. Where are the attendants and tranquilizers when they're needed most?

The author told an interviewer writing Wet Work was "the worst writing experience of my life. The words flowed like glue. I rewrote it five times. I don't know why it was so hard -- maybe because I don't read thrillers."

I suspect Christopher Buckley’s difficulty also arose from the fact that Wet Work is a novel of obsession. Recognizing the two master storytellers spinning tales of obsession, Ernesto Sabato and Tommaso Landolfi, were reclusive misanthropes spitting their venom as they wrote fiction at the opposite end of the literary spectrum from Mr. Buckley’s other novels, his difficulty is most understandable.

But I'm glad he persevered. Wet Work is a cracking good novel that continues to speak to us today.

The tale is framed thusly: superrich Charley Becker lost his wife to illness and his son to drunk driving. His heart now belongs to Natasha, his one and only grandchild. Charley doted on and hovered over Natasha all through her childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

However, forever wishing to strike out on her own, Natasha chooses to live in a ramshackle apartment in a seedy Lower East Side neighborhood and pursues her acting career. Her latest role on stage proves a disaster - the city’s leading theater critic writes a scalding review of Natasha’s performance.

Poor Natasha; she's so, so upset. Director Tim comes over to her apartment, insists she improves her acting (she plays a cocaine addict) by experiencing firsthand what it’s like to be high on cocaine. Natasha initially refuses (she’s never taken drugs) but, for the sake of theater, snorts a line of South America’s finest. Within minutes, Natasha is dead.

Tim panics, leaves, and afterwards concocts an alibi, says he was at a nightclub with Ramírez at the time Natasha took cocaine. Tim forces Ramírez to go along with his alibi since that “Puerto Rican piece of shit” sold the cocaine to him in the first place.

Charley Becker’s grief runneth over. But not long thereafter, Charley’s anguish and sorrow transform into anger and a thirst for revenge. Charley knows many people throughout the government, military, and, in this case, police force, and when Charley finds out Tim’s alibi contains flaws and he and his team can piece together the truth, sayonara Tim. Likewise Ramirez and his Hispanic buddies who deal drugs.

But then Charley Becker goes further, much further, his inner heart of darkness takes over - revenge turns into unflinching obsession. Charley the billionaire intends to employ the full force of his wealth and connections to hunt out everyone along the cocaine trail, everyone he deems responsible for the tragic death of dear Natasha, everyone from street dealers and middlemen in New York and Miami right down to the growers, producers and ultimate drug lord in Peru, hunt them out and sentence them all, every single one, to on-the-spot execution.

What an adventure, one that takes Charley and crew, armed to the teeth on his yacht, up the Amazon. Incidentally, the novel's title refers to killing so close up the killer gets wet with the victim's blood. "I killed them close up, with my own forty-five," Charley tells a priest, "Close enough to get wet. Wet work, that's what they call it. It's an actual term."

So much action, so many killings. Here are several Wet Work callouts:

Backstory - We learn Charley was an orphan subject to physical and emotional abuse, an orphan raised by Catholic nuns in the Southwest. Each chapter offers another facet of the billionaire's background and character. In this way, Christopher Buckley presents a well-rounded protagonist, a crusty, callous gent, for sure.

Multiple Narratives - The story pops back and forth between Charley's chase and police and military chasing Charley, one Charley chaster being Senior Agent Frank Diatri of New York City Drug Enforcement. Go get 'em, Frank.

Familiar Names - Charley's hired hit-men are Bundy, Rostow and McNamara, names from the Nixon years. Also, that theater critic is E. Fremont-Carter, so close to Eliot Fremont-Smith, a one-time tough as nails leading New York Times book reviewer.

Sophomoric Sycophants - "This is Sensitive City, here, John. I don't think it's going to do us any good if, if, you know, here we are doing the war on drugs and cashiering out front-line soldiers." The dialogue of American officials is a hoot. Roger Ramjet cartoons, anyone?

Details, Details, Details - Turning the pages, we learn much about things like weapons, the military, cocaine production, art, government bureaucracy and various forms of life along the Amazon River.

Showdown - Face to face with Charley, drug lord El Niño talks with pride about his taking revenge on the US by flooding the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country with cocaine. “An amoeba that gives you diarrhea is nothing next to an alkaloid that makes people kill themselves and each other for it.” Sounds like highly educated El Niño has internalized Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Seen through the lens of the many tragedies in the US wrought by cocaine coupled with mass exploitation, mass destruction and mass murder committed throughout all of Latin America, Wet Work makes for one grim, unnerving story.

Salsa Satire Seasoning - Keep in mind, we're talking humorist Christopher Buckley here. Through all the tracking and shootings, be prepared to laugh out loud on nearly every page. Here's a batch of samples to serve as a taste test:

“The ascots tied around the necks were wrong, somehow, like silk scarves on pit bulls.”

“I spoke to his ex-wife, the most recent one. He’s got four. She told me he’s a mercenary and he kills people and doesn’t report the income.”

“Suckled by a sow, now there’s man who’s starting from scratch.”

“And there’s, you know, a lot of people are going to be cheering him on. The Rich Man’s Bernhard Goetz.”

“Somewhere in the jungle they were wearing cashmere blazers and ascots and whatever else rich people wear. Bermuda shorts? That would be a sight, Diatri thought, natives sitting around the fire arguing over how to make a really dry martini.”

Takeaway Message - In his New York Times review back in 1990 when the novel was first published, Andrew L. Yarrow wrote, "Simply put, not enough is at stake. One wishes that Mr. Buckley had aimed more clearly at his true target, the recesses of venality and the corruption of the American soul." I completely disagree with Mr. Yarrow. Casting the spotlight on the cartoonish, bullheaded mindset of Americans along with an entire American society that has turned its back on the wisdom traditions, Greek philosophy comes immediately to mind, Wet Work hits the bullseye.
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*Note - The quote at the beginning of my review is taken from Christopher Buckley's novel, Boomsday


American author Christopher Buckley, born 1952

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turns out Buckley can ably handle genres other than his trademark satire. Admittedly, though, snark plays a pretty solid role in this "thriller" (as it's billed).

Wet Work is a bloody, tongue-often-firmly-in-cheek revenge story. Many of the characters are just as over the top as any of my Buckley faves. The bad guys are sympathetic, the good guys (aka the government) are bumbling and the action never stops.

Fun, quick read.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christopher Buckley’s third book was the 1991 novel Wet Work. Buckley’s first book was the 1982 non-fiction book Steaming to Bamboola, the chronicle of an Atlantic crossing by a cargo ship, and his second was the 1986 political satire The White House Mess, so it was anyone’s guess what form and subject matter a third Buckley book would cover. I’m not sure that anyone could have predicted Wet Work, the tale of a septuagenarian billionaire who takes murderous revenge on drug dealers after his granddaughter fatally overdoses.

Wet Work is an odd mixture, as it combines dark humor with the relentless action of a thriller. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it funny enough or thrilling enough to be an effective combination. Part of the problem for me was the premise. I felt empathy for Charley’s grief over losing his granddaughter, but I wasn’t fully on board with his plan for murderous revenge.

There are portions of Wet Work that are great fun, as when the climactic chase cleverly keeps switching points of view between the drug lord and Charley. There’s also a dollop of art history that adds a tasty flavor to the novel. Buckley aficionados should take note when one of the characters says, “Industry is the enemy of melancholy.” Charley asks, “Is that Shakespeare?” Nope, it’s one of the favorite sayings of William F. Buckley.

Christopher Buckley had a difficult time writing Wet Work. In an email, he wrote “I worked harder on that damn book than on any other. 33 months, total.” Wet Work received some very positive reviews, and one fan of the book was Buckley’s good friend Christopher Hitchens. It’s a quirky book, but not without its merits.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Buckley is best known as the author of bestselling political satire such as Thank You for Smoking and They Eat Puppies, Don't They? But he has written a great deal else. He coauthored God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (1998), which is satire but nonpolitical. He also wrote two travelogues, a play, and four other books. One was a memoir of his famous father and mother, Losing Mum and Pup (2009). Another was a curious novel about cocaine entitled Wet Work that appeared in 1991.

In Wet Work, Buckley displays considerable knowledge of fine art and artists. He writes in great detail about weapons and other military matters, the business of cocaine production, and the nature of bureaucratic maneuvering at the highest level in the United States government. Presumably, the latter is the only subject with which he became familiar at first-hand (when he served as chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush in the 1980s). There is no record of his ever having become involved either in the military or in producing and selling cocaine.

In some ways, Wet Work is satirical. The dialogue among White House, Pentagon, Homeland Security, and Justice Department officials is hilarious. And Buckley shows off his special talent for naming characters in ways that are bound to produce laughter. Three thugs are named MacNamara, Bundy, and Rostow. (Alert for those too young to recognize these names: all three were high-level officials in John F. Kennedy's Administration.) Hired killers Bundy and Rostow spend much of their time discussing what they read in the magazines they seem always to carry with them: Architectural Digest and House and Garden. But Wet Work is, nonetheless, a grim and unsettling story.

Charley Buckley is a billionaire weapons dealer who is known in the United States as the respectable CEO of a major Pentagon contractor. He is a widower, and his son has died driving while drunk. When the granddaughter he is raising also dies, Charley goes unhinged. He's convinced that Natasha did not voluntarily take the cocaine that killed her. Now, his life is dedicated to finding and murdering everyone and anyone who played a part in her death. Enter MacNamara, Bundy, and Rostow. Together with Charley's bodyguard and friend, Felix, they set out to avenge Natasha. The story shifts from suburban Virginia, to New York, to Washington DC, and to the Peruvian Amazon. It's a cockamamie tale, of course. But it hardly offers wall-to-wall laughter like so many of the author's other novels.

[MacK · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was surprised to find the emotionality train being driven so recklessly by another of my favorite authors: Christopher Buckley. A sharp-witted satirist, Buckley has a score of books that skewer political hot potatoes [health policy in Thank You For Smoking, social security in Boomsday, the mid-east in Florence of Arabia]. Each book has chortle worthy moments and a combative core that forces your intellect to challenge preconceived notions.

So when I spotted one of his earliest novels, Wet Work, I picked it up hoping for a similar treatment of drug policy, or military interventionism. Instead it reads as pure revenge fantasy, where a wealthy grandfather hunts down the dealers, distributors and kingpins behind his granddaughter's overdose.

Her senseless death, and his violent despair are meant to affect our emotions. But punching at the same spot in your gut for page after page and chapter after chapter just leaves a reader numb, disengaged and distant. Buckley gets closer to that nougat-y comic core when he shows an incompetent bureaucratized-military response team. But he refuses to give any of those characters names, so their dialogue is almost incomprehensible and their chapters are mostly distractions from the plot.

I can't begrudge a book that takes on a gritty emotional exploration of a family's response to drug use. But I will say that the immersion in emotion can be jarring if your expectations or experiences are different from what the author presents.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading several of Buckley’s political satires, this one came as a bit of a surprise. It’s the story of a self-made billionaire whose smotheringly protective love for his granddaughter, a budding stage actress, can’t save her from a cocaine overdose. Knowing she wasn’t a drug user, he sees past the “evidence” and goes on a crusade of revenge, mowing down the entire chain of those who supplied the cocaine. A subplot with a DEA agent melds nicely with the main story. Towards the end of the book, we get a taste of the Buckley political wit seen in his other books, as he gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of several politically powerful men gutlessly discussing how to best avoid embarrassment as the billionaire’s personal war on drugs escalates. Uniquely Buckley: a thriller that still has some laughs in it.

[Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not equal to any of his other books I've read. This is a violent mystery without the strength of a Matt Helm. In places it is funny because Buckley has an unfailing eye and an excellent ear for idiocy, and the bureaucracy put in place by the Great Communicator to deal with our war on drugs is nothing if not funny. Buckley obviously feels that drugs are a problem. Like Twain, another satirist who lost his sense of humor, Buckley creates a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with his main character Charlie Becker. He is a sympathetic character, but he ultimately destroys more than he preserves as Buckley points out. The book isn't any more cathartic than the Twain novel. Its end is sickening. I would not read the book again.

[DWGibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw Christopher Buckley interviewed on TV. Very amused and amusing man. Son of Buckley Jr. Wet work is a term used by gangsters for up close and personal hits, presumably referring to the resulting spatter. Hence the title.

Extravagantly wealthy man loses his beloved granddaughter to an overdose of cocaine. Decides to liquidate those key individuals who were responsible and works his way up the food chain to the top dealer. Final showdown takes place near the source of the Amazon River.

Off-handed casual violence is tempered with sardonic humor and wit.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like his father, William F. Buckley, this author is so gifted that he couldn't really write a bad book, but this just doesn't have the wit and verve of his more successful political satires.

The senior Buckley wrote clever and engrossing spy novels inspired by his own experience in the CIA. Wet Work suffers in comparison to those, as well as the younger Buckley's other work. In fairness, if this book was written by someone else I probably would have given it another star, but I expect so much of Christopher Buckley that I was disappointed in this particular novel.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckley writes more than his fantastic satire. This fiction is very good. About a man who spends his fortune to track down the 'murderers' of his only granddaughter--killed by drug use. I thought it a great read.(and see my review of Maximilian and Juarez).

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting revenge book. A bit of Tom Clancy with a sense of humor (and some of Buckley's satire on DC, which is always good).

And interesting to have a book in which you couldn't really say there's a good guy.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this guy's work.

I really thought this was going to be a slow moving book. and it was only in the beginning.. and then it all came together amazingly. the last 200 pages, I couldn't put it down. loved loved loved this book! :)

[Madam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good early novel, Buckley combines action with his trademark humor. His ability to capture speech -- especially the cadence of his former employer, the first President Bush -- brings light wit to an otherwise dark and disturbing premise.

[Joe Faust · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thriller that comes off the rails at the end.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best. I prefer when he writes more about the government. But still a great book.

[Amy W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank You For Smoking is one of my favorite books. And I loved No Way to Treat a First Lady. This was not like either of those. Great premise, shocking violence, cartoonish but shocking, and some very funny parts. My biggest problem with the book, other than the violence, was that is was too difficult to keep track of the many characters. Much of the book was dialog that you were dropped into without a lot a clarity as to who was speaking. Quite frustrating.

2.5 stars. I'm very glad this wasn't the first Christopher Buckley book I read, as I would have missed his later books that I really liked.

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mid. So much of the story was not needed. Especially the whole backstory on Nino and how he's so knowledgeable about fine art. To the point that he makes his life harder. Extensive story line and far fetched ideas for no reason. Had a ton of faith in the book after the first half. The second half went downhill very quickly.

[Sully Augustine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars out of 5 - I read a hardback of this from the library over the past few evenings. It held my interest and yielded a few laugh out loud moments in the beginning, but it's not one of Buckley's best. The last third of it was mostly slapdash.

[Cathie Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

J didn't find the book very interesting. The first chapter had me, and the following chapters lost me. Because I didn't find it interesting, I had a hard time reading it. But this doesn't mean it's not a good book. It just didn't interest me.

[Claudia Sorsby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thriller Buckley, without the comedy.

A couple of lines were so creepy, they've stayed with me for years, though I wish they wouldn't.

[Sandi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have absolutely no idea why some of these conversations and dream sequences took place.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crime caper! Violent, bloody, totally unrealistic. And very very funny.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buckley has packed in some wild passages full of art, weapons, interesting tidbits of fact, but, in the end, I just couldn’t care about all the gonzo happenings.

[Jim Eddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot was really hard to follow. I loved reading Mr. Buckley's dialogue, though.

[Walter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Buckley writes books that are either brilliant or bad. This one belongs to the later category.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The other Buckley books I read were satire and this was a comedic thriller that felt more like something Doanld E. Westlake would have written. It's a decent story, just not what I want from Buckley.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Wet Work" is an early book of Christopher Buckley's, and it shows. It is also very hard to find, and so I am assuming it is out of print. The novel is entertaining, at times, but it is not as gripping as some other Buckley books I have read. It is also about 30 pages too long. Frankly, it is a story I could have walked away from and felt no remorse.
"Wet Work" is essentially a revenge fest in the vein of Shakespeare's early play "Titus Andronicus", and like that early work of the Bard it suffers from weak characterization with a protagonist who is a mash up of Charles Bronson, and every revenge film you have ever seen. There is really no depth to the story, which hinders it because you are supposed to believe that the protagonist is taking his revenge on the drug cartels due to his overwhelming love for his granddaughter. I was not too bothered by this, but if you are expecting more than a surface level text you will be disappointed by this book.
To its credit the novel moves quickly (mostly) and is a very easy read. Buckley does shift point of view often and it sometimes results in temporary confusion because the transitions in the text are choppy and don't flow.
Yet, "Wet Work" is a nice summer read. However, it does lack the wit and comedy of Buckley's more recent output. This text is not a humorous satire and seems out of character when compared with what later became Christopher Buckley's trademark style. That huge difference can be jarring for regular readers of his novels. Be warned.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of Buckley's earlier works, and frankly it shows. He has yet to develop that wonderfully smart-ass Washington-insider voice that makes his later books such a delight. Basically, this is young Buckley trying to write a Carl Hiassen novel - drugs, violence, mayhem, slightly less than intelligent agents working at hilarious cross-purposes. It's entertaining, but slightly rancid popcorn.

The plot is wonderfully baroque, in a fashion that suggests his future success in much-better novels like THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and THE WHITE HOUSE MESS. Here, a vengeful billionaire sets out to make everyone pay for the cocaine overdose of his beloved if dim-witted granddaughter. This vengeance reaches all the way up the drug distribution ladder, to the growers and suppliers in the remote Amazon jungle. This mission of no mercy takes our avenging angel on a fairly labored trek from the East Village to the world's most perilous waters. But it lacks the buoyant humor that is a trademark of Buckley's more mature novels.

[Molly Elder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because my husband brought this one home from the library and the title sounded uninviting, I was reluctant to pick it up. Once I did, however, it was very difficult to put down. The plot is interesting with many twists and turns, and the good guys are sometimes the bad guys and visa-verse.
Also, the ending is a really great touch.
One thing that I liked most about this novel is the reality that it exposed about the United States managing its image at the cost of real moral resolve. Also, the book shows personal transformation and the ultimate grey line between good and evil: the shadow-self. Very well done, I highly recommend this book.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book at all. It was so different from the other books I have read by Buckley. I was hoping to laugh my way through, as I usually do when reading his books, but this one was so dark. At times I couldn't believe it was written by the same guy. It was more of a spy/action book than a comedic take on a real life issue, which is what I was expecting. I don't think I would recommend this to someone who enjoys Buckley's other works.