Did you ever read the plot of a book that sounded utterly wacky and wonder how someone could possibly have come up with such a zany plot? And then had the nerve to commit the story to paper? Here’s one for your amusement and amazement: They Eat Puppies, Don’t They? by Christopher Buckley, the same guy who brought us Thank You for Smoking.

Who’d have thought that anyone could take America’s astronomical financial debt to China, the devastating situation in Tibet, and threats to a beloved, world-renowned spiritual leader — and give the whole shebang a funny spin?

Check out this plot: “Bird,” the main character is a lobbyist for a aerospace giant. When its latest creation, a super-lethal drone nicknamed “Dumbo,” is deep-sixed by the Senate, Bird’s employer orders him to stir up American fears about China so that his company can get funding for another project.

In his efforts to put the “the ‘Red’ back in Red China”, Bird creates a bogus foundation and finds himself tangling with a gorgeous super-conservative media star named Angel Templeton who runs the Institute for Continuing Conflict (now there’s a meaty moniker!) Angel goes barb for barb with Winnie Chang, a spy for China who heads up the U.S.-China Co-dependency Council (just love this!)

Sparks fly between Bird and Angel, which is a problem, since Bird is married to a young athlete trying out for the Olympics who’s friends with a hedge-fund billionaire whose private jet equipped with a horse stable has just been featured in Plutocrat magazine (I’m sure this will be launching shortly!) You get the picture. Could anyone make all this up? Well guess what,someone did! And it sounds pretty entertaining: Fruit-cakey but funny.