Book Review: Has Anyone Seen My Toes? a novel by Christopher Buckley (2022)

The cover of Has Anyone Seen My Toes? by Christopher Buckley, 2022.

Author Christopher Buckley.

 Christopher Buckley's 20th book, Has Anyone Seen My Toes? is a humorous journey through the COVID pandemic. The book's main character is an unnamed screenwriter who lives in South Carolina. Said screenwriter is also stress-eating his way through the pandemic, aided by the gluttonous portions at the fast-food restaurant Hippo King.  

In between meals from Hippo King, our screenwriter is trying to complete a screenplay about a fictitious attempt during WWII by the Germans to kidnap FDR from Bernard Baruch's South Carolina estate. The title of the screenplay? Heimlich's Maneuver. It's always a joy to read a great writer writing deliberately terrible prose, and if that idea sounds humorous to you, then you're going to LOVE Heimlich's Maneuver.  

Our screenwriter is also obsessed with the local race for county coroner, which seems to be getting particularly heated, and may be susceptible to interference by the Russians. The Russians? Ah, yes, The Russians was a best-selling 1976 non-fiction book by New York Times reporter Hedrick Smith, covering Russian life during the Brezhnev years. You know, Hedrick Smith won 2 Pulitzer Prizes back in the 1970’s. Has any other reporter won 2 Pulitzer Prizes? I must look that up. Oh, sorry! But you see our screenwriter friend has quite a digressive mind, and he's constantly thinking of things that he must look up! As someone who spends a fair amount of time seated in front of a computer screen, banging away at my latest masterpiece, I can identify with these digressive distractions. 

There’s a brief mention of South Carolina’s Senator Squigg Lee Biskitt, a character first introduced in Buckley’s 2020 satire Make Russia Great Again. Senator Biskitt is a Republican who was vociferously against the candidacy of Donald Trump, but once Trump was elected, quickly became one of his chief myrmidons in the Senate. Is Senator Biskitt based upon a real person? It seems doubtful. How could anyone be so unprincipled?  

In Christopher Buckley’s best satires, there are larger issues and ideas that animate his plots and characters. Has Anyone Seen My Toes? is satire on a smaller scale. The screenwriter is stuck in his own mind throughout the book. This is one of the shortcomings of the novel, but at the same time, it means that the book is truly reflective of the pandemic. It’s possible that future readers may regard Has Anyone Seen My Toes? as one of the comedic novels that best demonstrates what it was like to be alive during 2020 and 2021.