Shambling Towards Hiroshima

Shambling Towards Hiroshima is a book by James Morrow that is a parody/Homage/Deconstruction of Kaiju films (especially Godzilla), old B-movies and the Nuclear Bomb.

The basic premise is that a B-movie actor named Syms Thorley is writing what is either a suicide note or a memoir in Reagan-era Baltimore. In it he reveals the truth behind "Project Knickerbocker", the Navy's plan to end WWII in the Pacific by breeding giant fire-breathing reptiles and unleashing them upon Japan. Not wanting to use such a horrible weapon that would kill so many civilians, it was decided to do a "demonstration" by having a smaller, man-sized monsters ruin a model city in front of a Japanese delegation. Only problem: the man-sized reptiles are docile, so a man in a rubber suit is needed. That man is Syms Thorley. Shambling Towards Hiroshima is his story.


 * Crowning Moment of Funny: "Of course they breathe fire. Why do you think they cost millions of dollars of taxpayer money?"
 * Whole-Episode Flashback: 90% of the book is flashback or comments on the events in those flashbacks.
 * Kaiju Defense Force: "Gorgantis" destroys small plastic models of it.
 * Fictional Media: Most (but not all) of the films referenced in the book.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Okay, some were.
 * Genre Savvy: Thorley.