No Way to Treat a First Lady

Rating:
Summary: Good, Entertaining Read
Review: "No Way to Treat a First Lady" is an amusing read for the few hours it will take you to finish it. This isn't literary fiction; you won't receive any interesting revelations about life and love.
The heroine, Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, is accused of killing her husband, Kenneth Kemble MacMann, war hero and President of the United States. Boyce "Shameless" Baylor is her lawyer and jilted fiancé-she left him twenty-five years ago for the man who would become president. There are plenty of characters, including the actress/mistress/singer/Middle East peace advocate, a renegade spy, and underworld gangsters.
Buckley pokes fun of the media, the government, the legal system, and the entertainment industry. With a few clever witticisms and improbable twists, the novel makes its way through the "Trial of the Millennium" until the all the plot threads tie up neatly in the end.
I'd recommend "No Way to Treat a First Lady" for a few hours entertainment and not much else.

Rating:
Summary: Like a warm shower
Review: Author Christopher Buckley, whose razor wit somehow transformed a spokesman for the tobacco industry a sympathetic protagonist in Thank You For Smoking, sets his sites on the alleged assassination of the president in No Way To Treat A First Lady. What's next? A comedic treatment of domestic abuse or drug addiction?

Whatever it is, based on the two efforts of Mr. Buckley I have read so far, it is bound to be an entertaining and intelligent. This time around, Mr. Buckely sets up fictional circumstances that hilariously skewer the scandals surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Cochran and OJ Simpson, Marc Rich, Monica Lewinsky, and the American legal system. Don't be surprised to find yourself laughing, loudly and often.

A friend of mine calls this kind of book a "warm shower" -- it's nice when you're in it, he says, but the good feeling doesn't last long once you step out onto the bathmat. It's a characterization I can't deny, but I'll say that this warm shower is better than most. It won't force you to ask yourself important questions, and it won't affect the way you see the world. But as an easy-to-read story that manages to keep the pages turning without insulting anyone's intelligence, it's hard to beat.

Rating:
Summary: Hang the First Lady
Review: Christopher Buckley has produced another comic masterpiece, this time placing the Washington culture, lawyer-dom, TV talking heads, and Clintonesque vices squarely in his cross-hairs. Christopher Buckley seems to get no press or respect, but he has snuck up on us, nearly unannounced as the best satirist of this generation. Take this one to the beach and laugh out loud.

A sitting President wakes up dead one spring morning after a late night romp with an actress turned Middle East peace advocate, and a resulting bump on the head by a suspicious and very upset wife. Although the evidence seems weak initially, the Attorney General elects to prosecute the First Lady for murder. She brings in a $1000 per hour litigator, who also happens to be an ex-boyfriend from law school. Turns out the First Lady dumped the attorney for a war hero law student, who later becomes the philandering Commander in Chief. Clearly, this is not based on the Clintons as Clinton was never a war hero, more like the opposite, and it is hard to imagine Hillary having multiple male suiters. Then things get really crazy, with renewed romances and unexpected consequences, charges of jury tampering, false evidence, and defendants determined to not only testify when it seems un-neccesary and risky, but to represent themselves. When you think you have it figured out, here come the international financiers immersed in deals with the Chinese, civil war between the FBI and the CIA, and shadowy fugitive ex-agents with stories of espionage to tell that make Watergate look truly irrelevant.

Rating:
Summary: Funny blend of satire, mystery and legal thriller
Review: Christopher Buckley is a satirist/comic so this book, his ninth, is 5 parts satire, 1 part who-dun-it mystery, and 1 part legal thriller, with the latter two parts clear exaggerations of the genre.

The story revolves around the death of President MacMann, a former war hero now turned womanizer. MacMann is found dead in bed next to his wife with an imprint of "REVERE" on his forehead from a nearby Paul Revere spitoon. The previous night he had a romantic tryst with Babette Van Atta, a Hollywood starlet staying in the nearby Lincoln bedroom. Foul play is suspected and Elizabeth Tyler MacMann is arrested and earns the tabloid name "Lady Bethmac". MacMann hires Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, a defense attorney notorius for courtroom antics which succeed in getting scoundrel clients off. Baylor and McMann were once engaged in law school and the engagement was broken when Beth married war hero McMann. During their many planning meetings, Beth and Baylor renew their romance which also complicates the proceedings.

This hilarious plot lampoons Bill and Hillary Clinton, trial lawyers a la OJ Simpson trial, media, tabloids, the Washington, D.C. establishment and many others. You will be laughing at the court antics and the mystery is solved in a very funny way.

If you enjoy satire and political humor this is the book for you!!

Rating:
Summary: Slick, But Satisfying
Review: Christopher Buckley slakes a reader's thirst for a juicy satirical legal thriller in _No Way to Treat a First Lady_. Set in a familiar Washington D.C. atmosphere of politics and sexuality, this is the story of a First Lady accused of assassinating the President of the United States of America in a marital dispute.

Beth MacMann (or "Lady BethMac" as the press has dubbed her) has called on Boyce Baylor, a defense lawyer as famous for his outrageous antics in the courtroom as he is for winning cases. He, however, just may lose this one to get even with Beth, who dumped him way-back-when in law school to marry the Man Who Would Be President. Rounding out the cast of characters is Babette Van Anka, famous actress/singer and Presidential consort, who was one of the last people to see him alive.

Buckley has written a fast-paced novel which sends up both the media and the courtroom in this circus of a trial. Though thinly-veiled references to real personalities seem a little mean spirited (e.g., "Greta Van Botox," a cable news personality), for the most part Buckley sticks to satirizing the institutions and societal values which make such a mockery of justice. Suspenseful, funny and truly an entertaining book.

Rating:
Summary: Good Airplane Reading (but keep expectations low)
Review: I bought this book based on the enthusiastic reviews on Amazon as well as the intriguing and tremendous satiric potential offered by its premise. I was disappointed. While often entertaining and readable, this was by no means a spectacular, well-plotted, or thought provoking book. The characters are one dimensional (when they do attempt to evolve into two dimensions the resulting actions are completely implausible). A lot of it is predictable (former lovers.. hm - what will happen next?). Buckley also uses the words "objection" and "sustained" or "overruled" so many times I simply lost interest. There are countless courtroom scenes, but the real plot is pretty much contained in the last 20 pages. There is a difference between satire and simple cynicism - Buckley is definitely more the smart aleck kid criticizing and picking at the obvious targets (from starlets to various governmental agenices). The only enjoyable passages involved the self-absorbed Babette van Anka, another stereotype but so caught up in her own odd universe that she is the only character worth remembering from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good Airplane Reading (but keep expectations low)
Review: I bought this book based on the enthusiastic reviews on Amazon as well as the intriguing and tremendous satiric potential offered by its premise. I was disappointed. While often entertaining and readable, this was by no means a spectacular, well-plotted, or thought provoking book. The characters are one dimensional (when they do attempt to evolve into two dimensions the resulting actions are completely implausible). A lot of it is predictable (former lovers.. hm - what will happen next?). Buckley also uses the words "objection" and "sustained" or "overruled" so many times I simply lost interest. There are countless courtroom scenes, but the real plot is pretty much contained in the last 20 pages. There is a difference between satire and simple cynicism - Buckley is definitely more the smart aleck kid criticizing and picking at the obvious targets (from starlets to various governmental agenices). The only enjoyable passages involved the self-absorbed Babette van Anka, another stereotype but so caught up in her own odd universe that she is the only character worth remembering from this book.

Rating:
Summary: LOL Audio Book
Review: I recently laughed my way through the CD audio book edition of Buckley's roman a clef (more like a Roman toga party a clef) while driving some of the most stupefyingly dull stretches of the New York State Thruway. It preserved my sanity, kept me awake and in a keen state of anticipation for the next sharply goofy plot turn. Kudos to Tim Matheson for a fine telling of the story. His voice, intonation and strategic pauses were right on the money. A cautionary note: don't play this story when your kids are within earshot unless you like to feel embarrassed.

Rating:
Summary: Laughed so hard I cried
Review: It's a cliché, but true! I immensely enjoyed "No Way to Treat a First Lady", and found myself chuckling almost constantly throughout, laughing out loud many times, and laughing uncontrollably on several occasions. If you read this book in public, as I did, be prepared to receive disapproving glances from others who aren't having as good a time as you are.

No Way skewers the Washington political scene, the legal profession, the media, and in particular the Clinton scandals and the O.J. Simpson trial. But ultimately, like all great satire, it is really a no-holds-barred look at our current societal mores and norms.

The main characters in No Way are all composites, which is how Christopher Buckley is able to construct a storyline that departs from the actual events it is satirizing, but is still fully recognizable by anyone who followed the news in the late 1990s. You'll enjoy picking out references to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Marc Rich, Alan Dershowitz, and of course Monica - plus many others. Even Nick Naylor, the hero of Buckley's "Thank You for Smoking", has a bit part in No Way.

I've read most of Buckley's books, and No Way is right up there with his best. I'd put "Thank You for Smoking" first by a hair, followed by No Way, then "God is My Broker". Thank You is slightly more timeless, as No Way's humor will dissipate somewhat with time, as people's recollections of the Clinton years fade.

Christopher Buckley can legitimately lay claim to being America's top working satirist. Keep them coming, Mr. Buckley, sir!

Rating:
Summary: Political Satire at It's Best!
Review: This book is so entertaining you will swear you're watching your favorite comedy show on TV. Buckley is one of the best political novelists of our generation. This story is brilliantly plotted, and the characters will remind you in a positive way perhaps of former White House residents. You know who I mean!

First Lady, Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, is charged with killing her philandering husband after he is found dead one night in bed. It so happens that earlier that evening he had spent time in bed with his mistress, Babette. After a bedroom spat, the first lady allegedly hurled a spittoon at him, with tragic results, or were they? Elizabeth (Beth) is put on trial for assassinating the president. Beth hires "Shameless" Baylor as her lawyer, who also had a steamy relationship with the first lady in the past. As the story twists and turns it gets funnier and more entertaining than one could ever imagine. What's to become of the First Lady? Is she really the killer or has she been set-up?

This is first-rate humor from an author who knows how to entertain his readers and keep them begging for more. What will he write next? I'm sure we will be surprised and again delighted. Enjoy this creative novel.

Joe Hanssen