Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Funny Book
Review: Whether you love the Clintons or hate them you have to admit, they provide some great material for novelists, especially for writers like Christopher Buckley who specialize in political farce. In "No Way to Treat a First Lady" Buckley uses some of the more sensational Clinton outrages to create a hilarious murder mystery and political lampoon that skewers politicians, lawyers, reporters, the O.J. trial, the Hollywood Left and even the Virginia State Police, just to name a few.The decedent is no less a personage than the president himself, who dies in his sleep after being cold-cocked by a flying spittoon thrown by his wife after he returned from a midnight tryst in the Lincoln Bedroom with an amorous movie star. Sound familiar? Even if you don't subscribe to The American Spectator you might notice a few similarities to the Clintons. The first lady's name is Beth MacMann, called "Lady Bethmac" by the press, get it? There is at least one significant difference--this president was a Vietnam War hero. The first lady is arrested for murder and the ensuing trial becomes a screwball comedy worthy of Frank Capra. I laughed out loud several times while reading this book. The following excerpt may or may not be funny depending on your sense of humor, but when President Farkley was "deploring racial profiling" because "former secretary of state Colin Powell had again been pulled over by a Virginia State Trooper and spread-eagled across the hood of his car," I laughed till I cried. Buckley has a field day with character names that are parodies of real persons, like Alan Crudmann, famous defense lawyer of the "J.J. Bronco" trial, and Damon Blowwell, the president's political director. There are many more that will be instantly recognized and some, like Dan Rather, whom Buckley doesn't bother to disguise. The mechanics of this novel may be problematic for literary purists; in some segments it reads more like a screenplay than a literary work, and it lacks precision in the timeline and some of the medical details. But remember, it's a screwball comedy. It is also comedy with a right jab instead of a left hook. Conservatives get a little tired of being the butt of all the political jokes on TV sitcoms. Here, Buckley has fun with the icons of the left, and unless you're a seriously uptight liberal who is offended by the obvious references to the Clintons and their apologists, you should have great fun reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: You read this book, and you keep waiting for it to get better. Not that it is bad, it is just not what his other books are - captivating. There are good parts to this book and some funny awkward moments, but it is almost like the book is trying to hard to be something that it is not - sharp satire. I know Buckley tries to be over the top but this time he was just, well.... over.
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