Rating: 
Summary: If You Can't Indict the Clintons, Make Fun of Them
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: 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: 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: Fast and fun
Review: The ridiculous spectacle of the "trial-of-the-millennium" is not far from today's reality. Its easy to be jaded these days, so it's quite refreshing to step back and laugh a bit. Laugh-out-loud funny and a fast read.
Rating:
Summary: Another funny book by Buckley
Review: Buckley has written seven or eight books at this point, and this is the fourth I've read by him, and it's also a very funny book. Sometimes an author can produce a winning book by combining two equally wayward ideas, even if they've been done separately before, and that's what Buckley has done here. It's sort of like what was done with the book and subsequently for the movie, "The English Patient," which was sort of a combination of "The Elephant Man" and "Lawrence of Arabia," although that was obviously a serious story and Buckley's book is satire. However, this wacky union of circumstances works well and as a result Buckley has written another very funny book. The book is obviously inspired by the combination of the Clinton Presidency, with its sex scandals, and the O.J. Simpson "Trial of the Century." The president dies under suspicious circumstances, and the President's wife get arrested, presumably for finally murdering him for his infidelities. The book mostly deals with the legal antics involved in the "Trial of Millenium," as the country's greatest, not to mention the most shameless and flamboyant, attorney, pulls out every trick in the book to try to get the first lady off--in more ways than one. Buckley builds the courtroom and outside-the-courtroom dramas up to a very funny and satisfying climax. I think Buckley is the funniest observer and writer I've seen yet on the Washington political scene. If you liked his Little Green Men and Thank You for Smoking, two of the funniest books I've read in the humour and satire genre, you'll like this book too, and I'd actually give it 4.5 stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing Novel Where Nothing is Sacred
Review: No Way to Treat a First Lady is an amusing novel where nothing is sacred. Christopher Buckley tears apart lawyers, the media (and particularly, lawyers who manipulate the media), politicians, you name it, he's ridiculing it. It's a funny novel that avoids any ounce of meanspiritedness. The novel concerns the events that follow the sudden death of the president. His wife is accused of murder and she turns to her ex-fiance who just so happens to be among the top trial lawyers and publicity seekers in the country. What follows is a media circus of a trial--ridiculousness that you could almost see happening (but hopefully never will). This is a funny, almost silly novel that does not take itself, nor its subjects, too seriously, which, in this instance, is a good thing. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Good plot outline, poorly executed
Review: The plot outline is good, but it's poorly executed.
Once the author thinks he has a funny idea, he repeats it several times since we weren't bright enough to get it the first time.
The trial is out of order -- Buckley has the prosecution and defense call witnesses almost in random order. Judges would not need to recuse themselves because they were appointed by the victim's predecessor. The Perry Mason TV series didn't have "trials," but preliminary hearings.
The characters are largely one-dimensional, and the writing style is a bit silly.
These might be overlooked, but in his Acknowledgements, Buckley claims he had the help of several "distinguished attorneys," plus "a peerless editor," and "the keen eyes of Gregory Zorthian and William F. Buckley Jr.," AND a relentless and superb fact checker. In other words, Christopher Buckley had to work fairly hard to produce the merely-mediocre execution of what could have been a good book.
Rating:
Summary: political satire at its funniest
Review: Political Satire is always a difficult genre to shine in. Too often have I found myself in the midst of a medicre, boring plot. Not so with "No Way to Treat a First Lady". The combination Political Satire/Thriller is not only laugh out loud funny, but goes far deeper than what's on the page. Buckley exploits our deep-seated cynicism for today's political leaders with a character base that is at once seriously funny and strangely familiar-- from the lecherous president to the assertive first lady (dubbed Lady Bethmac), to the lovably seedy lawyer, Boyce Baylor. Not only is this novel funny, but engaging; once started, it is difficult to put down. I found myself eager to find out--- was she *really* guilty of murder? To give away anymore would be to spoil a brilliant book.
Rating: 
Summary: Strained, Not Funny
Review: I love funny books. I enjoy satire. What a disappointment this one is. The author really tries but consistently misses. Add to that, there is not one sympathetic character in it. Even a little sympathetic. I wanted to laugh, but the laughs were not there.
Rating:
Summary: "about the author"
Review: Book is often "laugh-out-loud" funny, which I have come to expect from Christopher Buckley. I don't know whether he or the publisher (Random House) is responsible for the back flap information "About the Author" but I suspect Random House and Christopher Buckley would like to get that column changed in view of the recent space shuttle disaster. It is just too joker for it's own good.
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