Rating: 
Summary: It takes one to know one
Review: From the New York Daily News 2-3-2003Former White House aide Christopher Buckley is alleged to be the father of Irina Woelfle's 2-year-old, Jonathan.
Christopher Buckley, who sends up a philandering President in his new novel, "No Way to Treat a First Lady," is learning more about sex scandals - probably more than he wants. The married writer is embroiled in a paternity action with PR woman Irina Woelfle over her 2-year-old son, Jonathan. Woelfle, 40, formerly worked at Random House, which published "Thank You for Smoking," one of Buckley's five novels. Woelfle's lawyer Ed Nusbaum tells us that Buckley, the 50-year-old son of conservative pundit William F. Buckley Jr., "voluntarily agreed" to a DNA test, which established him as Jonathan's father. Buckley also took it upon himself to file suit recently in Stamford (Conn.) Superior Court. Nusbaum says that the journalist and former speechwriter to President George H.W. Bush is seeking "to establish what child support should be paid." "The amount being being paid now is inadequate," claims Nusbaum, who says that Woelfle and Buckley also disagree "over when he became aware of his paternity." Nusbaum adds that "at this juncture there has been no contact between Mr. Buckley and Jonathan - by his choice. Overtures were made by Irina, which he rejected." Buckley is also seeking to have the court file sealed and have the case labeled anonymously as "John and Jane Doe," according to Nusbaum, whose client is opposing that motion. "It's the height of hypocrisy," says Nusbaum, "that Christopher Buckley, who makes his living from his political satire - demeaning people, embarrassing people, humiliating people - now seeks to be protected... " Buckley, who has obtained a temporary seal on the file, has two children with his wife, Lucy.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: If you like satirical humor, this is a GREAT book. I could not put it down. I was laughing out loud. Everyone is a target--the legal profession, the media, and politicians in Washington.
Christopher Buckley has been called "the quintessential political novelist of our time" by Fortune and I would have to agree! I liked this book much better than "Thank You for Not Smoking."
Rating:
Summary: The World Needs More Books Like This...
Review: With all the contiually awful news -- and the very few humorous books -- isn't it refreshing to find an author who takes the dare to make us laugh? Buckley does it. Again! So why not relax and romp for a few hundred pages? Give yourself a break from the bad stuff and enjoy a mega-giggle.
Rating: 
Summary: Grab your tin pan & chisel!!
Review: I eagerly bought this novel expecting his well-worded wit to keep me laughing from beginning to end. Not so. I gave up somewhere around chapter 21. There is only so much a man can take. I now know what gold-miners went through in the 1800's! Tedious, laborious work that only produces a few nuggets. Life is too short. For example, Christopher's use of the word "delicious" to describe a scene was hilarious the first time around. The second time, the word lost its original luster. The third time, I wished he hadn't used it the first time.
Another reason I quit reading the book is that the plot is not strong enough to hold my interest without his steady dose of barbs...Buyer beware!
Rating: 
Summary: Cute, but transparent and predictable
Review: I am a true fan of Buckley's satire -- when he is at his peak. I found "Thank You for Smoking" a brilliant and savage lampoon of lobbiests. And, while not quite as sharp, I loved his skewering of political pundits in "Little Green Men". Buckley is also quite capable of depth as illustrated in both his widely differing works "Steaming to Bambooza" and "Wry Martinis". While "No Way to Treat a First Lady" is cute and prompts some belly laughs, it represents a return by Buckley to the safely mocking satire of a Washington insider and is reminiscent of his earlier "White House Mess". This novel has more bite, and is considerably more irreverent, as it is a thinly veiled satire of the Clinton Administration. Buckley is considerably more cautious, and less entertaining, when he "mocks" Republican administrations. In all fairness, however, the Clintons did provide limitless opportunities and come by ridicule honestly. Yet, Buckley was actually quite kind in his depiction of the Hillary Clinton-like protagonist. His depiction of the total absence of conscience, ethics, or morality on the part of stereotypic high priced trial lawyers is delightfully savage, if in likelihood probably depressingly true. This is a light fluffy novel perfect for a long plane ride, or for an easy read in the hot sun lying by the pool. Entertaining, but definitely not vintage Buckley.
Rating:
Summary: Another great satire
Review: This is a biting satire that lashes out at politics, the legal profession, hollywood and the media. Mr. Buckley pulls no punches and rarely disguises his targets. I have read two other Bucley novels; "Wet Work" and "The White House Mess". Both were very enjoyable, funny, stories. Mr. Buckley's novels are quick reads with memorable characters and tons of sharp witted barbs aimed at most anything you can think of. I can't wait for his next novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Christopher Buckley is operating at peak performance
Review: Pick up a paper or go online and the news is bad --- homeland insecurity, war in Iraq, corporate scandals, suburban snipers. The media landscape is similarly bleak. Movie theaters are running something called "Jackass: The Movie." Television offers has-been celebrities boxing other has-been celebrities. Americans have not had enough good reasons to laugh this year. Enter Christopher Buckley. Buckley has been thinking about first ladies for a while. Early in 2001, The Wall Street Journal published "Hillary: The Op-Ed" written by "Hillary Rodham Clinton (as told to Christopher Buckley)." In the piece, Buckley channels the former First Lady in describing the lengths to which she would go to distance herself from the taint of political scandal: "(L)et me say that I was as surprised as anyone when I was informed that I have a brother named Hugh Rodham. He does not bear much resemblance to me. While I did grow up in a household with numerous other people, I was never informed that I had brothers . . . Clearly, exhaustive DNA testing is required before a conclusive biological link can be established between me and this alarming individual." It is not inaccurate to claim that Buckley operates in a genre of satire that is all his own. His novels, set deep inside Washington's political class, are powered by Buckley's access to the kind of people who populate his novels --- politicians, big-time lawyers, media talking heads, K Street lobbyists and other folks who lord over the nation's capital. The people mentioned in the books' Acknowledgments read like a Who's Who of The Really Very Truly Important People in Charge of Serious Government-Related Things. Access to people who hold the levers of power is but one piece of Buckley's success. The bigger piece is his ability to create clever, morally challenged characters, place them in their natural professional habitat and set them loose after one another. Buckley makes serious-minded, inside-the-Beltway types funny and likeable, despite their numerous loathsome characteristics. Boyce Baylor, the big-dog criminal defense lawyer who sits at the center of NO WAY TO TREAT A FIRST LADY, is particularly loathsome. Boyce is hired by the First Lady, Beth MacMann, to defend her against the charge that she killed her husband following a presidential post-coital tryst with Hollywood star Babette Van Anka. Complicating matters is the fact that Beth and Boyce attended law school together, dated and were engaged to be married before Beth dumped him for the man who would be president. Boyce recovered to build one of the most successful criminal defense practices in the country. His flamboyance, arrogance and willingness to make silly-putty of the law would shame even O.J.'s dream team. Indeed, Boyce's hard-won nickname, "Shameless," is apt and it is with this in mind that Beth asks him to defend her. "I mean," Beth says, "the very idea of you 'normal' not being involved in this case --- they're calling it 'the Trial of the Millennium.' It doesn't make sense." "Shameless" signs on and fireworks follow. Buckley makes it hard to sympathize with either Boyce or Beth. Boyce lies, cheats on his girlfriend, colludes with sworn enemies of America, lies, enlists criminals to commit jury tampering, destroys whatever gets in his way, lies and speaks badly of his fellow lawyers. He's a pain in the butt. For her part, Beth is a Rodham Clinton variety ice queen, crazy with ambition and usually the smartest person in the room. That we care at all about such people --- and we do --- is a tribute to Buckley's breezy, high camp style and ability to write quick, snappy dialogue. The courtroom scenes, of which there are many, are strong. Boyce controls the courtroom in masterful fashion, skewering anything and anyone on his radar. These big moments are nice, but the author also has a firm grasp on the smaller ones. For example, in Buckley's hands, the mere act of sitting can be funny. A guest is invited on a Court TV-style show "to provide gravitas and to shift uneasily in his seat when the other guests said something provocative." But not all the gags work. Buckley seems to think that sidebars --- those moments in open court when the lawyers confer privately with the judge --- are funnier than they actually are. He also tries to get too much mileage out of the fact that the judge's glasses tend to fog over during times of emotional upset. Buckley re-introduces the protagonists of his last two novels. Nick Naylor, the forlorn tobacco lobbyist from THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING, re-emerges as a shaky public relations manager for Babette Van Anka, the Hollywood star with whom the President has an affair. Naylor is fun to watch here as the paid hand wringer. He is not given much to do, but fans of SMOKING will nod knowingly as he flails about in trying to keep Babette out of trouble. John Bannion, the media madman hero of Buckley's last book, LITTLE GREEN MEN, is pointlessly added to the stew. Bannion's role is smaller than Naylor's. He engages in some gratuitous rock throwing at the President, but there is no meaningful place for Bannion in NO WAY TO TREAT A FIRST LADY. Like these other novels, NO WAY TO TREAT A FIRST LADY is character-driven. Buckley surrounds Boyce and Beth with a host of supporting players, including a fetching female media celebrity, a harried prosecutor and the increasingly distraught Judge Umin. These characters are well drawn and will be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the refrain "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." Buckley adds another layer of farce by using real life media players to cover the trial. Peter Jennings, Jeffrey Toobin, Dan Rather and Barbara Walters, among others, all have cameo roles. This all adds up to a wonderfully easy read. Buckley is operating at peak performance here. With NO WAY TO TREAT A FIRST LADY, he proves again that, when it comes to skewering all things D.C., he's our roast-master general. --- Reviewed by Andrew Musicus
Rating:
Summary: A Funny Funny Book
Review: How can you laugh your way through a murder trial? Try reading "No Way to Treat a First Lady" It's a real murder mystery set in totally humorous satire. The First Lady is on trial for killing/assignating the President, her husband...who actually deserved to be murdered for slipping off the the Lincoln Bedroom for some extra inhouse entertainment. The country's First Lawyer just happens to be an old lawyer that the First Lady dumped during her college days. It's so tongue in cheek that you laugh out loud at least once during each page. This was the first of Christopher Buckley's books that I had read. I'm off to order the rest of them. It's a great day to find humor this FUNNY set in a fictional plot that is good as well.
Rating:
Summary: "Why is that fellow laughing out loud?"
Review: Union Square Park in Manhattan is s student-ish, Left Bank kind of place, but if you keep laughing out loud at a book... people look at you sideways :-0 This is NOT yet another Clinton book, if only because utter absurdity is the defamation defense. Imagine a lawyer asking Hillary, "Are you willing to swear that reasonable people would immediately say, 'That's Hillary!'if a fictional First Lady kills her husband with a spittoon?" In between belly laughs, I found myself _liking_ "Shameless" Baylor and his once and future lady love. Even a fictional, played-for-laughs death penalty got personal. But don't forget the ROFL lines, as in actress, singer and Peace Activist Babbette Van Anka's given name was Gertrude Himmelfarb.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you for laughing
Review: If you've read and enjoyed other Christopher Buckley books such as "Thank You for Smoking" and "Wry Martinis," you will probably have as good a time as I did reading his latest, "No Way to Treat a First Lady." If you haven't read those books, order them right after you order this book. Buckley has a wonderfully demented mind (and I mean that in the best possible way). It must be incredibly hard to write satire about politics these days. After all, how can you make up stuff that is more outrageous than what the real-life folks are doing? You will recognize many of the characters in this book from the Washington scene--although the names have been changed to protect the guilty--and Buckley has managed to come up with even more outrageous words and actions for them than their real-life counterparts have managed (at least so far). One caution: You may not want to read this book in public. People tend to look at you strangely when you are in a public place and chuckling and giggling to yourself.
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