Rating:  Summary: Carpal Tongue Syndrome Review: Christopher Buckley's wry, witty way with words is evident in this legal farce about a Dead President and his wife, accused of his assassination, who bear a (Revere spittoon) striking resemblance to recent residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Indeed, many of the characters here could be caricatures of real "celebrities" and denizens of CourtTV. Coincidence that this book does not have the preface frequently found in fictional works to the effect that "Any similarities between characters herein to real people, living or dead, is unintentional and purely coincidental?" Nah ;-)Here we have singer/actress/activist Babette Van Anka boffing the President in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House. Greta Van Botox, "pixel pundit" and "JJ Bronco" attorney alumni Alan Crudman commenting on the circus - er "Trial of the Millenium" - and a previous incident where a furious First Lady hurls a desklamp at her philandering presidential spouse - causing stitch-requiring injury - about which the press secretary covers that he "swallowed a pretzel and passed out and hit his chin on the way down, nearly killing the dog." This is not The Great American Novel, nor is it meant to be an educational treatise on courtroom Criminal Procedure - the order of direct and cross-examination of the various participants is all out of whack - but it is a fun satirical whack at the current State of Legal Affairs in America. Reviewed by TundraVision.
Rating:  Summary: Good read - thats all. Review: I have a general formula for awarding stars. Four for a good read that I would definitely recommned to others if asked. Five stars for those that make me want to grab people in the streets and say to them, "Read this, or you will be missing something in your life!" Two stars for those books I only read ten pages and find reason and excuses not to read further. One star for books that I read two pages and throw away. I give this book 3 stars, I read it even liked it in places but that is all. I would not recommend it to anyone else. Even while enjoying it, I kept thinking this is a waste of time. But then I enjoyed "Thank you for smoking" so very much and by reading this book feel that I am just paying my respects to the author who is capable of better.
Rating:  Summary: A delightful satire Review: A book that skewers lawyers, the media culture and the Washington power-elite. A delightful satire and fun read.
Rating:  Summary: very funny and way too close to the truth book!! Review: This book is a great and funny novel and most definitlely going to be brushed aside by the media. It is too good to miss no matter how you feel about the Clintons!!
Rating:  Summary: Razor sharp wit Review: Despite dumping her fiancee for a Georgetown hunk who wanted to be President, riding roughshod on the White House staff, occasionally throwing things at her philandering husband and harboring serious political ambitions of her own, Elizabeth Tyler MacMann is a delightful, likeable character. So is her former fiancee and big-time lawyer Boyce "Shameless" Baylor who is defending her of charges she "assassinated" her husband with a Paul Revere spittoon. The other stereotypical defense guru Alan Crudman and assorted thinly veiled media-type characters are right-on. Yes, reality is off the table, so don't get hung up on the conduct of the trial, Beth's sudden decision to testify, the subsequent reversal of fortunes and the fact that both sides are continually calling on the testimony of the other side's witnesses. Enjoy how Buckley uses this preposterous backdrop to weave in a laugh out loud sequence of events lampooning just about everything inside the Beltway. In desperation "Shameless" pulls out all stops to get his client now lover off, and Felicio the Peruvian terrorist and Wiley P. Sinclair a widely despised Chinese spy on the run come in to set the stage for the finale. Logical? No way, but a whale of a lot of fun.
Rating:  Summary: About As Funny As It Gets! Review: My suspicion is that those who did not like this book are admirers of our 42nd President and that the underlying conduct of the First Lady's husband is a bit too Clintonian for them. Too bad, because this book takes on Washington political types, celebrity lawyers, the press, the fickle American public, and "trials of the century" and in the process spins as good a piece of satirical humor as I have read in some time. Trust me, it is a book you will look forward to reading and hate putting down. Go for it.
Rating:  Summary: No way to treat your intelligent audience Review: Big disappointment. It reads as if the author, having gotten this great IDEA for a novel--and it IS a great idea--spent a few days jotting it down and sold it. If the plot were brilliant, you might forgive the implausible characters. If the characterizations were illuminating, you might forgive the implausible plot. If the prose were fantastically witty you might forgive everything. But *No Way* falls short by every measure. I picked it up because Buckley's essays in *Wry Martinis* are funny and smart. Wish I'd stuck to his essays.
Rating:  Summary: Laugh Out Loud Funny Review: Buckley does it again! What a funny book. He artfully skewers lawyers, politicians, and the media. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:  Summary: No Way to Treat a Reader Review: Vulgar-filled story about a First Lady accused of assassinating her adulterous husband. Totally filled with morally repugnant characters that are extremely two-dimensional. The author is defined as a "political humorist", but there is very little humor in this effort.
Rating:  Summary: I'm Not Quite Sure Why I Enjoyed This Book Review: I have greatly enjoyed Christopher Buckley's books, particularly God Is My Broker, which I consider his best. This book did not have the same lethal wit. The humor seemed downright subdued, so I'm not really quite sure why I enjoyed the book. I am an attorney, and there was something very true-to-life about the book's details---minutely scrutinizing the jury's reactions, making the events fit into a predetermined theory, the legal plotting and strategy. Plus, every time you think you know what is going to happen, the author throws in a 180 degree plot turn. It made the book very hard to put down, if not a little annoying. Overall, it was amusing, but light-weight reading, better than the works of many authors, but not his best.
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