No Way to Treat a First Lady

Rating:
Summary: Like Wandering Through a Spinning Propeller
Review: Christopher Buckley has written fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, and dozens of articles for prominent publications. I have enjoyed his work, but this, "No Way To Treat A First Lady", is absolutely the best piece of writing he has done. In satirical pieces he has written in the past there was often spirited debate about just who was being put through the meat grinder, not so this time. Often real names are used with only the last named thinly disguised, and as a rule if a person is mentioned they are generally next in line for being flayed. There are times a writer is said to have a metaphorical rapier like wit; Buckley uses a rapier but his drips blood.

There are times when he simply has a bit of fun when giving the First Lady the moniker of Lady Bethmac. However most of the time he is out to score and for that I applaud him. He describes one attorney who you will immediately recognize as having been part of a certain dream team for a Heisman trophy winner. He describes the attorney as not being satisfied with acquitting a multiple murderer, but needing to stand in front of the press while blood still drips from his client's shoes.

Buckley was clearly incensed by the events in Brentwood and the farce that followed in both the criminal and civil courts. Where else but in America can you be found not guilty and walk free, and then be found responsible for the same crime. The latter is still not really an issue for one need only relocate to a friendly state like Florida, which in addition to being a state that is unable to successfully conduct an election for dogcatcher also welcomes certain dregs of society and happily protects their assets.

Great satire is hilarious, exceptional satire is also about and contains a great deal of serious thought on the people and subjects it touches and then shreds. This is a very amusing book to read, but when also acknowledged for the social commentary it contains, the book is elevated well above a humorous read.

Buckley the elder is an established man who has earned a place in the pantheon of great writers, thinkers, and modern persons that have earned the respect to be as skilled in a variety of disciplines as to have renaissance used to describe their talents. Christopher, or Buckley the younger, did not fall far from the paternal tree. He did land in soil more acidic and perhaps more accessible to readers than his father. In any event we are fortunate to have another Buckley that will continue to offer a unique view on life.

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: Very, very funny!
Review: Christopher Buckley is best known as a Washington satirist, but you don't have to live anywhere near the DC Beltway to love this book. In fact, you don't even have to be very interested in politics. He's written the best possible send up of the celebrity trial and celebrity culture -- the courtroom scenes will have you laughing out loud. He's a deft and brilliant observer of the foibles and follies of human nature and he's just so damn funny to boot. We are very lucky to have Christopher Buckley!

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: 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: 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: It takes one to know one
Review: From the New York Daily News 2-3-2003

Former 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: 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: What happened to Christopher Buckley?
Review: I am a big fan of Christopher Buckley -- an avid reader of his short pieces in The New Yorker and Forbes FYI and I loved his Thank You For Smoking (which remains one of the funniest books out there and which everyone should read) -- but all I can say about this book is BLECH!!! STAY AWAY. Buckley takes a great premise with tons of comic potential and beats it to death again and again. I don't know why he feels compelled to write novels when he is such a master of the short comic piece but he just can't sustain the effort required for a book. This book begins on an incredibly vulgar note (which amazon wisely chose NOT to excerpt -- good for them) and just goes downhill from there. Buckley seems to be desperately flailing around for a subject and just hurling potshots at everyone in sight -- and the actual resolution is obvious to anyone who read the first chapter (and believe me, that ice water image will be scarred into you for life if you do). It's clear this book is an attempt to further embarrass the Clintons -- which would be FINE if the book were, in the end, any good at all. It's not. It's reaaaaaaally not. Instead it's just a bad vulgar novel trying to piggyback on the Monica scandals and thinking it is much smarter and wittier than it is. Better luck next time -- and alas, there will probably be a next time.

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.