Rating: 
Summary: Laughed so hard I cried
Review: It's a cliché, but true! I immensely enjoyed "No Way to Treat a First Lady", and found myself chuckling almost constantly throughout, laughing out loud many times, and laughing uncontrollably on several occasions. If you read this book in public, as I did, be prepared to receive disapproving glances from others who aren't having as good a time as you are.No Way skewers the Washington political scene, the legal profession, the media, and in particular the Clinton scandals and the O.J. Simpson trial. But ultimately, like all great satire, it is really a no-holds-barred look at our current societal mores and norms. The main characters in No Way are all composites, which is how Christopher Buckley is able to construct a storyline that departs from the actual events it is satirizing, but is still fully recognizable by anyone who followed the news in the late 1990s. You'll enjoy picking out references to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Marc Rich, Alan Dershowitz, and of course Monica - plus many others. Even Nick Naylor, the hero of Buckley's "Thank You for Smoking", has a bit part in No Way. I've read most of Buckley's books, and No Way is right up there with his best. I'd put "Thank You for Smoking" first by a hair, followed by No Way, then "God is My Broker". Thank You is slightly more timeless, as No Way's humor will dissipate somewhat with time, as people's recollections of the Clinton years fade. Christopher Buckley can legitimately lay claim to being America's top working satirist. Keep them coming, Mr. Buckley, sir!
Rating:
Summary: Satire at its best
Review: Leave it to Christopher Buckley, with his loquacious sarcastic prose, to come up with a novel that is funny and filled with depravity. With the nefarious president and his saintly wife- not to mention the dumb blondes and the insidious lawyers, his latest is a delight to consume. I will reccomend it for my book club.
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: 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: 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: 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: Fun stuff
Review: See book description above. While poking fun at everything from Dan Rather to the Presidency, Buckley's satirical novel is also a good legal thriller. When I pick up a Buckley novel, I know I'm in for a treat, and this was quite the treat. I think this is his best so far. Highly recommended
Rating: 
Summary: Any first lady deserves better
Review: Technically well written. Tightly crafted sentences, good vocabulary, good grammer. I'm sorry I can't think of any more kind words. I was vastly disappointed. The characters, while easily identifiable, were card board cutouts without a whiff of the complexity of the characters they were based upon. The writing style is cynical, vulgar, crass. I love well written, compassionate, mysteries of life in Washington, the nuances of political life, and legal thrillers. I couldn't get beyond chapter two of this unfortunate parody. Which is too bad, as the basic premise is exceedingly good. In the right hands it would make a hilarious, charming, fascinating mystery.
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: 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.
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