Customer Reviews

No Way to Treat a First Lady

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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!

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!!

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.

Author Christopher Buckley, whose razor wit somehow transformed a spokesman for the tobacco industry a sympathetic protagonist in Thank You For Smoking, sets his sites on the alleged assassination of the president in No Way To Treat A First Lady. What's next? A comedic treatment of domestic abuse or drug addiction?

Whatever it is, based on the two efforts of Mr. Buckley I have read so far, it is bound to be an entertaining and intelligent. This time around, Mr. Buckely sets up fictional circumstances that hilariously skewer the scandals surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Cochran and OJ Simpson, Marc Rich, Monica Lewinsky, and the American legal system. Don't be surprised to find yourself laughing, loudly and often.

A friend of mine calls this kind of book a "warm shower" -- it's nice when you're in it, he says, but the good feeling doesn't last long once you step out onto the bathmat. It's a characterization I can't deny, but I'll say that this warm shower is better than most. It won't force you to ask yourself important questions, and it won't affect the way you see the world. But as an easy-to-read story that manages to keep the pages turning without insulting anyone's intelligence, it's hard to beat.

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.

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.

Buckley does it again! What a funny book. He artfully skewers lawyers, politicians, and the media. I couldn't put it down.

This book is so entertaining you will swear you're watching your favorite comedy show on TV. Buckley is one of the best political novelists of our generation. This story is brilliantly plotted, and the characters will remind you in a positive way perhaps of former White House residents. You know who I mean!

First Lady, Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, is charged with killing her philandering husband after he is found dead one night in bed. It so happens that earlier that evening he had spent time in bed with his mistress, Babette. After a bedroom spat, the first lady allegedly hurled a spittoon at him, with tragic results, or were they? Elizabeth (Beth) is put on trial for assassinating the president. Beth hires "Shameless" Baylor as her lawyer, who also had a steamy relationship with the first lady in the past. As the story twists and turns it gets funnier and more entertaining than one could ever imagine. What's to become of the First Lady? Is she really the killer or has she been set-up?

This is first-rate humor from an author who knows how to entertain his readers and keep them begging for more. What will he write next? I'm sure we will be surprised and again delighted. Enjoy this creative novel.

Joe Hanssen

This novel is a parody of our media culture when it comes to high profile trials.

In No Way To Treat a First Lady, the protagonist, the profoundly immoral defense attorney Bruce Baylor, defends the first lady of the US against charges that she killed her husband, the President. But his true motives for taking the case are in question, as they happened to be a couple back in law school. The cast also includes an airhead Marilyn Monroe type mega star named Babbette with whom it turns out the President was having an affair. Nick Naylor from Thank You For Smoking also makes a few cameo appearances. Many prominent media personalities also make appearances throughout the work, with thinly veiled name changes (i.e. Greta van Botox).

Even when Buckley is not at his best, he is still a fun read.