And, when the humor wears thin, the shallowness of Buckley’s treatment become apparent.
SUPREME COURTSHIP CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY SUMMARY TV
And his jokes are indisputably competent: “It is a cliché in Washington that the most dangerous place to find yourself is between a politician and TV camera, but in the case of Senator Dexter Mitchell, the cliché had acquired a kind of Darwinian perfection.”īut the book’s subject – which is, ostensibly, the power that mass media exerts over our political life – is a vast and complicated one. There’s no question that Buckley is a skillful writer – he handles his material with ease and glib professionalism. Along the way she meets up with a number of stereotypes, from uber-WASP Graydon Clenndennyng to Latina caricature Ramona Alvilar. In short order, her marriage to a sleazy TV producer disintegrates, she takes up a liaison with the alcoholic chief justice and casts the critical vote in a decision determining the victor of a presidential election. “If Intelligent Design exists,” he has one character quip, “how would you explain the US Tax code?”Ĭartwright – a fiery and intelligent Texan appointed by President Donald Vanderdamp, a man made desperate by an ambitious senator’s successes in thwarting his nominees – finds life among the judicial elite is not without peril. This book involves the appointment of popular TV judge Perdita “Pepper” Cartwright to the Supreme Court, a scenario that would be hard to imagine without its salting of Buckley’s slightly musty humor. It displays all the elements familiar to his readers: breakneck pacing, characters with funny names (like Blyster Forkmorgan, a lawyer, and Crispus Galavanter, one of Buckley’s fictional justices), plenty of easy jokes and a harrumphing dissatisfaction with the trivialities of modern life.
The latest political satire from Christopher Buckley will not disappoint his many fans.
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