The White House Mess

by Christopher Buckley

Overview

At last, a White House reminiscence that pulls no punches! Herbert Wadlough, personal assistant to President N. Tucker (TNT), offers his unique and utterly self-serving inside view of the historic years 1989-1993 of the ill-fated Tucker administration, in which he played such a crucial role. From the inauguration crisis—when President Reagan refused to vacate the White House—to the epochal War on Bermuda, to the delicate negotiations (sexual, for the most part) between the President and his First Lady, Wadlough gives an account that is open, honest, and hilarious.  
 
“This is the best piece of American political satire in years.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
“This is a brilliant satire.... A witty, very funny, intricate spoof. Buckley gives new meaning to the phrase “He’ll never work again in politics.’”—Bob Woodward

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140249286
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.11(w) x 7.66(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Christopher Buckley is an American novelist and political satirist known for writing Supreme Courtship, Boomsday, and Thank You for Smoking. He is editor at large of ForbesLife magazine, and was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. Buckley lives on the Acela train between Washington, DC, and New York City.

Editorial Reviews

With a dotty, pajama-clad President Reagan refusing to leave the White House on his successor's Inauguration Day, Buckley has given this farce of Oval Office politics a nearly perfect beginning. Unfortunately, he uses his best shot first and the rest of the book rarely equals the wit that energizes the hilarious opening. Parodying the familiar form of the White House memoir, Buckley (author of Steaming in Bamboola, son of William F. Buckley) recounts the turbulent years of the Democratic Tucker administration, as told by loyalist Herbert Wadlough. Through this former accountant's eyes, we see the infighting that plagues the White House, the President's faltering marriage to a former starlet, and his ongoing crises, including restoration of ties with Castro andin one of the novel's smarter sectionsa Marxist coup in Bermuda. Buckley, a onetime speechwriter for George Bush, obviously knows Washington's foibles and follies, but the zest of the book's early promise is smothered by an otherwise bland performance. Literary Guild alternate. (March 24p

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly