Date: 26 April 2013
Location: John & Marion
I recommended this hilarious novel because I thought we needed a good laugh. And from our discussion I must assume that most of us felt that the book delivered. From having read one other Christopher Buckley novel, (They Eat Puppies Don’t They),and now having a large sample of two, I have concluded that he seems to take delight in declaring “a pox on all your houses” when it comes to politicians of any party, or country for that matter.
In the story, President Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees onto the Supreme Court. One nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill a Mockingbird (appropriate for the next book/play we’re seeing). He is so ticked off at the Senate for rejecting his nominees that he decides to get even by nominating America’s most popular TV judge to the Supreme Court–Judge Pepper Cartwright, star of the nation’s most popular reality show. By choosing someone so beloved by voters, the president figures that the Senate won’t have the nerve to reject her. And then the fun begins as she turns out to be a lot brighter and more capable than her on screen persona has lead us to believe her to be. Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the president is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature.
The discussion got a bit deep when some of us tried to figure out if Buckley was trying to finger specific current politicos. Linda sort of set us straight when she said that she had accepted it as funny book and let it go at that.
Dinner at John and Marion’s was delightful and we enjoyed being together once again. I wonder how many of us will read another Buckley books when we need a good laugh?
— Gina