No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel by Christopher Buckley

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When a president of the United States is found dead in bed after a night of vigorous infidelity, who is to blame? In the case of Ken MacMann, the list of suspects (and mistresses) is impressive. Christopher Buckley has created a wickedly funny whodunit about thoroughly hypothetical White House hijinks.

From the Publisher

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, the ambitious First Lady of the United States (and known in the tabloids as “Lady Bethmac”), is on trial for the death of her philandering husband, and the only man who can save her is the boyfriend she jilted in law school—now the most shameless defense attorney in America. Published to rave reviews, No Way to Treat a First Lady is a hilariously warped love story for our time set in the funniest place in America: Washington, D.C.

Book Magazine

The satirist whose previous targets have included political pundits ( Little Green Men ), financial self-help gurus ( God Is My Broker ) and the tobacco lobby ( Thank You for Smoking ) returns with a humorous novel starring first lady Elizabeth "Lady Beth Mac" MacMann, whose philandering, Bill Clinton–like husband is found dead after a night in bed with his mistress. While the shenanigans of the president provide a great, funny back story, the main action concerns Beth, who is put on trial for "assassinating" her hubby by flinging a priceless Paul Revere spittoon at his head. Beth is a dynamo: a kind of ultra-Hillary. Buckley's real triumph, however, is in creating Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, Beth's $1,000-an-hour defender, a past master of "Dream Team"–style dirty tricks who, it turns out, also has a past with Beth. As the story of the trial twists and turns, like Bleak House on drugs, Baylor manipulates the media, Beth and the justice system in brilliant contortion after contortion. The literary equivalent of Must-See TV, only considerably more entertaining, Buckley's book is free-for-all satire. Author—Paul Evans

Book Magazine

The satirist whose previous targets have included political pundits (Little Green Men), financial self-help gurus (God Is My Broker) and the tobacco lobby (Thank You for Smoking) returns with a humorous novel starring first lady Elizabeth "Lady Beth Mac" MacMann, whose philandering, Bill Clinton–like husband is found dead after a night in bed with his mistress. While the shenanigans of the president provide a great, funny back story, the main action concerns Beth, who is put on trial for "assassinating" her hubby by flinging a priceless Paul Revere spittoon at his head. Beth is a dynamo: a kind of ultra-Hillary. Buckley's real triumph, however, is in creating Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, Beth's $1,000-an-hour defender, a past master of "Dream Team"–style dirty tricks who, it turns out, also has a past with Beth. As the story of the trial twists and turns, like Bleak House on drugs, Baylor manipulates the media, Beth and the justice system in brilliant contortion after contortion. The literary equivalent of Must-See TV, only considerably more entertaining, Buckley's book is free-for-all satire.

Publishers Weekly

Matheson brings all the skills one would expect of an experienced actor to Buckley's latest romp. In a story that's equal parts satire and courtroom drama, Buckley (Thank You for Smoking) slings barbs at lawyers, politicos and Washington's social elite. After President Ken MacMann returns from a lusty night in the Lincoln Bedroom with actress Babette Van Anka, his wife, Elizabeth, hurls insults and a priceless Paul Revere spittoon at him. When MacMann is found dead the next morning with the word "Revere" embossed on his forehead, the first lady becomes the prime suspect. Buckley lays his cards openly on the table: one lawyer is nicknamed "Shameless," while another's last name is Crudman. And Matheson captures them all, whether rendering Shameless Baylor's mock indignation at being refused a preposterous motion or evoking the arrogant commentary on a show called Hard Gavel. He also does excellent turns as the flighty, would-be Middle East peace activist Van Anka, a host of other witnesses and the no-nonsense judge who tries to keep the Trial of the Millennium in check. This may not be the year's most substantive audio, but with a plot that seems just crazy enough to be true and a crisp performance by Matheson, it never fails to entertain. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Forecasts, July 29). (Oct.)

Steve Forbes - Forbes Magazine

This novel by Forbes FYI editor and supreme satirist Christopher Buckley will give your tummy muscles a more effective workout than those gadgets endlessly touted on TV infomercials. Every page will have you guffawing. The plot is pure Buckley: The First Lady clocks the President on the head with a Paul Revere silver spittoon when he tries to sneak back into their bed after a late-night tryst in the Lincoln Bedroom. She soon finds herself on trial for assassinating the nation's Commander-in-Chief. This masterpiece should earn Buckley a lifetime pass to said bedroom. (6 Jan 2003)

Library Journal

The first lady of Buckley's latest satire (after Little Green Men and Thank You for Smoking) is Elizabeth "Lady Beth Mac" MacMann, wife of President Kenneth Kemble MacMann. Kenneth, whose morals are as unreliable as a granny knot, meets an untimely death two and half years into his first term. Indicted for his murder, Elizabeth hires as her defender the one and only Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, to whom she had once been affianced. Elizabeth doesn't wear the widow's weeds long before she and her hotshot legal adviser get together for some unprotected fun in bed, with unintended but not unusual results. In strict story terms, the novel is a long tease-how many witnesses and how much testimony do we have to hear before finding out what really happened that fateful night in September? But it's worth the wait. The book is shot through with a particularly mordant vein of social satire and mocks the ludicrousness of modern life, something to which we've become numb. This should be on your list, near the top. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/02.]-A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Wicked humorist Buckley shoots fish in a barrel and makes them dance. The targets in this sendup of Washington-trial lawyers, first families, Court TV, MSNBC, Dan Rather, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the American appetite for the awful-are the last decade's scandals, which, rather than being gluey and unbearable in the reheating, are even more fun this time around. The setup is the death of America's philanderer-in-chief Ken McMann after an exhausting round of hide the salami with songwriter, mother of mercy to the Middle East, and extremely generous campaign donor Babette Van Anka in the Lincoln bedroom. The game was complicated by the strange refusal of the executive salami to de-tumesce, and US president made it back to his own bedroom in the small hours only to run into the buzzsaw of a wide-awake Elizabeth Tyler "Beth" McMann, First Lady of the Land. There was the usual and, considering the situation, thoroughly justifiable screaming fight, but the couple eventually tucked in for the night. Alas, dawn revealed a dead president and, since the presidential forehead bore the imprint of Paul Revere's mark from the bottom of the sterling spittoon hurled by Mrs. M., the new First Widow is charged with murder. To her rescue comes Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, America's top trial lawyer, the man who successfully defended athletic wife murderer J. J. Bronco. It's not the first meeting for Beth and Boyce. Before she threw him over for handsome, hard-charging war hero Ken McMann in law school, Beth and Boyce had been an item. And, although it was she who picked up the phone and called for help, she can't help wondering whether, being still a little sore at her, he might throw the match. ButBaylor's competitive instincts are as unquenchable as the late president's lust, and Beth is still a dish. The battle is joined. It's a lulu. Unspeakably and endlessly funny. Unless you're a former president.

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