But Enough About You; (essays)
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2014. First Simon & Schuster Hardcover Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]/. Hardcover. x, [2], 450, [2] pages. Index. Signed by the author on the title page. Christopher Taylor Buckley (born September 28, 1952) is an American author and political satirist. He is known for writing God Is My Broker, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat a First Lady, Wet Work, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday, Supreme Courtship, Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir, and The Judge Hunter. In 1981, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work as chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush. This experience led to his novel The White House Mess, a satire on White House office politics and political memoirs. Buckley wrote the non-fiction Steaming To Bamboola about the merchant marine. He also contributed to an oral history of Milford, Connecticut, served as managing editor of Esquire, and worked as an editor at Forbes magazine.
National Review. Derived from a Kirkus review: Buckley offers stylishness and nimble wordplay in this latest collection of ruminations on contemporary culture and its foibles.
The author caroms from personal history and travel to criticism and politics, wielding a sense of humor that pirouettes from gentle to sardonic. Most of these brief, previously published magazine essays is arguably the right approach in skewering some of the more outlandish affronts. At the other end of the spectrum, seeming almost out of place in this volume, is his stark chronicle of touring Auschwitz. The strongest chapter of the book is “Farewells,” featuring Buckley's posthumous remembrances of such longtime friends as Joseph Heller and Christopher Hitchens, not to mention his father William F. Buckley's celebrated nemesis, Gore Vidal. These pieces are especially revealing, often touching, and find Buckley dispensing with his breezy tone for a timbre that is much more sober. Particularly poignant is his piece on Hitchens, a man he revered. Given their due in the “Criticism” section, among others, are Graham Greene, P.G. Wodehouse and Ray Bradbury. Buckley's outstanding introduction to The Stories of Ray Bradbury is a richly deserved paean to one of the most influential writers of the late 20th century. Prone to benign mischief, a literary twinkle in the eye, Buckley nails his targets more often than not yet likewise has fun with unexpected asides, like the “excruciatingly chaste” plays of the otherwise notorious Marquis de Sade. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Essay, Columns, Machu Picchu, Auschwitz, Easter Island, Donald Trump, Tom Congdon, Kissinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Christopher Hitchens, Graham Green, Wodehouse, Gore Vidal, Joseph Heller
ISBN: 9781476749518
[Book #79157]
Price: $75.00