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    No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel
    Unavailable
    No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel
    Unavailable
    No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel

    Written by Christopher Buckley

    Narrated by Tim Matheson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Christopher Buckley, the bestselling author of the comic classics The White House Mess and Thank You for Smoking, returns to the funniest place in America: Washington, D.C.

    Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, the First Lady of the United States, has been charged with killing her philandering husband, the President of the United States. In the midst of a bedroom spat, she allegedly hurled a historic Paul Revere spittoon at him, with tragic results. The attorney general has no choice but to put the First Lady on trial for assassination.

    The media has never warmed to Beth MacMann (her nickname in the tabloids is "Lady Bethmac"), and as America girds for a scandalous, sensational trial, Beth reaches out to the only defense attorney she trusts, Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, who charges $1,000 an hour and has represented a Who's Who of scoundrels: murderous running backs, society wife-killers, Los Alamos spies, and national-security sellouts.

    Why Boyce Baylor? Because Beth loved him once, when they were law students. Boyce wanted to marry her, but Beth chose the future President instead. Now, after all these years, Boyce has a second chance. To what lengths will a shameless lawyer go to win the Trial of the Millennium and regain the love of his life?

    Buckley has been described by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "one of the best and surest political humorists in America" and by Entertainment Weekly as "a superb writer of politically incorrect satire." No Way to Treat a First Lady is flat-out hilarious. And furthermore, it's a love story for our time.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 8, 2002
    ISBN9780553756791
    Unavailable
    No Way to Treat a First Lady: A Novel
    Author

    Christopher Buckley

    Christopher Buckley is a novelist, essayist, humorist, critic, magazine editor, and memoirist. His books include Thank You for Smoking, The Judge Hunter, Make Russia Great Again, and The Relic Master. He worked as a merchant seaman and White House speechwriter. He was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence.

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    Reviews for No Way to Treat a First Lady

    3.5/5

    185 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Loved it: good fun, female-centric in a good way, but still intelligently written and not something I feel secretly ashamed to have read. Nice little twists, and some legal situation comedy that as a lawyer I found quite amusing.
    • 3/5
      Meh. I finished it, so it isn't the worst book I've read, but if I hadn't been stuck in an airport for several hours, I'm not sure I would have finished it this quickly. It is a decent YA murder mystery. It has some moaning, but no graphic sex. I expected more from William Buckley's son. I'm not rushing out to find another by him.
    • 5/5
      This is the second book I have read by Buckley. He is making his way onto my "must-read" list. I enjoyed this book very much; it's very funny.
    • 3/5
      An amusing throwaway novel that is unfortunately already dated by multiple references to Dan Rather (retired) and Peter Jennings (deceased) as side characters.
    • 4/5
      Christopher Buckley writes another nice read about politics and the judiciary in his satiric fashion. Following the trial of First Lady Elizabeth Tyler MacMann and witty lawyer (and former fiance) Boyce Baylor, who is charged to lead her defense, provides a great story. Clever satire drives the entire book and it's hard to find a stopping point as the court case of the Millennium twists and turns. Buckley's characters are varied and interesting, working with and against one another in hilarious fashion. At the end of it all, we are shown how truth doesn't matter in our justice system, just perception. Buckley hits the nail on the head with that message, and conveys it with full mocking scorn and contempt, wrapped up in his smart humor.
    • 4/5
      i loved this book. It was funny and smart. A great political satire about a cheating president and the aftermath of his death. The lead character was strong and opinionated which did not win her any votes in the public opinion polls, but as you read the novel you find there is a lot more to her. I love a good strong woman character.
    • 4/5
      This is my first Christopher Buckley book and what a fun read! Buckley appears quite gifted in using satire to make bold statements about terribly broken systems and the very real people trapped in them.
    • 4/5
      This is my first book by this author, but I am certain it won't be my last. It seemed to start a bit slowly for me, but by the third chapter I was hooked.I am always up for a good laugh, and this story had plenty of them,The president of the United States is dead, and the first lady is accused of killing him. The book combines mystery and satire in a perfect blend.
    • 4/5
      This is a funny look at what can actually go on inside the White House. A great political satire!
    • 5/5
      This is the third Buckley book I've read this year, and I can say without hesitation it's the one I liked the best. Satire is a form of literature that tends to evoke wry amusement more than real laughs, but this book had both. For me, that's a rarity.The plot is pretty simple. The first lady of the United States is on trial for having brained her husband with an antique silver spittoon after his latest infidelity. Fairly obviously a takeoff on the Clinton scandal, but it's an interesting one. At her huge media frenzy of a trial, she's defended by Boyce "Shameless" Baylor (what is it with Buckley and ethically dubious men with names ending in -aylor?), the best trial lawyer in America, and also her ex-boyfriend from when she was at law school.There are a lot of fun characters that are fairly well-sketched for a satire, and the prose is cracklingly good. Many of the exchanges and ideas are really very clever, and the plot was well conceived and carried out. The twists were interesting, and while I was pretty sure I knew where it was going, I definitely didn't figure out how it eventually got there. So, a good enough mystery, in a way, on top of the satire.It's a fast read, and it's a fun one; I imagine most Buckley readers are probably coming in through Thank You For Smoking, and the lead character of that book shows up here, as well, but this one is, I think, more fun. If you like political humor or satire, this one's definitely worth a shot.
    • 5/5
      Already loved the book when I read it the first time.
    • 5/5
      another great work by Christopher Buckley. not as good as some of his others.
    • 5/5
      Christopher Buckley usually pokes fun by exaggerating. This time most of his barbs could have been taken right off the nightly news. The president of the United States is found dead in his bed next to the first lady - after a night of passionate sex with the actress staying in the Lincoln bedroom. The first lady is arrested and tried for the murder of her husband. Buckley even explains what really happened when they said the president choked on a pretzel. So much of it is so real it's almost not funny. But this time he actually had a pretty decent plot.
    • 5/5
      Master of political satire Christopher Buckley offers a biting critique of the American legal system, and the ridiculous role of the media related to the law, in "No Way to Treat a First Lady." Inspired by the impeachment scandal of Bill Clinton, which frequently seemed to treat sex and politics as farce, and coming on the heels of the massively overexposed O. J. Simpson trial, Buckley imagines a breathtaking trial of the century that would dwarf those cases.Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, the First Lady, is accused of murdering her husband, after he is found dead in the White House. Having discovered that the president was engaging in special relations with the Hollywood actress wife of a big-time donor down the hall in the Lincoln Bedroom, the First Lady confronted him upon his return to their bedroom and hurled a Paul Revere spittoon at his head. Because the victim is the President, his alleged killer is charged with assassination.Beth MacMann, a lawyer, contacts her one-time fiancé, and defense attorney to the stars, Boyce "Shameless" Baylor, to defend her in the upcoming trial. Having skills that match his dominating personality, Baylor devises a careful defense strategy that seeks to keep the First Lady from having a motive by preventing any evidence of presidential philandering to be admitted.As might be imagined, the resulting novel is a rollicking free-for-all in which Buckley sends up cable television legal "analysis," the rather schizophrenic American expectations of competence and naiveté for any First Lady, the puritanical discomfort surrounding any discussion of sex and politics, among many other things. As always, Buckley weaves an engaging story with witty banter and a variety of uncomfortably funny situations. In addition, he even manages a deft surprise ending, which is the icing on a wonderfully rich and enjoyable cake.