Sunday, August 31, 2008

Book Review: "Supreme Courtship"

Christopher Buckley's newest political satire, Supreme Courtship, will be released next week, and if you're a political junkie who needs a quick break from the real-life drama (and who, at this point in the campaign, doesn't?), it will make for a fine fall read. Buckley, with his usual talent at making the all-too-possible seem absurd and the all-too-absurd seem possible, uses Supreme Courtship to tackle some of the most bizarre elements of our political system: Supreme Court appointments, the increasingly-blurred line between politics and entertainment, the constitutional amendment process, and the question of presidential term limits.

While the satire here is a little more overt than in some of Buckley's earlier works (Thank You For Smoking, Boomsday), it's still plenty amusing. His characters are straight out of central casting, even if their real-life counterparts are, in some cases, rather obvious (and all the funnier for it).

Humorous, witty, and with just a hint of bitterness (as all good satire must have).