White House Mess

by Christopher Buckley

Book Overview

An uproarious comedy about a presidential administration totally off the rails. This fictional political memoir by the Personal Assistant to President Tucker, Herbert Wadlough, offers a unique, utterly self-serving inside view of the ill-fated Tucker administration, 1989-1993. "A brilliant satire . . . A witty, very funny, intricate spoof".--Bob Woodward.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394549406
• ISBN13: 9780394549408
• Release Date: February 1986
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.

Customer Reviews

FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY

Here is another great and funny book from Mr. Buckley. Are these real life situations or just possibilities ? Just like his father, Christopher finds the right tone and the right sense of humor to make fun of our politicians. Mr. Buckley please keep writing and amuse us. We need it in today's political environment. Great book , and as always very well written.

Oh, I Needed That

Believe it or not, I managed to make it through this much of my life having never read a word by Christopher Buckley. This book was loaned to me by a friend, and I was a little skeptical about reading a political satire after coming off the past several months of "political cartoon overload." The belly laughing had begun by paragraph 5 of the prologue, and I was unable to put this book down. I read the entire book in two sittings, and I have to say that I haven't laughed so hard or so well in a long, long time.I was genuinely concerned that the book would be just another politics-driven piece of thinly disguised propoganda for one "side" or the other, but it was, instead, a refreshing and silly poke at government in general. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this book is a good poke at people in general. I loved every page of The White House Mess, and I recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone looking for a good chuckle.

Christopher Buckley skewers the fabled Insider's Memoir

This book will be funny to anyone, but readers unfortunate enough to have read any memoirs of the "from the corridors of power" genre will be convulsed. Buckley writes from the perspective of a high-ranking aide to Reagan's fictional successor, President Tucker, jotting down a diary as self-important as his real-life counterparts (one subplot turns around the writer's attempt to keep his parking spot, which seems to be of equal importance as the rest of the nation's business put together).Buckley is not just amusing, but often insightful. While the events of the book are absurd, the characters are often all too realistic. A must-read for Buckley fans, and highly recommended for anyone else.

Another great book from Christopher Buckley.

Like the tobacco industry and the conspiracy obsessed alien abduction movement, Christopher Buckley has always picked targets that deserve ridicule for their pompous self-absorption and their lack of contact with reality. Those self-serving political memoirs that politicians write after leaving office or their jobs were a natural target for Buckley's poisoned pen. The White House Mess is a letter perfect parody of the fictional Thomas N. Tucker administration from the perspective of his Assistant, Herbert Wadlough. Anyone who reads memoirs will recognize the usual things- the vivid remembrances of petty turf battles, self-serving recollections of conversations where they believe their input was the decisive factor, etc. Buckley tosses in a hilarious series of crisis for the Tucker Administration to wallow over, and equally inept administration officials to mock. The scary thing is that the Tucker Administration bears a striking resemblance to the first year of the Clinton Administration. Oddly prescient for a book written in 1986.Fans of Christopher Buckley will not be disappointed.

Hilarious Send-Up of Washington

Perhaps the most hysterical book I have ever read. Buckley presents an uproarious picture of the most maladroit administration in ages -- I imagine a Democratic one so as to appease his conservative relation, William F. Anyone looking for a quick read and a memorable laugh, especially someone who is aware of politics, ought to read this book.