Crime Fiction Dossier: Book of the Week: Christopher Buckley's "Supreme Courtship"

September 09, 2008

Book of the Week: Christopher Buckley's "Supreme Courtship"

The world of D.C. politics is a fertile one for satire and nobody plows it better than Christopher Buckley. As a former speechwriter for the first President Bush (and the son of National Review founder William F. Buckley), Buckley knows the Washington scene as an insider -- and he's also hilariously funny. Those two qualities enable him to skewer the overblown egos, pretensions and nonsense of national politics like few can. Supreme Courtship tells the story of what happens when a popular TV judge is nominated to the Supreme Court. That hook sold me on the book and the execution is admirable. One of the funniest things I've read in quite a while, but also one of the smartest.

Posted at 10:43 AM in Book of the Week | Permalink

Comments

Glad to hear you liked this. I picked it up on a whim yesterday.

Posted by: Cheryl | September 09, 2008 at 10:22 PM

That cover looks like the Democratic convention. Is this one of them subversive books?

Posted by: NascarDan | September 10, 2008 at 10:05 AM

I don't think there's anything smart or funny about this story. It's a travesty to start putting celebrities on the supreme court.

I'm disgusted and embarrassed by our country.

Posted by: Rodney P. McManus | September 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM

It's fiction, you imbecilic boob.

Posted by: finnigan | September 10, 2008 at 10:08 AM

I don't think there is any reason to resort to off-color language here.

Mr. McManus may or may not have been being sarcastic, though I don't care for sarcasm.

Let's try and keep it clean here, everyone. Mr. Montgomery offers a yeoman's service on this site for all of us. He works very hard to provide all the wonderful information each week.

As a librarian I am thankful for this site and for a critic as revered as Mr. Montgomery to give us his time.

Posted by: Cozy Crime | September 10, 2008 at 10:12 AM

@NASCARDan: I don't know anything about this book but I think you might be interested in a new series I'm working on. My agent is currently negotiating with a book publisher and we should have a deal in place soon. It's a series of action/mystery novels set in the world of NASCAR. The main character is Arnold Bodine, a driver who moonlights as a private eye. I think the platform for this series is very strong.

Posted by: Dean Jukes | September 10, 2008 at 12:43 PM

That sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard.

Posted by: finnigan | September 10, 2008 at 01:34 PM

I'm not a Nascar fan, we don't really get it up here in Canada, but that sounds like a wonderful, empowering story for a detective series. I think you're going to be very successul Dean. What a beautiful thing to have such artistic talent.

Posted by: Dan | September 11, 2008 at 10:06 AM

Can we please get back to Buckley's book, and get off the stupid NASCAR thing?

Of course, I'm not wearing pants, so take that into account.

Posted by: Cosmo Vittelli | September 11, 2008 at 10:25 AM

David,
thank you postings these book of the week lists. As I have little time to browse bookstores, it's great to have a critic letting us know what is worth our money.

I'm sure others feel the same way.

Posted by: Edward | September 11, 2008 at 10:27 AM

Let's try and keep it clean here, everyone. Mr. Montgomery offers a yeoman's service on this site for all of us. He works very hard to provide all the wonderful information each week.

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