Rating: 
Summary: Stick With The Humor, Please
Review: I am a Chris Buckley fan who loves his hilarious satire. I would have rated this book a 10, except he filled the last half of the volume with more sobersided essays. These were not as interesting. You finish another funny piece around the middle of the book, manage to stifle your laughter, wipe your eyes and say to yourself, "OK, I'm ready for the next one." Only the next one isn't funny, or even particularly interesting. What would the world be like if Dave Barry, Calvin Trillin, or Fran Lebowitz pulled such a stunt? The book was worth the price, though, just to read the articles on Buckley's feud with Tom Clancy. You'll have to excuse me now, I've got to get to the library to locate a book that Buckley recommends called "Bassholes", by Ed Weiler.
Rating:
Summary: Stick With The Humor, Please
Review: I am a Chris Buckley fan who loves his hilarious satire. I would have rated this book a 10, except he filled the last half of the volume with more sobersided essays. These were not as interesting. You finish another funny piece around the middle of the book, manage to stifle your laughter, wipe your eyes and say to yourself, "OK, I'm ready for the next one." Only the next one isn't funny, or even particularly interesting. What would the world be like if Dave Barry, Calvin Trillin, or Fran Lebowitz pulled such a stunt? The book was worth the price, though, just to read the articles on Buckley's feud with Tom Clancy. You'll have to excuse me now, I've got to get to the library to locate a book that Buckley recommends called "Bassholes", by Ed Weiler.
Rating: 
Summary: Chris Buckley's publishers made him do it
Review: I am normally a huge Christopher Buckley fan, and I was excited to get Wry Martinis. I knew it was a collection of (largely) previously published work, but why should that matter? Unfortunately, it turns out to matter a lot. Buckley's magazine pieces would no doubt be funny if you came upon them one at a time in a magazine, just the way Andy Rooney could be funny at the end of a 60 Minutes broadcast. Strung end-to-end, however, these short essays just become irritating. Here's one thing Buckley doesn't like. Here's another. And another. The effect is only slightly more appealing than a six-hour tape of Andy Rooney.
Rating: 
Summary: One for a lazy summer day
Review: I find the "straight" stories much better than the satire. They show the author to be a most human being with deep feelings and convictions. This will - hopefully - survive. But all the little stories at the beginning of the book will be forgotten before the year is out
Rating: 
Summary: Someone wicked this way comes.
Review: I found a good illustration of Christopher Buckley's sense of humor while reading of one of the ocean crossings that he had taken with his Father. Buckley the Elder routinely sailed an ocean every 5 years or so, and his Son was often part of the crew. All the ship's members had tasks, and on this trip Christopher was in charge of bringing along projects for fun and diversion during the extended voyage. The one I will remember was the model he brought for the group to construct, of course a ship, and for him it could be no other, The Titanic. His is not low brow cheap shot humor, although you may be surprised by how inept some other Authors are when engaging him in written debate. He writes within this book on a variety of subjects guaranteed to make you laugh, and for those that take themselves, or a given subject too seriously, he will annoy you. Even if the latter group is the one you find yourself in, if only to yourself, you still cannot deny the wit, and the intellect that is behind his thoughts. So if The Pope appearing on Oprah selling his new book intrigues you, or perhaps Johnnie Cochran writing a letter of recommendation for the squeezed fruit who was his client piques your interest, this read is for you. If the two topics I mention do not suffice, there is always his written feud with Tom Clancy, satire on Star Trek, or perhaps the "How I went 9 G's in an F-16 and Only Threw Up Five Times", there is something here that will cause you great pain in your sides, as he is the cause of pain for his adversaries in their nether regions. The stories I mentioned are a tiny fraction of what awaits the reader, for I have not touched upon the selling of Lenin's embalmed corpse. Buckley the Younger is wonderful, or as the Author Tom Wolfe states "Fifty years ago the 3 funniest writers in the English language were named Shaw, Mencken and Muggeridge....today they're named Thompson, O'Rourke, and Christopher Buckley..." If you have not tried this man's work, this is a great place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Someone wicked this way comes.
Review: I found a good illustration of Christopher Buckley's sense of humor while reading of one of the ocean crossings that he had taken with his Father. Buckley the Elder routinely sailed an ocean every 5 years or so, and his Son was often part of the crew. All the ship's members had tasks, and on this trip Christopher was in charge of bringing along projects for fun and diversion during the extended voyage. The one I will remember was the model he brought for the group to construct, of course a ship, and for him it could be no other, The Titanic. His is not low brow cheap shot humor, although you may be surprised by how inept some other Authors are when engaging him in written debate. He writes within this book on a variety of subjects guaranteed to make you laugh, and for those that take themselves, or a given subject too seriously, he will annoy you. Even if the latter group is the one you find yourself in, if only to yourself, you still cannot deny the wit, and the intellect that is behind his thoughts. So if The Pope appearing on Oprah selling his new book intrigues you, or perhaps Johnnie Cochran writing a letter of recommendation for the squeezed fruit who was his client piques your interest, this read is for you. If the two topics I mention do not suffice, there is always his written feud with Tom Clancy, satire on Star Trek, or perhaps the "How I went 9 G's in an F-16 and Only Threw Up Five Times", there is something here that will cause you great pain in your sides, as he is the cause of pain for his adversaries in their nether regions. The stories I mentioned are a tiny fraction of what awaits the reader, for I have not touched upon the selling of Lenin's embalmed corpse. Buckley the Younger is wonderful, or as the Author Tom Wolfe states "Fifty years ago the 3 funniest writers in the English language were named Shaw, Mencken and Muggeridge....today they're named Thompson, O'Rourke, and Christopher Buckley..." If you have not tried this man's work, this is a great place to start.
Rating:
Summary: All in all, fairly dull
Review: The book's high points include a hilarious description of Tom Clancy and an enormously entertaining index. As for the rest, it is fairly lame.
Rating:
Summary: All in all, fairly dull
Review: The book's high points include a hilarious description of Tom Clancy and an enormously entertaining index. As for the rest, it is fairly lame.
Rating:
Summary: The line between witty and smart-ass is a thin one
Review: This is such a disappointment. I loved Thank You For Smoking and White House Mess, and this is what you feared when you first heard he was a writer; a snotty rich creep shows his snob wit. With many satire writers, more is less, but he works much better where he doesn't have to be in a hurry to strike his target.
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest books to hit the stores in some time.
Review: Wry Martinis is an easy to read, funny collection of essays. Buckley has a wry wit and his outlook on topics from the old Soviet Union to Fly Fishing will keep you laughing for quite a while. Especially fun is his fax feud with Tom Clancy
| 
