BOOMSDAY
Christopher Buckley
Twelve
Fiction
Hardcover: 0446579815
Paperback: 9780446697972

• Read an Excerpt

Who, may I ask, is better equipped to be America's premier comic novelist than Christopher Buckley? I find that his fiction is the proper response to being raised by would-be WASP Irish Roman Catholics. Please note: I am not commenting on William and Pat Buckley's politics or hobbies. What I'm saying is that there is irony inherent in the conjunction of Hibernian dogma and Anglican style. In novels from FLORENCE OF ARABIA to THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, Buckley has demonstrated that the tensions in his upbringing and milieux were not wasted on him; he knows when a cigar is just a cigar, and when a good cigarette is a joke.

Thus, I eagerly looked forward to BOOMSDAY, Buckley's latest riposte to American politics and popular culture. I was even happier to see it released from Jonathan Karp's Twelve, an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA, whose mission is to release no more than one peach of a book in any given month and focus on bringing that fair fruit to readers.

Twelve's mission statement says, "We will publish meaningful stories, true and fictional. Stories told artfully by authors who have a unique perspective and compelling authority. The singular book. Books that explain our culture; that illuminate, inspire, provoke, and entertain." Does BOOMSDAY fulfill this? Let's see:

1. Meaningful stories: In a not-so-distant future America, Baby Boomer debt has threatened Social Security sufficiently that a blog-born movement advocating voluntary euthanasia at age 65 gains credence. Meaningful? Check.

2. Stories told artfully: Buckley has a winning way with a scene, whether it occurs in a Humvee or a bedroom. Check.

3. Authors who have a unique perspective and compelling authority: Buckley's perspective is both singularly authoritative and compellingly unique. Check.

4. The singular book: What, you thought someone else was writing about voluntary euthanasia schemes? Check.

5. Books that explain our culture: Since Buckley takes on blogs, Congress, the electoral process, the Vatican, Russian prostitutes, Yale's admissions policy and more, I'd say Check.

6. That illuminate, inspire, provoke, and entertain: Two checks. And two balances. Read on for an explanation.

In not-too-distant future America, good-ol'-boy President Riley Peacham is the lame duck candidate confronting blogger-with-a-mission Cassandra Devine, whose voice-of-doom web journal is the vehicle for her unique solution to the coming Social Security crisis. Her ethics-free boss, Terry Tucker (reminiscent in morals and alliteration of THANK YOU FOR SMOKING's Nick Naylor), and mannerism-heavy boyfriend, Senator Randolph Jepperson of Massachusetts, alternately lead her on and astray, tossing out bon mots like bon-bons along the way.

Buckley writes both smart and funny; he provokes and entertains. Does he also illuminate and inspire? In this book, I'm not as certain of that as I was with THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. Perhaps it's because I could not find a shred of sympathy for or empathize with any character in the book. Still, I have found it intriguing that few reviews mention the raw deal Cassandra gets when her father defaults on her first tuition payment to Yale and she enlists in the army. I did feel a little sympathy for her then.

There was lots of humor in the cast but little engagement. Also, the middle-aged Boomer characters are uniformly heinous (fallen evangelist Gideon Payne, Papal-election-conscious Monsignor Montrefelte and Cassandra's greedy father, Frank Cohane). But aside from Cassandra, who seems a bit shrill and earnest at times, there are no young characters. Maybe the author needs to go hang out at Old Blue for a while and tune in. Remember, that's not "turn on," Mr. Buckley.

   --- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

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