The problem for anyone writing satire today is competing with the front page.
        -Christopher Buckley

    sat·ire (str)
     n.

    1.
      a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
      b.The branch of literature constituting such works. See Synonyms at caricature.
    2.  Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

    [Latin satira, probably alteration (influenced by Greek satur, satyr,) and satyros, burlesque of a
    mythical episode of (lanx) satura, fruit (plate) mixture,from feminine of satur, sated, well-fitted;
    see s- in Indo-European Roots.]

    car·i·ca·ture (kr-k-chr, -chr)
     n.

    1.
      a. A representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or
          peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.
      b.The art of creating such representations.
    2.  A grotesque imitation or misrepresentation: The trial was a caricature of justice.

     v. tr. car·i·ca·tured, car·i·ca·tur·ing, car·i·ca·tures.

       To represent or imitate in an exaggerated, distorted manner.

    [French from Italian caricatura, from caricare, to load, to exaggerate, from Late Latin carricre,
    from Latin carrus, a Gallic type of wagon; see kers- in Indo-European Roots.]

Christopher Buckley, one of our most gifted political satirists, here serves up a millenarian thriller in which the worlds of UFOlogy and Beltway punditry collide.  John Oliver Banion hosts one of Washington's most popular talk shows, with an outrageous and confrontational style that's more than a little reminiscent of John McLaughlin.  As the novel opens, he's interviewing the President, who, facing a tough re-election bid, is milking the space program for votes :

    'Mr. President,' Banion said, 'I want to ask you why, in light of your administration's below-par
    performance in a number of areas, you haven't fired at least two-thirds of your cabinet, but first. . . .'

    It was a trademark Banion opener: establish the guest's inadequacy, then move on to the even more
    pressing issue.

    '. . . let me ask you about something else. We have a report that NASA, the space agency, is
    planning to advance the launch date of the final stage of the space station Celeste to right before the
    presidential election this fall. Would you call that a triumph of American aerospace engineering, or
    of politics? You can take credit for both, if you like.'

Unfortunately for Banion one of his viewers takes particular exception to this attack on the space program, Nathan Scrubbs, who would be little more than a bureaucratic cipher, if the bureaucracy he worked for were not MJ-12, the top secret agency created in 1948 to convince Stalin that the United States had gotten ahold of alien technology.  In the years since, like most bureaucracies, its mission has become broader; now it drums up support for the space program by staging alien abductions of unwitting citizens and otherwise manufacturing elements of the UFO craze.  Scrubbs orders an "abduction" of Banion, which occurs, appropriately enough, at the exclusive Burning Bush Country Club.  In short order, Banion finds himself being "probed" by gray-skinned aliens.

After this first incident, Banion holds his tongue, unwilling to risk his treasured spot in the punditocracy.  But when Stubbs orders a second abduction, the faux extra-terrestrial sodomy has the desired effect and Banion soon turns his bully pulpit into platform for warning of the pending alien colonization.  This leads to a precipitous decline in his access and influence in Washington, but he becomes the leader of a national movement of fellow believers.  As he says when his wife and friends organize an intervention :

    'I was never one for epiphanies,' Banion said. 'If it had been me, two thousand years ago, I'd
    probably gotten back on my horse, gone on to Damascus, and hanged a few extra Christians just for
    good measure.  I mean, bad enough to have an epiphany in the desert when no one's watching, but
    on a golf course ?' . . .

    He sighed. 'But, you take these things as they come, even if they come in the form of little green
    men. I don't know what happened out there. But it happened. And your response to my telling you
    that there is something very strange going on is to pack me off to Well Haven to mainline Haldol
    and do origami.  Don't you see? This is big! This is the biggest thing that ever happened! You all
    ought to be helping me find out what it is.  And all you can do is wring your hands about how it
    might affect your seating at Erhard Williger's next dinner party.'

Against his will, Banion has been turned into an outsider, he is no longer a PLU (People Like Us).  He now shares the concerns off those beyond the Potomac.  His old Capital comrades, who believe that they actually control the government and who have nothing but contempt for the parochial concerns of the rest of America, have no idea that in reality the bureaucracy is utterly beyond their control and that the American people understand what's going on far better than the insiders do, however outlandish their beliefs may seem to those "in power".

Practically every review of this book that I saw mentioned how difficult it is to write satire these days, given how outrageous is the behavior of even folks like the President of the United States.  But Christopher Buckley pulls it off once again.  If nothing else, you have to love the metaphorical overtones of the government abducting and sodomizing its own citizens.  That alone is worth the price of admission.

(Reviewed:11-Apr-01)

Grade: (A-) Orrin C. Judd

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