Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley (pp. 256)Acclaimed satirist, Christopher Buckley puts together a collection of previously published magazine articles. I’m a fan of Buckley’s fiction novels and his travel non-fiction is top notch. For the first half of book, I found the title of the book to the most entertaining and interesting piece of writing and had it not been for my own stubbornness, I may have not gotten to the good stuff.‘Apertifs’, ‘Homage to Tom Clancy’, ‘Spin Cycle’, and ‘Want to Buy a Dead Dictator’ serve up nearly 60% of the content. Most of it is high camp, repetitive, and definitely dated. The 80s, early 90s and end of the Cold War political icons read much like Saturday Night Live sketches, but sketches that you just want to turn off. I wouldn’t want to read any of these pieces again, some were quite cliché, but for sartorial historians or cultural anthropologists there may be some interesting texture to glean. Once you get past all the “Oh, look at me being cleaver” pieces, the writing and content is great. His long form essays on the his experience with the Nimitz and an F-16 fascinate and show that if any writer is going to relay an experience that you’ll never personally have, you can’t do much better than having Buckley be your play-by-play guy. ‘Hardly Roughing It’ gets into travel pieces and ‘Babes’ and ‘Formative Years’ reflects on his east coast boarding school and college years. All of these are a solid B. ‘A Few More for Road’ is also mish-mash of interesting personal reflections. For readers looking for solid long form pieces, start at page 131 and skip the stale fish in the first half of the book. Or if you’re looking for the best of the best, read the 38 pages that make up ‘Guy Stuff’ specifically: ‘I Visitz the Nimitz’ and ‘How I Went Nine Gs in an F-16 and Only Threw Up Five Times’.
Wry Martinis is a collection of articles Christopher Buckley has written over the years (80s-90s). On the whole the articles are well written and many display the humour expected of Buckley. Some of the pieces are enjoyable to read and are still relevant today where they refer to well known personalities (the Bush family) or current events (the military). However, I found most to relate to personalities and events strongly related to 80s America and so I found little of interest in these. Thats not a criticism, its just these articles just failed to interest me at all.Overall i would rate this a 2 stars (OK), as I couldnt really fault any part of it, but it just didnt interest me.
What do You think about Wry Martinis (2004)?
Though it was my husband who had picked out this book at the recent book sale, I decided to read it because I had enjoyed Mr. Buckley's memoir of his parents. It is a complilation of articles which he wrote for various publications over quite a period of time. Some are quite short, others seem a little long, but most are entertaining. Probably the wry could refer to his sense of humor, which is rather good. One oif them, which could have appeared in the memoir is about his mother Pat Buckley, and her fashion sense. She must have been quite a person.
—Marti
Okay, so he's not quite his daddy. He's different, and a hell of a lot funnier. This is the guy who wrote Thank You For Smoking. These are some essays and pieces he's written over the years for the New Yorker and The New Republic. I picked this up my senior year of high school when I was feeling smart for knowing who Christopher Buckley was. Anyway, it was worth the money. I really liked this collection quite a bit, and whipped through it over the course of a week. Very funny in a 'Oh, how amusing,' and said with an appropriate sneer and a pinch of snuff. As wry as the title says. I really recommend this collection. I think Oscar Wilde would have liked this book. It's good, smart (and therefore guilt free!) plane, train, or automobile reading.
—Kelly
