Overall, the White House Mess is an enjoyable political satire pretending wearing the mask of a political memoir. The context would have probably been appreciated more at the time of its original publishing, but Buckley skewers timeless characteristics of politics--governmental and inter-office. Buckley fully inhabits the voice of Herb Wadlough even in the Acknowledgements stating, "I should also thank Christopher Buckley, who rendered editorial assistance in the preparation of the manuscript." The wordplay is smart, and the narrator is ever self-conscious of the political memoir genre to the point where he admits to have written it for the money.

I definitely would recommend this book for fans of Buckley. If you have yet to read any of his work, I would start with a more contemporary work. ( )

Not even close to Buckley's best book, but still a great read. ( )

The White House Mess, Buckley's first novel, is not quite as sharp and not quite as funny as Boomsday and Florence of Arabia. The ludicrous political situation is there (revolution in Bermuda), but I just didn't laugh out loud at this one. All the same, if you're in the mood for political satire and you've already gone through a bunch of other Buckleys, this one isn't a bad choice. ( )

Evidently Buckley’s first novel, a pseudo-memoir written by a senior staffer of a disastrous, post-Reagan democratic presidency. It had some funny moments, but either it has not aged well, or it lacks the cohesion of Buckley’s more recent satires. ( )

Buckley seems to be more concerned with getting in digs at Democrats and Europe and other Washington insiders. The blurbs on the back are all from Washington insiders (George Will, John Kenneth Galbraith, David A. Stockman, and Bob Woodward). It might be funny to them and other politicos. It’s good that they can laugh at themselves. Uproariously funny at a Washington cocktail party of the time I’m sure. But not outside the beltway.

(Full review at my blog) ( )