![]() It’s all meant to be self-consciously amusing, but much of the humor is tedious, and quirks stand in for character.Ī hotbed of deception, terrorism, and global intrigue fuels this debut thriller. (It spells “beer” on a telephone.) He describes a shirt as having a smell of “total MoonPie wrapper.” In a spasm of insight toward the end of the novel, Ovenman exclaims: “Suddenly I am risking my job, the only real connection I have to anything in this life.” At least here he acknowledges that the stakes are fairly high. When he sets a lock combination, for example, it must be 23-3-7 because it’s the only one he can remember. Ovenman tends to simplify life to conform to his self-acknowledged limitations. ![]() The plot is episodic: Marigold breaks her back trying a maneuver on a bike (at Ovenman’s behest) Ovenman tries to get away with whatever funds he can embezzle from Piecemeal Ovenman gets pierced against his will in the most painful place imaginable at Second Skin Piercing Ovenman seeks out his “biodad” in Ohio for an abortive homecoming. Ovenman literally makes notes of things (“Pizza is Power” “I am Ovenman”) all on post-its that he puts on whatever surface is available, including his body. This is the kind of place where people are identified by their social or culinary functions rather than by their names-or rather, their function becomes their names: Thin Pie Guy, Pasta Dude, Front Girl, Salad Bitch. He’s a denizen of Florida, lover of Marigold, friend of Blaise and aficionado of skateboards and street bikes, his favorite being a “Haro with the kinky triangular frame.” Although he’s recently lost his job as pit cook at Ken’s Barbie-Q, life is looking up when he finds a position as Ovenman at Piecemeal Pizza By The Slice, a microcosm of the weird subculture When inhabits. Narrator When Thinfinger is the eponymous character. Yet questions remain: Why is the president so unpopular? (He vetoes every spending bill, which would surely enrage Congress, but shouldn’t upset the public.) Why does Pepper take all the heat for every split decision? (Four other justices vote with her, and the court had a history of 5-4 decisions before her arrival.) Why does Buckley think it’s enough to give his characters funny names (Blyster Forkmorgan, Esquire, et al.) rather than develop them?Įven Buckley fans might suspect that he’s begun to crank them out a little too quickly.Ī novel of pizza parlors, skateboarding, tattoos and piercings-needless to say, it’s a portrait of the ’90s. ![]() After a politician-turned-TV-actor challenges for the presidency, the novel inevitably reaches its climax as the contested race is left to the court to decide. She also becomes estranged from her husband, a reality-show producer, and involved with the chief justice, whose wife left him for a woman immediately after the court sanctioned gay marriage. Instead of relying on the common sense and colloquial language that have made her such a hit as a TV personality, she tries her best to apply legal precedent befitting the Supreme Court, thus alienating many of her fellow justices and most of the public. ![]() After she sails through the confirmation process, both the new justice and the novel seem to lose their way. With his popularity at an all-time low and with no intention of running for a second term, the president then dares the Senate to reject his third nominee, America’s most popular jurist, Pepper Cartwright of television’s highly rated Courtroom Six. On a Supreme Court as divided as the country, President Donald Vanderdamp finds his first two nominees to fill a crucial vacancy rejected on the shakiest of grounds (one wrote a grade-school review of To Kill a Mockingbird and found parts of the movie “kind of boring”). The satiric scenario has plenty of potential, but sketchy characters and slapdash plotting result in a split decision. As before, Buckley ( Boomsday, 2007, etc.) blurs the line distinguishing the historical, the plausible and the preposterous amid the political circus of anything-goes Washington. ![]()
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