Awards
A New York Times Notable Book for 1999
Synopses & Reviews
The strange land of Washington, D.C., is teeming with aliens, politicians, and other bizarre life-forms. Beltway insider and stuffy talk show host John Oliver Banion finds his privileged life turned topsy-turvy when he is abducted by aliens from his exclusive country-club golf course. When he is abducted a second time, he believes he has found his true calling and, in the most pasionate crusade of his life, demands that Congress and the White House seriously investigate the existence of extraterrestrials and UFOs. Friends and family, meanwhile, urge Banion to seek therapy before his reputation is ruined for good.
A comic tour de force from "one of the best and surest political humorists in America" (Los Angeles Times Book Review), Little Green Men is an uproarious comedy of manners that proves once and for all that the truth is out there. Way out there.
Review
"Buckley is surely the premier social satirist of our age. Fresh from his skewering of the culture wars in Thank You for Smoking, he now turns his attention to another rich corner of American self-parody—alien abductions. In this highly amusing excursion into the Twilight Zone, Buckley introduces us to John Oliver Banion, Washington TV pundit, who just happens to be abducted while playing golf at his exclusive country club (and again while en route to an auto dealer's convention in Palm Springs). Could anything more go awry in Banion's highly structured, highly certain world? Indeed, it can. Let us say merely that Banion gains a greater appreciation of the deviancy of government (and the governance of deviancy) by the end of this saga than would ever have been possible from his exalted position 'inside the Beltway.'" Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"[A] fine comic confection....Buckley's satire is poised always sharp but never sour." The New Yorker
Review
"[T]he true strength of this witty, high-spirited romp is its whirlwind plot....It is clear on just about every page...that Christopher Buckley had enormous fun writing [this book]." Mordecai Richler, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A prankster's greatest fantasy....A decidedly bawdy book, with that classic Monty Python mixture of highbrow satire and lowbrow ribaldry." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
Review
"Buckley's eye for paramilitary and media-driven nonsense remains keen, and the book hums with hilarious one-liners....The dizzily mixed result isn't much of a novel, though its a highly amusing and likable entertainment." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Alas, while Buckley's new satire, Little Green Men, offers some laugh-out-loud moments, it deteriorates half-way into amusing shtick....It sputters out rather than builds to a conclusion. Like a sighted UFO." Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
Review
"This well-written political and social satire from the author of Wry Martinis is highly recommended for all popular collections." Library Journal
Synopsis
A comic tour de force from one of the best and surest political humorists in America (Los Angeles Times Book Review), Little Green Men is an uproarious comedy of manners that proves once and for all that the truth is out there. Way out there.
The strange land of Washington, D.C., is teeming with aliens, politicians, and other bizarre life-forms. Beltway insider and stuffy talk show host John Oliver Banion finds his privileged life turned topsy-turvy when he is abducted by aliens from his exclusive country-club golf course. When he is abducted a second time, he believes he has found his true calling and, in the most passionate crusade of his life, demands that Congress and the White House seriously investigate the existence of extraterrestrials and UFOs. Friends and family, meanwhile, urge Banion to seek therapy before his reputation is ruined for good.
About the Author
Christopher Buckley, whose novel themovie is based on, is the editor of ForbesFYI magazine and the author of elevenbooks, many of them national bestsellers,including Thank You for Smoking. He isthe winner of the distinguished ThurberPrize for American humor.Jean Strouse won the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for her biography Alice James. She lives in New York City.