Little Green Men: A Novel
by Christopher Buckley, Random House Inc.
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher Buckley, Random House Inc.Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-02
ISBN: 0060955570
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Little Green Men: A Novel
Book Review: Very entertaining UFO-political alternate-history humorous satire
Summary: 5 Stars
John Oliver Banion (note 1) hosts an influential political talking-
headshow on TV. He has a beautiful house in Georgetown, a
permanent spot on the "A" list of every Washington hostess of note,
and commands lecture fees of $25,000 and up. Life is good -- until
he's abducted by aliens at the fourth hole of the Burning Bush golf
course. And, um, *probed*. And abducted again a few weeks later,
on his way to give a lecture to the American Auto Consumer
Association, a trade group for foreign-car dealers.
Nathan Scrubbs is Manager of Abductions for Majestic-12. a
supersecret bureau that was started in 1947 to convince Joe Stalin
that the US had found advanced alien technology at the Roswell,
NM "crash" site. Like all government programs, it's acquired a life of
its own: "A country convinced that little green men were hovering
over the rooftops [would be] inclined to vote yea for big weapons and
space programs." In recent years, MJ-12 has turned to abductions and
cattle-mutilations to maintain belief in UFO's. Staff mathematicians
have devised a credibility algorithm for determining who to abduct
next. Usually the program picks overweight housewives, but
credibility figures are down, and Scrubbs has decided he needs a
more prominent abductee.
Banion's wife, agent and TV-show sponsor are, well, not pleased
when he begins a high-profile campaign to uncover the "truth"
about alien abductions. But the UFO fans love it -- he's the most
respectable spokesman they've ever had. Soon he has no wife, a new
sponsor, a new hit TV show, and is calling for a "Millenium Man
March" on Washington, to demand congressional UFO hearings.
Except his televised call-to-arms is mysteriously interrupted with
clips from "Space Bimbos from Planet Lust", a simulcast on the
Yearning Channel....
I can't say much more without spoiling the fun, but no plot outline
can convey Buckley's sly humor, surreal plot, equal-opportunity
skewers and deadpan delivery. I find it remarkable that he can keep
delivering wonderful one-liners, deadly gigs at thinly-disguised
("Senator Bore") politicos, and weird but almost-believable scenarios
for 300 pages. Buckley notes that the CIA actually did run such a
scam in the early 60's. And he quotes First Friend/felon Webster
Hubbell's assignment from Pres. Clinton: "One: who killed JFK?
And two, are there UFO's?" Which may account for Mr. Clinton
expressing an interest in Buckley's project that "seemed to go beyond
the merely polite." Or are these more put-ons? (note 2)
Suffice it to say that, if you liked "Thank You for Smoking", LGM is
for you. And if you missed "Smoking" (note 3), you have *two*
treats in store. Highly, and enthusiastically, recommended.
1) Think George F. Will, and note Banion's initials.
2) I was unable to verify Buckley's factual(?) statements, above. But
stranger things have happened:
"In the [3-10-99] N.Y. Times there's an obituary of the CIA guy who
did all of the LSD experiments, Sidney Gottlieb. He just died at 80. His
hobbies were folk dancing and herding goats. He loved LSD: he took it,
and I quote, "hundreds of times." He conducted 150 separate mind-
control experiments. One guy jumped out a window and was killed.
I'll just read you a bit: "Government documents and court records show
that at least one participant died, others went mad, and still others
suffered psychological damage after participating in the project,
known as MK-Ultra." The experiments were useless, Mr. Gottlieb
concluded, shortly before he retired in 1972. The CIA awarded Mr.
Gottlieb the Distinguished Intelligence Medal...
...We must soldier on, despite the appalling odds against
our coming up with something more piquant than the morning
headlines."
(from author interview at amazon.com)
3) Wm. J. Clinton, on "Smoking": "That's the funniest g0ddam book
I've ever read!" Your reviewer concurs.
(from author interview at amazon.com)
Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Review published 1999 at SF Site
Summary of Little Green Men: A Novel
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 uproacious comedy of manners that proves once and for all that the truth is out there. Way out there.
In Christopher Buckley's hilarious fourth novel, Washington, D.C., is naturally enough a place of sex, lies, and videotape. Unfortunately for Little Green Men's pundit protagonist, John Oliver Banion, it is also the HQ of Majestic Twelve, a very, very covert government project. Since "that golden Cold War summer of 1947," MJ-12 has had a single mission--to convince taxpayers that space invaders are constantly lurking below what's left of the ozone layer. "A country convinced that little green men were hovering over the rooftops was inclined to vote yea for big weapons and space programs," the author thoughtfully explains.
But one disgruntled operative wants out. Nathan Scrubbs is fed up to the back teeth with the art of alien abduction--not to mention his cover as a Social Security flunky--so when his request for a transfer is quashed, he drunkenly decides to take it out on ubiquitous ultra-prig Banion, who happens to be on TV at the time. The ensuing high-tech kidnap, at Maryland's Burning Bush Country Club, is only one of the thousands of convulsively funny scenes in Little Green Men. Not that the novel isn't a skewed morality play of some sort: as Banion comes to believe in Tall Nordics and Short Ugly Grays, he is quickly removed from every A-list in town. But oddly enough, social and political disaster turns out to be as liberating as the finest alien probe. Let's just say that long before Banion and Scrubbs have a close encounter at the Millennium Man March on Washington, this Beltway barrel of monkeys attains a truly extraplanetary level of amusement. --Kerry Fried
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