|
| |
Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital
by Christopher Buckley
Offbeat, often funny tour guide to Washington, D.C.
Christopher Buckley's Washington Schlepped Here: Walking the Nation's Capital is an impressionistic guide to Washington, D.C. The book, divided into four walking tours, makes no attempt to cover everything (e.g. there is no mention of the FBI Building). It's as if a witty friend who lived in Washington told about acting like a tourist there for a week.
Buckley says he went to Washington during the Reagan administration to work as a speech writer for then Vice-President George Bush. He planned to stay a year, fell in love with the city, and has been there ever since. Buckley-- the author of Washington satires such as No Way to Treat a First Lady and the hilarious Little Green Men—continues his skewering here too where he can. The humor, however, is balanced with solemnity during a visit to the United States Holocaust Museum and an almost patriotic awe during his amble through Arlington National Cemetery. Though Christopher Buckley is the son of conservative William F. Buckley, and a self-proclaimed Republican, the GOP does not escape a couple of barbs. How many Republicans, the author asks, does it take to change a light bulb? Three, one to change the bulb, one to stir the martinis, and one to reminisce how good the old bulb was.
Buckley augments his tour book with entertaining historical anecdotes and stories about his years in the White House. He recalls “surreal” outdoor ceremonies, held in the sweltering Washington summers, when uniformed soldiers taking part would faint, sometimes four or five of them. It was the protocol for them to be left unattended on the ground until the ceremony was over. One such time, Anwar Sadat was being welcomed to the White House, and it was “a million degrees,” Though Sadat, an Egyptian, was sweating profusely, Ronald Reagan had nary a drop of perspiration. Buckley comments, “It was as if they kept him in a freezer overnight.” In another story, the author notes an eerie coincidence--Robert Todd Lincoln, who was there when his father Abraham Lincoln succumbed to an assassin's bullet, was also present at the assassinations of presidents James A. Garfield and William McKinley.
As a good tour guide, Buckley notes one tourist attraction, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, which he advises visitors to skip because of the rudeness of its staff. In sum, Washington Schlepped Here would be an agreeable if off-beat tour book to take while walking around Washington, but it also makes enjoyable reading for anyone who has ever been to the capital.
Title: Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital
Author: Christopher Buckley
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1400046874
Review written by: William Keogan
Reviewer's Rating:8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
|
