Supreme Courtship

by: Christopher Buckley; read by Anne Heche

Published by: Twelve Books

Reviewed by Michelle Kerns

“Nothing raises the national temperature more,” writes Christopher Buckley in Supreme Courtship, “than a vacancy sign hanging from the colonnaded front of the Supreme Court.” Fictional president Donald Vanderdamp (whose approval ratings are in the “high twenties”) finds out how difficult a job filling the spot can be. Two of his stellar candidates for the seat are taken out by the head-hunting Senate Judiciary Committee. In frustration, President Vanderdamp decides to give the committee a candidate they won’t dare turn down—Judge Pepper Cartwright: young, sassy, and the star of television’s highest rated show, Courtroom 6.

The havoc that ensues is political satire at its finest and driest. Buckley mercilessly skewers everything political from presidential campaigns to lobbyists to the overweening egos of Supreme Court justices. He even throws in an oh-so-thinly disguised parody of a certain senator from Connecticut that will make Republicans snort into their coffee.

Anne Heche’s reading is the stuff that dreams are made of. Heche breathes such life into each character’s individual accent and manner of speaking that it is easy to forget that only one person is speaking. All are brought to life vividly and believably. Buckley himself couldn’t have hand-picked a better voice as the narrator: Heche manages to wring every ounce of dry humor from each satirical sentence.

Supreme Courtship is a breath of fresh air in a year bedeviled with financial crises and political wrangling.

Armchair Interviews says: Supreme Courtship is an outstandingly funny political satire made even more memorable by Anne Heche’s stellar performance.