Characters
- Elizabeth Tyler MacMann — First Lady of the United States. On trial for murdering her cheating husband.
- Kenneth Kemble MacMann — the former President of the United States.
- Babette Van Anka — an air-headed movie star who had an affair with the president.
- Boyce Baylor — a "$1,000 an hour" attorney, hired to represent the first lady. Also, her former lover.
- Nick Naylor — a recurring character in Buckley novels, most well known as the tobacco lobbyist in Thank You for Smoking. He does public relations work for Van Anka during the trial.
- Harold Farkley — the vice-president who becomes president upon MacMann's death. Farkley's attempts to govern are constantly over-shadowed by the media-circus surrounding the trial.
Read more about this topic: No Way To Treat A First Lady
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets
All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)