Little Green Men

A Novel

By: Christopher Buckley

Narrated by: Mark Linn-Baker

In 1994, Christopher Buckley published one of the most acclaimed and successful comic novels of the decade, Thank You for Smoking. Now Buckley returns to the strange land of Washington, D.C., in Little Green Men, a millennial comedy of manners about aliens and pundits . . . and how much they have in common.

The reluctant hero of this hilarious novel is John Oliver Banion, a stuffy Washington talk-show host, whose privileged life is thrown into upheaval when aliens abduct him from his exclusive country-club golf course.

But were his gray-skinned captors aliens . . . or something far more sinister? After Banion is abducted again--this time in Palm Springs--he believes he has been chosen by the extraterrestrials to champion the most important cause of the millennium, and he embarks on a crusade, appearing before a convention of UFO believers and demanding that Congress and the White House seriously investigate UFOs. His friends and family suspect that Banion is having some kind of manic-depressive midlife crisis and urge him to seek therapy before his credibility as a pillar of the punditocracy is ruined.

So John Oliver Banion must choose: keep his establishment status or become the leader of millions of impassioned and somewhat scruffy new friends who want to expose the government's secret alien agenda.

Little Green Men proves once and for all that the truth is out there. Way out there. And it reaffirms Christopher Buckley's status as the funniest humanoid writer in the universe.


Coming soon from Christopher Buckley: One of Our Whales Is Missing©1999 Christopher Buckley; (P)1999 Random House, Inc., Banta Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Little Green Men is a delicious, ingenious treat. Christopher Buckley is an author of many talents, with a range of abilities that includes a penetrating comic intelligence and a deft flair for storytelling that makes this novel a truly joyous page-turner."
--Joseph Heller

What distinguished literary critics are saying about Christopher Buckley

"One of the best and surest political humorists in America."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"One of the rarest specimens, the authentically comic writer."
--The Boston Globe

"One of the best social satirists of his generation."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A superb writer of politically incorrect satire."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Washington's pre-eminent satirist."
--The Washington Monthly

"A smoother, funnier and more refined heir apparent to Art Buchwald's throne."
--Publishers Weekly

if you like humor & satire this is a great book

love love love this book
if you do too, try NO WAY TO TREAT A FIRST LADY, same author

Buckley's endgame is very poor in this book

This was the second Buckley novel I have listened to, but since then I have listened to one more. Each one starts off with a great premise and loads of roman a clef characters, countries, etc.

But this one, like the other two, peters out at the end.

In fact, this one peters out even worse than the other two.

The author knows how to set up the situation, but once having written himself into a corner, doesn't know how to get out.

It's as if he suddenly realized that the manuscript is due and so he ends if without any of the cleverness and care taken in the beginning of the book.

But as pure ear-candy, it's not that bad. And the narrator of this book is quite good.

Laughing Gas

In Buckley's Little Green Men government "baggers" go around snatching overweight women and thereby ensuring continuing funding for space and defense research. Then in a moment of drunken inspiration, they kidnap John O. Banion, and things get interesting. If you've read Thank You For Smoking or No Way To Treat A First Lady, you already know that Buckley can make you laugh. What you may not know is that no matter what the subject matter, Buckley has a way with words and an insider's view of Washington that will make you snicker at first, and later roll with laughter. Instead of wincing at the "conspiracy theory" adopted in the book, you'll find yourself nodding along, captivated with the world Buckley creates. This one is a five star triumph!

The Truth really isn’t Out There

Christopher Buckley has a well earned reputation as one of the best political satirists around, so I was extremely curious when I heard he wrote a Sci-fi novel. I don’t know that this story strictly fits into that genera, but it sure was funny. Remember the weird public fascination with “true” alien abduction stories back in the 90s? This novel answers the question, “What if the U. S. government decided to take those investigations way more seriously?”

WARNING: There are some rape jokes in here, so I can’t recommend this book for everyone. Also, the audio quality is less than ideal. Still, if those problems don’t totally turn you off, check this out. This is the first of his novel I’ve ever read, but it certainly won’t be my last.

Imagine Walter Cronkite Probed by an Alien

This novel is a hoot! I was half way through before I looked it up and found it was political satire from 20 + years ago. As a stand alone novel it shines!

Synopsis: The main character is like Walter Cronkite the old new anchor a very VERY serious high in demand and the toast of Washington DC society guy. Then he gets kidnapped and well.... probed (snicker!!!). Now think what would Walter do? Ignore it? Chalk it up to too much sun? Sometimes it takes getting probed 2 times before people start to take the alien invasion seriously (!)

This is a funny novel that follows the lives of 2 very different people. There's the rich powerful abductee, and the poor government black ops guy that gets drunk one night and orders an abduction on THE WRONG person. In capital letters! When they explained how and why the US government gets into the abduction business I howled with laughter.

The characters in the novel have such funny names that are about as subtle as Pilgrims Progress names (which are as subtle as an anvil dropping on the coyote's head). The only reason I gave it 4.5 stars for overall is that it seemed like it should be punched up just a little bit. I wish they had included more from the view point of the "probers" . I bet this would make a great move or Netflix novella. 5 Stars for the performance.