Synopses & Reviews
This is a novel about friendship, a novel that spans the decades that changed America forever.
Orson is a young boy whose mother works at a U.S. Army base in Germany in the 1950s. There, he becomes a fan of a G.I. stationed at the base, one Elvis Presley, whose music is played over and over on the radio. When Orson is caught stealing recordings of Elvis's tunes from the PX, the attendant publicity catches the star's attention, and he comes to visit his young fan. Thus begins a lifelong friendship. As Elvis's career rockets ever higher and his behavior becomes ever more erratic, the two share many adventures. The sixties explode, and Elvis becomes the icon of the nation, while Orson, a college demonstrator, drifts away from regular life while looking for something of substance to believe in. Each man is an emblem of his time, as social conventions crumble, barriers fall, and the cultural landscape changes forever.
A panorama of change and dissent, of the ability of friends to stay true despite distance and time, Elvis in the Morning portrays a nation in change and the effects of celebrity on innocence.
Review
"[The novel is] a valid way to present 30 years of American social history, certainly, but Buckley's version has a sketchy, arbitrary quality, where themes are undeveloped and cause and effect unexplored....And most disappointing of all, Buckley has chosen not to employ the trademark witty style that made his Oakes series such a delight. Instead, he has adopted a bland and democratic tone that suggests certain of today's more popular authors. He meanders along, making no intellectual demands and trying to get by on sincerity and good will. As for [Elvis], he is strictly the TV-movie version -- kind and generous, spoiled and unknowable, but still, now and forever, the King....Elvis in the Morning is a bad novel but a fascinating one....What it reveals is a soul full of longing and sensitivity who believes in the power of popular music to heal damaged lives, in the innate dignity of the common man, and in the ineffable magic of a really deep male friendship." Robert Plunket, The New York Times Book Review
Review
Praise for
Spytime"A quiet-time read for those who like their espionage erudite and their intelligence intelligent."-USA Today
"Thoroughly accessible...Taken purely as drama, Spytime is absorbing." -The Seattle Times
"The ultimate in spy novels-with real characters and studied speculation on certain events by Buckley, who met many of the key players-this is a tense, heroic tale of a real Cold War legend."-The New York Daily News
Review
PRAISE FOR
ELVIS IN THE MORNING"This is a low-key pleasure of a read, a nostalgic take that eschews mush and a heartfelt tribute to the tragic figure who touched so many lives."--Publishers Weekly (boxed)
"(A) quirky look at the life of Elvis and at an American era."--The New York Daily News
"There are rich veins to mine just below the surface of this fairy tale. The author merges fictional characters with historical figures and events reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime."--The Tennessean
"It's gripping, stylish, funny, and moving. Who knows? Rolling Stone might even have to acknowledge its excellence."--The Oxford American
"(A) canny fourteenth novel, which sparkles with the borrowed allure of charismatic, real-life figures."--Book
PRAISE FOR SPYTIME
"The ultimate in spy novels--with real characters and studied speculation on certain events by Buckley, who met many of the key players-this is a tense, heroic tale of a real Cold War legend."--The New York Daily News
"Spytime is a quiet-time read for those who like their espionage erudite and their intelligence intelligent."--USA Today
Synopsis
A novel about friendship, celebrity, social change, and Elvis Presley set in the turbulent '60s.
About the Author
William F. Buckley Jr. is the founder of the National Review and was the host of what was television's longest-running program, Firing Line. The author of thirteen other novels, many of them bestsellers, he lives in Connecticut.