But Enough About You: Essays

Buckley (They Eat Puppies, Don't They??) explains that his favorite writer is Evelyn Waugh and when he's on track his jaunty prose crackles like Waugh's did. Unfortunately, Buckley is often off course in this collection of occasional pieces from the past 25 years. Most were written for magazines—the New York Times magazine, Forbes, The Daily Beast—and they show it. They're short and zappy but eminently forgettable, too-quick takes on subjects that would have benefited from lengthier analysis. The best essays spread out more: for example, an appreciation of George H.W. Bush, another on P.G. Wodehouse, and a perceptive commentary on Gore Vidal's usually vitriolic genius. The travel essays are all solid, too, including a chilling description of the author's visit to the concentration camp, Auschwitz. But an entry on Joseph Heller, with whom Buckley was friendly and thus hopefully better placed to write something perceptive about, is disappointingly bland.