Word: blackford
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...analyzed himself: "I am, for all my passions, implacably, I think almost unfailingly fair; objective, just." Some readers thought that autobiographical judgment was self-parody, but in fact it is largely true. One proof lies in Buckley's latest spy novel, See You Later Alligator, the sixth adventure of Blackford Oakes, secret agent...
...this thriller about Cuba at the time of the 1962 missile crisis, Buckley, the archetypal conservative, presents a Che Guevara who turns out to be a humane and tragic figure; even Fidel Castro, between bouts of egomania, is a | fully developed antagonist. The least satisfactory character, curiously, is Blackford Oakes, a CIA soloist whose IQ seems to be only a couple of digits higher than James Bond...
...conservative. On the contrary, Buckley defines the Peter Pan syndrome of politics, forever lost in the dodges that spell success in prep school, now substituting serious political essays on supply side economics for explications of Victorian poetry. In his first spy novel, Buckley had his obviously autobiographically based Yalie Blackford Oakes finish his mission Saving the Queen with a final climax in the private royal chambers. The real life Buckley probably wouldn't go that far outside his imagination but the pranks still go on. At a swearing-in session for a friend, Buckley finished his remarks with a video...
...this jaunty medley of 1950s history and spy fiction. Through diplomatic freeze and thaw, William F. Buckley Jr., editor of the National Review, has always kept his ideological thermostat set at a conservative 32° F. In his fourth novel-entertainment, he again slips into the adventurous alter id, Blackford Oakes, the dashing Yalie spook who first appeared in Saving the Queen...
...first satellite into orbit. While CIA Chief Allen Dulles frets and a viciously urbane Dean Acheson argues that a Soviet space triumph may be necessary to shake American complacency, the agency plans to kidnap a top Soviet scientist. Enter Buckley's later ego, ex-Yalie Blackford Oakes, fresh from triumphs in two earlier works (Saving the Queen, Stained Glass) and eager for yet another chance to save the world...