The unlikely hero of this hilarious science fiction novel is a young Presidential aide named Ralph Bailey, whose primary duty each day is walk to the Blimpway and purchase for the President a ham and Swiss sandwich. However, in the course of this story, Ralph meets a lovely law student named Jessica, has his first encounter with aliens who are for some unknown reason presumed to be Jewish, and is appointed to be number nine hundred forty-ninth in the presidential order of succession. Meanwhile on Rigel-Rigel, home of the newly arrived Alien Ambassador, life goes on about the same as it does on earth, with the wife of the Ambassador to earth getting in a fender-bender, worrying about her husband being away from home, and dealing with PTA meetings. The novel continues with the first meeting between the aliens and the President.

Chapters are titled with lines of songs, and the author occasionally inserts his own commentary into the narrative, which works well in this context. This is a fun and light-hearted read, but also makes you think, just a little bit, about how ridiculous some of our human rites and assumptions are. ( )

Aliens have contacted the Earth, warning that we may be on a course for self-destruction, but the President of the United States is more concerned with the way his underwear keeps bunching up. Meanwhile, an alien physicist has calculated that the universe is about to end soon, which nobody is much concerned about at all. Also, there are alien PTA meetings, some insurance-scam car crashes, a boy-meets-girl story, and a lot of philosophizing. The author interrupts the story frequently to talk about himself and about what he's writing and to offer up various interesting facts, some of which are true. There's a odd obsession with raccoons, Chocodiles, and Sting (the musician). And most of the characters are, more or less, named after characters from The Simpsons.

It is, in other words, a weird, wacky mess of a book. As such, it works better than you might expect; lots of stuff that could have just felt ridiculous and annoying is at least moderately clever and funny. But it never completely clicked with me, and maybe halfway though the book, it suddenly occurred to me why. Mandery is trying very, very hard to be Kurt Vonnegut (whom he actually name-checks repeatedly throughout the book). Or something like Kurt Vonnegut mixed with a touch of Douglas Adams and doused in a sauce of pop culture references. And, well, I approve of the literary taste that displays, just as I approve of the author's musical taste. (Hey, I like Sting!) But trying to be Vonnegut is pretty much inevitably doomed to failure. I'm honestly not sure how Vonnegut managed to be Vonnegut. And Mandery, although he has enough talent to mostly keep this insanity of a novel together, just doesn't have Vonnegut's depth, or Vonnegut's bite. ( )

Clever, witty and hilarious. I haven't read something quite so entertaining in awhile. The book did slow down towards the end which was a bit disappointing but still kept it's charm. ( )

Pretty good. Funny, if a bit too Hitchhiker's-y. Likable characters, relatively creative. Wouldn't want to reread it, but it was a decent way to spend a short amount of time. ( )

I picked this book up on a whim. It looked like it could be fun, and it was.

The story is of first contact with aliens and earth. The aliens want to meet the President of the USA. Of course he is a shallow, selfish, dingbat who believes in god and guns and doubts science. His handlers try to minimize the damage his stupidity does generally, but are in over their heads with actual aliens.

The story is told from the Earth side by his aide, Ralph Bailey, and from the alien side by the Chief Negotiator and his wife (at home). The aliens are very laid-back, though they respond in-kind to violence.

Ralph meets a young woman and falls in love. He tries to manage his courtship while trying to keep the stupidity of the President from killing them all. He also has to deal with manipulation and politics from those on the staff who see a way to use the situation to build up their power base.

The Negotiator has problems with his wife and her having an accident and losing her license. The wife is trying to deal with their son who is doing poorly in school. She then becomes embroiled in a controversy about a teacher who is telling the students that the universe is going to end much sooner than expected. The parents don't dispute the science, just that teaching it to their children might frighten them.

On one level it was a charming lighthearted romp based in absurdity. On another level it was quite apt satire of the various ridiculous attitudes and actions we have adopted in the modern world. It was the reference to the 'Parrot Sketch' that stole my heart though. ( )