As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was interested in reading this book because I had heard that it had an LDS protagonist. After reading it, I have to say that it is one of the oddest books I've ever read. It's an historical novel whose apparent purpose is to give a behind-the-scenes look at the American conservative movement from 1960 to 1965, with particular emphasis on the marginalization of the John Birch Society and the self-destruction of Ayn Rand's Objectivist movement. There are 4 pages of notes at the end, which Buckley includes to show that he's not making the important parts up.

The parts that Buckley did make up, including the LDS protagonist Woodroe Raynor and his Objectivist girlfriend Leonora Goldstein, are remarkably bland. Maybe I've been reading some really well-written books recently, because, in comparison to what I'm now used to, the writing in Getting It Right seems mediocre at best. I've been a Buckley fan for over 40 years and own lots of his books, so I was quite shocked at how little I cared for this latest one.

I remember a Buckley newspaper column that appeared in the 1980s (I think) that praised the selfless labors of LDS missionaries. I appreciated the plug, but the column left me with the impression that Buckley didn't know much about what Mormon missionary service was really about. Getting It Right strengthened that impression. Woodroe served his mission in Austria in 1955 and, as far as I can tell, did absolutely no proselytizing but instead taught English classes. Maybe restrictions on the Church in Austria at the time prevented tracting, but it seems odd that Woodroe has no companion, has practically no apparent involvement with religion, and apparently gets to do pretty much what he wants where he wants when he's not teaching class.

Woodroe has sex with a girl he meets in Hungary during his mission and is apparently best described as a lapsed Mormon in the account of his post-mission life, in which he drinks, swears, and fornicates fairly regularly. There is, however, a curious conversation he has with Theocritus Romney, a (lapsed?) Mormon professor at Princeton, in which Woodroe says: "I can't remember if in your course you commented on how the Chinese railroad workers were treated when they crossed God's country. That's *our* *God*, Theo. I haven't forgotten. Other Christians get it almost right. We get it *all* right." I didn't read this remark as sarcastic. Does he still believe? If so, why all the wayward behavior, behavior for which he apparently feels no guilt whatsoever?

Some random comments:

(1) Why the name Woodroe? Sure, Mormons have weird names, but that doesn't sound much like anything on the Utah Baby Namer to me.

(2) There are interesting references to Utah geography. Woodroe is allegedly from Salt Lake but he shows the people he meets in Hungary where that is by making "a pencil dot on the north end of the Great Salt Lake". North? Theocritus Romney is painting a mural on his (New Jersey) ceiling that is supposed to show "the view of the Rockies as seen from the window of his parents' Utah house", including "eleven peaks he had framed in memory". The 3 peaks mentioned by name are Provo Peak, Mt. Timpanogos, and Mt. Olympus. I'm not sure that there was a populated location that long ago from which you could see Provo Peak and Mt. Olympus.

(3) In 1962, Theocritus makes some comment to Woodroe about visiting a lady friend in New York and adds, "I know what you're thinking. I'm rather old for that. Well, I'm only seventy-two. Your Ezra Taft Benson is what, a hundred and seven?" Why the impression that President Benson was old in 1962? He was 63 at the time. Comparing that to the age of some of the major real-life characters in the book, Robert Welch (founder of the JBS) was only 3 months younger, Goldwater was 10 years younger, Rand was 6 years younger, and Eisenhower was 10 years older, but Buckley didn't make a big deal about their ages.

(4) Most interesting fact I learned from this book: Alan Greenspan was once part of Ayn Rand's inner circle.

(5) It is *really* weird hearing the omniscient narrator repeatedly refer to "Bill Buckley" in the third person. ( )

Not a Great Novel in the Henry James tradition, but illuminating of the times and the ideas. And WFB's portrait of Ayn Rand is hilarious. Worth a read. ( )