And Rightly So

May 8, 2009

I've written before that the Conservative Book Club offers not just "conservative books" but also "books of interest to conservatives." One of our Main Selections this month definitely fits into that second category. Anybody who's interested in William F. Buckley, Jr. -- and what American conservative isn't? -- is going to want to read Christopher Buckley's memoir of his parents: Losing Mum and Pup. Bill Buckley and National Review were indispensable to American conservatism. Without Buckley's energy, his high intellectual standards, his generous temperament, and his courtesy to friend and foe alike, conservatives would never have achieved the success we did. Losing Mum and Pup sheds new light on the career and personality of a remarkable conservative hero.

The book is also the intimate story of that terrifying, rewarding, even strangely exhilarating experience that any of us who've seen beloved parents through a serious illness to death remember -- with deep pain, but also with gratitude. Bill Buckley was always larger than life; his last months were no exception to that rule.

No doubt some on the Left will seize on the revelations in this book as a chance to dance on Buckley's grave and, by extension, on the conservative movement: "The great conservative icon took sleeping pills!" "He thought about committing suicide!" But those of us who love both Buckley and the movement he godfathered will be grateful for a last affectionate warts-and-all look at this truly amazing man.

Christopher Buckley brings qualities that no one else can to this account of William F. Buckley's final months. He's clearly inherited his father's writing talent (though, as he confesses, not Bill Buckley's legendary writing speed -- interestingly, Christopher sees himself, even as a writer, as more his mother's son than his father's). And of course he knew his father in ways that no colleague, however close, ever could.

On the other hand, Christopher Buckley is not really a conservative. At best he's a libertarian -- and a somewhat confused libertarian, at that. After all, last year he made headlines by endorsing the most extreme statist ever to run on a major party ticket for President of the United States. (Like a lot of once-enthusiastic "Obamacons" he's now entered the "What was in that Kool-Aid I drank?" stage.) But even the very political differences between father and son are food for thought for conservatives, especially those of us who are trying to pass our heritage along to children and grandchildren. Why didn't William F. Buckley succeed in transmitting his political principles (or more of them, anyway) to his son? My guess, after pondering this fascinating memoir, is that it has a lot to do with religion. But read and judge for yourself.