GREETINGS FROM THE LINCOLN BEDROOM

Having failed to get her ex-husband elected to office, Greek-American heiress Arianna Huffington at least succeeded in placing herself on the national stage as a conservative political gadfly. In this bawdy, satirical Alice-in-Wonderland novel, she buys a weekend at the White House, where she has a series of fantastic adventures. How clever and incisive you find her will probably depend on your political allegiances. As narrator, the author's thick Greek accent and total tin ear to comic timing do little to enhance the jokes. Most of the humor is unintentional, as when the mispronounced "Clinton laughed jocularly" becomes "Clinton laughed jugularly." Hearing American-style political satire delivered in Greek intonations adds an interesting--and also unintended--dimension to the book about what and who is an American. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 98]