SOURCE: “Washington's Power Eaters,” in The Wall Street Journal, February 17, 1987, p. 32.

In the following review, McLellan offers unfavorable assessment of The Dinner Party.

Recently, an attractive woman told me of attending a Washington dinner party with a lobbyist beau. During the evening, she met a bigwig she had once expressed a fleeting desire to know.

Next morning, her lover mailed her a bill: “For Introduction: $600.”

Romantic, no? No. Romance is never invited to Washington dinner parties; the lingering glance and secret touch are out of place. Introduction is the main course: “Persuasion, meet Power.”

Over snowy napery and gleaming silver, their faces magically softened by candlelight and their wits sharpened by wine. Washington's great, near-great, and Oh-God-if-I-pull-this-one-off-I'll-be-great gather for their kind of dinner party.

It is the kind where you hustle clients, push causes, and, after careful premeditation, pass, share and relish the tastiest dish of the night...