Holidays in Hell

Rating:
Summary: Hillarious
Review: Hillarious. Make all the "cultural sensitivity" types read it. Make Madeline Albright do a book report on it. Have P.J. read it out loud to the UN General Assembly. Dave Barry WISHES he was this guy.

Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BEFORE YOU GO ON SOME ASININE RICK STEVES TOUR
Review: Holidays in Hell written by P.J. O'Rourke is one of the funniest book I've ever read. Oh, O'Rourke makes all of his homespun flipancy work in this book.

From the war-torn shores of Lebanon to banal Panama, P.J. O'Rourke gives us the low-down on what its like to travel to place that really aren't the meccas of tourism... and the funny consequenses that follow as only seen throught the eyes of one of today's funniest people.

If you want a good belly laugh then this is your book... I guarentee that you'll be laughing hard before you get finished with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Holidays in Hell
Review: Holidays in Hell written by P.J. O'Rourke is one of the funniest book I've ever read. Oh, O'Rourke makes all of his homespun flipancy work in this book.

From the war-torn shores of Lebanon to banal Panama, P.J. O'Rourke gives us the low-down on what its like to travel to place that really aren't the meccas of tourism... and the funny consequenses that follow as only seen throught the eyes of one of today's funniest people.

If you want a good belly laugh then this is your book... I guarentee that you'll be laughing hard before you get finished with this book.

Rating:
Summary: OUR MAN IN HAITI
Review: I have always enjoyed O'Rourke's sense of the absurd, however, he has really connected with the reality - the unreality - of Haiti. Beneath the humor lies a great deal of truth, dealt with in a sympathetic manner. One interesting, bizarre element was his contact with a Canadian in the American intelligence service. He tells of meeting Lynn Garrison in Grand Quartier General, Haiti's military headquarters, where he was - of all things - serving as military spokesman, in addition to his duties as special advisor to General Raoul Cedras, the nation's commander in chief. Lynn Garrison was the key factor in delaying the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide for three years. Later factors would prove he was right as evidence now points to Aristide's control of Haiti's cocaine trade.

Rating:
Summary: Dull, depressing, formulaic and not even funny
Review: I paid £1 for this in a sale. I was grossly overcharged. I read less than half of it before giving up.

O'Rourke can be amusing for a short time in the same way as a saloon bar loudmouth, but is equally tedious after any prolonged exposure. His formulaic writing style and ill-informed ranting are tiresome in the extreme. I can only assume that his popularity is down to a significant number of people who have similarly small minds and like to read someone who shares their prejudices and never challenges them.

Judging from this book, I'd be surprised if Mr O'Rourke ever gains any pleasure from travel. I would guess that he only does it to give himself something to write about - it's his job, after all.

Rating:
Summary: The Best of P.J. O'Rourke
Review: I read this in 1989, but I still like to go back to it. It's a classic and I believe, the best of P.J.'s books (I have almost all). Though, it seems dated now, going back to '80's history feels like yesterday and I have never forgotten certain lines, like when he was in bleak Warsaw, how "commies love cement." And if you think he encounters only the bizarre international world, his chapters on "Heritage USA (remember Jim & Tammy Bakker's Christian theme resort?) and Epcot Center remind us that the good 'ol USA has some wackiness of its own. His ramble through Lebanon (post Beirut war) where "the beaches, though shell-pocked...are not crowded and ruins of historical interest abound, in fact, block most streets" displays his intelligent humor for places lacking any humor at all. In fact, it reads like some Fodor's Travel Horror Guide, where in El Salvador "you pick [your hotel] according to the kind of fear you prefer."

Whether it was because P.J. was young, fresh and writing for Rolling Stone and other mags at the time, I don't know, but he has never quite matched this level of writing he set up for himself. His "All The Trouble In The World" would be my second pick if you like this one and I just don't see how anyone can't love "Holidays In Hell."

Rating:
Summary: Laugh out Loud, but it's All True!
Review: I think the book's piece about the rules of third world driving is one of the funniest things ever written.

PJ's been around the world enough times to have had every imaginable episode of culture shock, and he writes about these with fine humour. Although he writes about things like being stuck in the middle of a violent student protest demonstration in Seoul, he also includes destinations where bullets and tear gas don't figure into the plot.

I don't see any racism in the book, and in fact he blasts it in his piece on Apartheid South Africa which first appeared in The Rolling Stone. True, he's a Yank with Yank sensibilities, but that's where the humor comes in... anyone who's been confused by "the way we do things here" in a foreign country will appreciate O'Rourke's wry take on the exasperation and fear known by the stranger in a strange land.

His chapter on covering the America's Cup yacht race out of Fremantle, Australia, is pure genius.

A great addition to any travel library!

Rating:
Summary: First rate writing!
Review: I'll preface my review by saying that I really don't dig P.J.'s politics. This cat's just a little too conservative for my taste and at times can be a bit condescending towards his subject matter.

But...he's conservative and condescending in a damn funny way- so I forgive him.

Rating:
Summary: Being This Funny Should Be Against the Law
Review: No, this man is too much. I have never read anyone funnier or smarter. From his exalted brilliance in Parliament of Whores to his latest Eat the Rich, P.J. O'Rourke manages to make me laugh out loud on nearly every page. My husband is trying to sleep and I'm pulling his arm saying, just one more, let me read you just one more thing, and then we laugh till we cry. I don't know. P.J. should not be allowed to be this funny. His former editor in Rolling Stone told me that in real life he is every bit as mirthful. I will say that the cynicism has just got to end at EPCOT. I draw the line at Disney World. Everything else is up for grabs, Beirut, Warsaw, go ahead, yuck it up. But leave WDW alone; have you not been on the Maelstrom Ride?

Rating:
Summary: Not for the culturally squeamish.
Review: One of the most tasteless, yet insightful examinations of modern institutions written in the last couple of decades. O'Rourke, while making no pretension of objectivity or balance, skewers the Sandinistas, Harvard, Heritage USA, and many others. Don't worry about not liking O'Rourke's politics; the ludicrous imagery will have you laughing despite your conscience. To give you an idea of how irrestible this book is, I have given copies to a Jimmy Carter appointee and to an unrepentent feminisist. Both laughed uncontrollably. The JC apointee thanked me.