Holidays in Hell

Rating:
Summary: lacking Christian values
Review: As a red-blooded American Male steeped in U.S.A. hegemony, I found Holidays in Hell to be terrific. P.J. O'Rourke had me laughing many times. Quick wit, cutting sarcasm with prose in attack hamster style makes this book great reading and a must for anyone that has ever visited a 3rd world country. I've read this book at least 5 times over the years and love it so much I refuse to loan it out. Get Your Own Copy!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Tour Guide. A must read and own.
Review: As a red-blooded American Male steeped in U.S.A. hegemony, I found Holidays in Hell to be terrific. P.J. O'Rourke had me laughing many times. Quick wit, cutting sarcasm with prose in attack hamster style makes this book great reading and a must for anyone that has ever visited a 3rd world country. I've read this book at least 5 times over the years and love it so much I refuse to loan it out. Get Your Own Copy!

Rating:
Summary: "Innocents Abroad" for the 20th century
Review: Hilarious, insightful and succinct. No word is wasted, and even the smallest throwaway jokes will elicit a chuckle. Even when faced with the most dire situations in the most foreign of lands, the author resists the impulse to grandstand or pander. O'Rourke is the 20th century's answer to Mark Twain or H.L. Mencken, but less of a blowhard than either of those two. This book is a seminal work of gonzo reporting and modern non-fiction, and should be required reading for anyone wanting to be a foreign correspondent.

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: Dated but still valid, and very funny.
Review: PJ is a very funny man. His ideas about life on this planet are not based on any deep philosophy, but a sense of detachment and irreverence. This detachment, irreverence, and his lack of concern for his own safety culminate nicely in this international brew.

There are two noteworthy chapters. The first is his visit to Beirut, in Lebanon. This is written in a classic traveler's guide style. So much so, that it seems very weird at first. Like when O'Rourke is describing bodies in ditches as being part of the tour, or when bribes and beatings, shootings and bombings, are mentioned as essential to the character of Beirut. PJ has a very scary sense of humor. The second noteworthy chapter is the treatise on Euro-Weenies. This, like much of the book, is still applicable today.

Other than the stuff on communism, this book could have been written yesterday. It should be on the essential reading list of everybody.


Rating:
Summary: Need-to-Read Ridicule
Review: Sometimes it helps to have a little perspective. Compared to a lot of places, America ain't so bad. This book, witty and insightful, assaults the reader with sarcasm and humanity in somewhat equal measure.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and heartbreaking
Review: This is a dazzlingly brilliant collection of articles written about some of the world's worst trouble spots. Nobody else writes like O'Rourke, managing to vividly conjure up the awfulness of the places he visits, yet at the same time managing to make you laugh as well. The tone of the articles ranges from the horrific 'Christmas in El Salvador', to the purely comic 'Weekend Getaway: Heritage USA' which describes a bizarre visit to a Biblical theme park. He describes how his girlfriend attempts to go shopping in the park and returns with "a dazed, perplexed expression, like a starved Ethiopian given a piece of wax fruit". I know the feeling, Disneyland Paris had exactly the same effect on me. In 'Mexican Border Idyll' he asks the question "What makes a Mexico a Mexico? What makes a United States a United States? And what the hell are we supposed to do about it?" 'The Euro-Weenies'is a bit painful to read if you are one, but funny all the same and 'In Whitest Africa' written a few years before the ending of apartheid, is absolutely fascinating. 'The piece of Ireland that passeth all Understanding' is perhaps the best article of all, funny and tragic by turns, so much better in every way than the trite, banal piece Michael Moore wrote about Ireland in 'Dude, where's my country?'In the introduction to this superb book O'Rourke ponts out that military intervention is never going to stop trouble because "It will always be more fun to carry a gun around in the hills and sleep with ideology-addled college girls than to spend life behind a water buffalo or rotting in a slum". Who else could have written that, O'Rourke is incomparable.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and heartbreaking
Review: This is a dazzlingly brilliant collection of articles written about some of the world's worst trouble spots. Nobody else writes like O'Rourke, managing to vividly conjure up the awfulness of the places he visits, yet at the same time managing to make you laugh as well. The tone of the articles ranges from the horrific 'Christmas in El Salvador', to the purely comic 'Weekend Getaway: Heritage USA' which describes a bizarre visit to a Biblical theme park. He describes how his girlfriend attempts to go shopping in the park and returns with "a dazed, perplexed expression, like a starved Ethiopian given a piece of wax fruit". I know the feeling, Disneyland Paris had exactly the same effect on me. In 'Mexican Border Idyll' he asks the question "What makes a Mexico a Mexico? What makes a United States a United States? And what the hell are we supposed to do about it?" 'The Euro-Weenies'is a bit painful to read if you are one, but funny all the same and 'In Whitest Africa' written a few years before the ending of apartheid, is absolutely fascinating. 'The piece of Ireland that passeth all Understanding' is perhaps the best article of all, funny and tragic by turns, so much better in every way than the trite, banal piece Michael Moore wrote about Ireland in 'Dude, where's my country?'In the introduction to this superb book O'Rourke ponts out that military intervention is never going to stop trouble because "It will always be more fun to carry a gun around in the hills and sleep with ideology-addled college girls than to spend life behind a water buffalo or rotting in a slum". Who else could have written that, O'Rourke is incomparable.

Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BEFORE YOU GO ON SOME ASININE RICK STEVES TOUR
Review: This is one of the funniest books on travel written. I have lived overseas for nearly a decade, have traveled for about 5 years, and have been to approximately 50 countries, some for lengthy periods, some dozens of times. All I can say is that PJ is telling the truth and Rick Steves is for people who can't handle reality. I LOVE the essay on the "Euroweenies". Americans get a bad rap when going abroad - I know because I have run into enough rude English, German, French and Australian tourists to want to stay permanently away from any that I see setting up camp at my destinations. Americans can't hold a candle to some of the rude behavior that exudes from these fat, thong wearing, drunken Euro hordes. At least our white trash generally stay at home - they don't even leave their own state. Unfortunately, Europe is exporting theirs. I find it telling that the only 1 star review this book has gotten is from some pommy Brit.

Rating:
Summary: Razor sharp
Review: You'll never read this in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and NG is all the poorer for it. P.J. O'Rourke is never politically-correct and he visits places on the planet from which most people would like to escape...the result is a spot on, razor sharp, keenly observed travelogue that is side-splittingly funny, in a tragic sort of way. O'Rourke has a wonderful way of spotting irony, silliness, and official absurdity, and letting all of the air out of pompous, ill-conceived notions. In short, he is the UN's worst nightmare. For anyone who has travelled or ever interacted with any government agency anywhere--especially our own--this book is a must read.