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61st out of 332 books
—
201 voters
Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, "What's Funny About This"
Now available from Grove Press, P. J. O'Rourke's classic, best-selling guided tour of the world's most desolate, dangerous, and desperate places. "Tired of making bad jokes" and believing that "the world outside seemed a much worse joke than anything I could conjure," P. J. O'Rourke traversed the globe on a fun-finding mission, investigating the way of life in the most des...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
June 1st 2000
by Grove Press
(first published 1988)
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I'm not sure why I didn't like this book more. It was vividly and humorously written, educational and even important. I think it was just the page after page of diverse suffering and injustice, presented by an author whose considered opinion appears to be that there is no hope for the Third World and so we might as well laugh at it. (Tangentially, I suggest that easily offended readers skip the prologue, which contains a large number of barely-joking generalizations that even in the context of a...more
Back in the mid to late '80s when PJ O'Rourke wrote the pieces that make up Holidays in Hell, the world was a much different place: there was war in the Middle East, the threat of nuclear conflict, sectarian violence...alright, so things haven't changed all that much. Which is one reason why, after twenty years, this collection of reportage pieces from Lebanon, Nicaragua, Palestine, Northern Ireland and other conflict hot spots remains worth reading. Another is O'Rourke's gonzo-style, no-sacred-...more
Risking life and limb in such Hellish zones as 1980s Lebanon, El Salvador, and Harvard University, O’Rourke looks “for a good time” amidst the chaos according to the rear cover description… just above the Nixon quote…trippy… While reading this, I assumed he was a journalist that had attempted the objective route during the sundry riots, protests, and Vietnams dotting the sixties and finally said “F**k it! This is all bullsh*t that perpetually repeats itself!” and moved on to a, if you will, more...more
This is the only travel book i've ever liked. What I love about PJ is the fact that he has absolutely no illusions about the way the world works. Most left wingers tend to believe that all of the worlds problems can be solved and that the rich are to blame for it all. If you're looking for a genuine, insightful and funny book about how messed up the world is, then this is the book for you. PJ is completely remorseless about his views and doesn't try and offer any well meaning advice about how to...more
Hilarious dispatches from some of the world's worst places. This guy is so funny I laugh out loud at his stuff when i'm reading it. No wonder he is (apparently, according to wkipedia) the world's most quoted author! Funny stuff!
I enjoyed my second time through this book more than the first because it rings so true to some of my adventures in "trouble tourism.". There are just so many laugh out loud gems that I can't even begin to list all of them. For example, the phrase "covering a story from Mahogany Ridge," which means working on it in a bar. Of course, my hands down favorite is the ending of the Europe (April to May 1986) essay explaining why the USA has never been invaded. Find it in a library and read that page....more
Contains one of the best paragraphs in all the English language... starting with ...."I snapped...."
Sep 30, 2008
Peter rock
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
my freinds at face book and my space and rebecca
Recommended to Peter rock by:
my father vince
this is a very good book i was always disapointed that P J O'rourke did not focus on dangerous hot spots in america go to gangland.net save it to favorites and call me in the morning because i am in love with you earth. People of earth what the fuck ya all upset with each other for in groups where it gets messy for those of us that are not upset at all. p j o'rourke one of my fathers required reading projects. Hey my close personal Friends want to know all the books my large highly lethal family...more
Our politics may differ wildly, but I owe P.J. O'Rourke a very great debt. I read Holidays in Hell for the first time when I was thirteen, and it gave me two things which last to this day: A desire to travel to strange and terrible places, and the urgent need to lampoon what I find there
His account of Beirut and the Lebanon in-between and during various wars takes up about a third of the book, and is at times the most stupefyingly anger-inducing and bollock-tinglingly funny piece of extended wri...more
His account of Beirut and the Lebanon in-between and during various wars takes up about a third of the book, and is at times the most stupefyingly anger-inducing and bollock-tinglingly funny piece of extended wri...more
An interesting look at traveling through third-world countries during war-time. I found it especially relevent during our current war, since this book was written 20 years ago and a lot of the dangers are still present, though they may be in a different country now. P.J. O'Rourke has written for The Rolling Stone, from which many of these articles came, and is also on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me. A fun read, though not exactly profound.
Gave up on reading this halfway through. It's actually a great book - the mix of entirely dry humour (belied by its American authorship), smattering of facts, and cultural insight is really fascinating. Unfortunately, reading it I was haunted by a sense of complete irrelevance due to the stories therein being 25 years old. I'll happily continue reading it if I'm ever stuck with nothing else to do, but for now...
The author is a journalist for Rolling Stone and he visits troubled spots of the globe. He looks for war, and blatant lies. Then he writes in a comical and conservative manner that makes a lot of since from the experiences I've had. His descriptions of Beirut and Heritage USA epitomize his work. This is a very good book that gives good insights that are unavailable from news reports. It is enjoyable reading.��Read this again five years later. Still enjoyable.
My introduction to P.J. O'Rourke.I will always love this book. It made me laugh like no other book had managed and it planted the first seeds of anti-Socialism in my mind. It also made me realise that being un-PC is the way to go. It's okay to laugh at other countries and cultures if they're absolutely mad. Thanks P.J.
've had this book around for a while and have read it in bits and pieces, as it is written in a format that easily allows for that. It's been my bath book, my waiting in lines book, my doctor's office book. I've enjoyed it emmensely. I was a subscriber to Rolling Stone magazine for quite some time and always enjoyed reading O'Rourke's articles, so I had no doubt that I would appriciate a collection of them. (I was correct in that assumption.) I've also lately realized how little I know about his...more
Part of the reason for the high rating is nostalgia value. These essays explore issues that were in the news 25 years ago when I was first "seriously" starting to watch the nightly news.
Nostalgia is a pretty poor choice of words though as many of these issues were the bombing of Libya, Israel/Palestine, and illegal immigration.
O'Rourke has his "persona"--a hard-drinking wise-cracking cynic--but at least tries to ask the big questions, even if there are no answers for them.
Nostalgia is a pretty poor choice of words though as many of these issues were the bombing of Libya, Israel/Palestine, and illegal immigration.
O'Rourke has his "persona"--a hard-drinking wise-cracking cynic--but at least tries to ask the big questions, even if there are no answers for them.
Amusing moments but written in 1988 so very dated, the political situation has changed a lot since then so references to Gadaffi or Gorbechev don't really work and won't mean a lot to many people. For this reason alone only 1*. The book would have got more stars 25 years ago.
Sep 09, 2007
Earle
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone with a well-developed sense of humor and a taste for the offbeat
Shelves:
geopoliticalhumor
If O'Rourke's quirky brand of humor resonates with you, this is as good as it gets. I've read most of his works, and this is my favorite.
O'Rourke was a foreign correspondent for 'Rolling Stone', and was sent to every god-forsaken hellhole in the world. It is from his experiences in these venues that the chapters are drawn.
The chapter on Lebanon begins ...... "Beirut, at a glance, lacks charm." If that doesn't strike you as pure writing genius, then you probably won't enjoy this book (or other of...more
O'Rourke was a foreign correspondent for 'Rolling Stone', and was sent to every god-forsaken hellhole in the world. It is from his experiences in these venues that the chapters are drawn.
The chapter on Lebanon begins ...... "Beirut, at a glance, lacks charm." If that doesn't strike you as pure writing genius, then you probably won't enjoy this book (or other of...more
The chapter on Third World Driving Tips was worth the price of the whole book. As a long-time traveler and front-line participant in third world driving, I thought his depictions both hilarious and sadly true.
Brilliant. Hilarious. Sad. Poignant. True. Irreverent. And brilliant again. Journalists are a crazy bunch, and O'Rourke is at the head of that class. Originally these were articles he wrote for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and other magazines. I read the article "Terror If The Euro-Weenies" (a slightly censored version of it - occasionally the language can be a little rough), published in Rolling Stone in the fall of 1986, to my class the last day before Thanksgiving break. I could barely get thro...more
Everything I wanted this book to be can be found in Andrew Mueller's "I Wouldn't Start From Here" -
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
This is where I first read "How to drive real fast on drugs while getting your wing-wang squeezed and not spill your drink," and for that reason alone it gets five stars.
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11497722
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11497722
Holidays in war zones and military dictatorships. Only the former editor of National Lampoon could pull it off. Hilarious and eye-opening at the same time.
Hilarious. Some of the best writing I've read recently. Would've given it five stars if the last chapter (his vision of 2013) wasn't so slipshod.
This is a very good book. It gives insight into many places that were trouble spots during the Regan Administration. It also has that dry sarcastic humor that I enjoy.
I recommend this book to people that like some information on difficult places. You also need a wry sense of humor.
I recommend this book to people that like some information on difficult places. You also need a wry sense of humor.
There's this one chapter when he travels to Beirut. In a roundabout way (ask me about it sometime), it's why I'm living in the Middle East now.
Not nearly as side-splittingly funny as Parliament of Whores but still worth reading if you've liked his other work
Like everything he writes it seems not nearly as funny as it could have been.
Diverse range of topics. Not much has changed in thirty years.
A great unparalleled wit is at work with this easy and fun read.
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Patrick Jake O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom as the face...more
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“It’s important to understand that in the Third World most driving is done with the horn, or “Egyptian Brake Pedal,” as it is known. There is a precise and complicated etiquette of horn use. Honk your horn only under the following circumstances:
1. When anything blocks the road
2. When anything doesn’t.
3. When anything might.
4. At red lights
5. At green lights.
6. At all other times.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
1. When anything blocks the road
2. When anything doesn’t.
3. When anything might.
4. At red lights
5. At green lights.
6. At all other times.”
Jul 29, 2011 06:02am