Items related to Holidays in Hell
Holidays in Hell follows P. J. O’Rourke on a global fun-finding mission to the most desperate places on the planet, from the bombed-out streets of Beirut to the stultifying blandness of Heritage USA. P.J.’s unforgettable adventures abroad include storming student protesters’ barricades in South Korea, interviewing Communist insurrectionists in the Philippines, and going undercover in Arab garb at Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock Mosque. Packed with P.J.’s classic riffs on everything from Polish nightlife under communism to Third World driving tips, Holidays in Hell is one of the best-loved books by one of today’s most celebrated humorists ― a full-tilt, no-holds-barred romp through politics, culture, and ideology. “This is funny, outrageous, perceptive stuff, written with brio.” ―The Washington Post Book World “O’Rourke. . . seems to have teethed on brass knuckles and suckled on bile. He is also one of the funniest writers in America, or wherever else he may go to satisfy his desperate need to extract humor from folly and chaos.” ―Time “To say that P. J. O’Rourke is funny is like saying that the Rocky Mountains are scenic ― accurate but insufficient. At best he’s downright exhilarating.” ― Chicago Tribune
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Review:
No doubt about it: P. J. O'Rourke has a bizarre sense of fun. "What I've ... been," he writes in his introduction to Holidays in Hell "is a Trouble Tourist--going to see insurrections, stupidities, political crises, civil disturbances and other human folly because ... because it's fun." Forget Hawaii or the Poconos--O'Rourke gets his jollies in places like war-torn Lebanon where he is greeted at the border by a gun barrel in his face, or Seoul, just in time for election-day violence. Wherever he goes, however, O'Rourke takes his quirky sense of humor, laser eye for detail, and artful way with words: a Philippine army officer is "powerful-looking in a short, compressed way, like an attack hamster," and the Syrian army is described as having "dozens of silly hats, mostly berets in yellow, orange and shocking pink, but also tiny pillbox chapeaux.... The paratroopers wear shiny gold jumpsuits and crack commando units have skin-tight fatigues in a camouflage pattern of violet, peach, flesh tone and vermilion on a background of vivid purple. This must give excellent protective coloration in, say, a room full of Palm Beach divorcees in Lily Pulitzer dresses."
From the Inside Flap:
O'Rourke's flip, sarcastic style isn't for everyone, of course; the concept that anyone could find sightseeing in the Beirut or El Salvador of the 1980s fun might prove offensive to more than a few readers right off the bat. But love him or hate him, P. J. O'Rourke knows how to tell a good story, and if you like your travel writing laced with more than a little cynicism, Holidays in Hell could be just the book you've been looking for.
Travels to hellholes around the globe looking for trouble--from Lebanon to Epcot-- the truth and a good time.
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- PublisherGrove/Atlantic, Inc.
- Publication date1988
- ISBN 10 999147207X
- ISBN 13 9789991472072
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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