Not a slam thread, I’ve loved him since his “How to drive really fast on drugs and get your wing wang squeezed without spilling your drink” days. I used to read his Atlantic Monthly columns regularly but they have gone “pay” even for back issues. Have any columns in the past year made you laugh out loud? A walk to the library to read back issues sounds like a good way to spend Saturday.
(I paid retail for all of his books. Enough royalties from me.)
In a word, no. When he does write, he still seems to be funny, but his work rarely get into my hands, or on my computer screen. I suppose he simply taking more time to be with his family.
He writes for Atlantic magazine occaisionaly now. I think he thinks he’s a serious journalist, which is unfortunate. He can still be funny, but it’s nothing like Modern Manners or Holidays in Hell.
Here is his latest collection.
Peace Kills is not very good. Without actually recycling, it’s a lot like All the troublesin the World and Eat the Rich. I subscribe to **The Atlantic ** and there hasn’t been anything since January that’ve made me even smirk.
“Post Script: Iwo Jima and the End of Modern Warfare” is thought-provoking and well worth reading, but it’s not laugh-out-loud funny. It appeared in Atlantic Monthly, and in Peace Kills.
The CEO of the Sofa has so little going for it I’m planning to sell m copy.
You know, a lot of serious journalism can be wrapped in humor. Ask John Stewart. O’Rourke has traveled to every helllhole on this planet, and his writing about it is not only funny, but often very insightful and reading, say Holidays in Hell I often got the sense that I was getting a truer picture of what a country was like than from any ten mainsteam news articles. And that’s exactly what journalism is supposed to about.
P.J. O’Rourke writes a column every month or so for The Weekly Standard. They are pretty good.
It’s pretty much the only funny part of the book, though.
Very disappointing. He’s never matched the brilliance of his earlier stuff. But I suppose you only have so much funny in you.
I loved Holidays in Hell, and it did indeed contain some very interesting material.
I was also a big fan of Modern Manners, Republican Party Reptile, and, perhaps my favourite, Parliament of Whores.
But i haven’t found any of O’Rourke’s more recent stuff (i.e., the last ten years or so) to be very good at all.
Of course, i often disagreed with his politics, but i still loved to read him when he was really funny. Now, most of the funny and witty stuff seems to have gone, so all i’m left with is a guy whose politics i don’t like very much. Not much point, really.
Nothing like financial security, wedded bliss, and parenthood to kill the funny in anyone. I always liked the fact that he was a non partisan right winger. He didn’t feel the need to defend idiots or their idiotic policy just because he belonged to the same club. If he’s not so funny anymore it’s a bummer but he sure doesn’t owe me any more laughs after 3 decades of hilarious insight.
I still think “The King of Sandusky, Ohio” is one of the funniest short stories ever written.
You nailed my opinion of him in that statement.
Plus I bought “CEO of the Sofa” about 1 day before 9/11, so everything in it seemed completely irrelevant when I began reading it just after.
All the Trouble in the World was good…that comes in just under the ten year mark, I think. And I liked his fairly recent column about talk radio shows and the decline of political debate in the country.