Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
- Published by: Grove Press June 1, 2000
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0802137016
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0802137012
-
Book Dimensions:
8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
- Weighs: 10.4 ounces
Product 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 great protective coloration in, say, a room full of Palm Beach divorcees in Lily Pulitzer dresses."
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.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
O'Rourke is not the least concerned with political correct. Holidays in Hell is a surreal and wickedly funny travelogue to some of the world's hellholes. Actor Victor Slezak reads the essays in a deadpan tone, which lets the powerful comment come through right along with the wit. B.V. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews"Holidays in Hell" was the first book to collect the travel writings of P.J. O'Rourke for Rolling Stone magazine. Though a bit dated taday (these stories were from the mid 1980s) it is still quite funny and full of classic P.J. He establishes his mantra here, basically that if you really want to know whats going on in a country you should never interview its politicians who will never tell you the straight story. In this book, P.J. travels to Poland, Lebanon, Panama and Heritage U.S.A. among other places. But the best essay is called "Through Darkest America: Epcot Center" that is an absolutely dead on drubbing of the so-called Magic Kingdom. Through it all O'Rourke reminds me of a more political and funnier Bill Bryson. This book is well worth a read.
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