Synopses & Reviews
As the
Los Angeles Times has hailed, "when it comes to scouting the world for world-class absurdities, P.J. O'Rourke is the right man for the job." In his classic best-sellers, O'Rourke has reported from the front lines of world history, braving the bad traffic, weak drinks, and less than stellar golfing of countless hot spots of war, poverty, and repression. Now with his latest collection,
Peace Kills, P.J. casts his ever-shrewd and mordant eye on America's latest adventures in warfare. Imperialism has never been more fun.
To unravel the mysteries of war, O'Rourke first visits Kosovo to find out what happens when we try to have one without hurting anybody: "Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months later and bomb the country next to where it's happening." He travels to Israel at the outbreak of the intifada. He flies to Egypt in the wake of the 9/11 terrorists' attacks and contemplates bygone lunacies. "Why are the people in the Middle East so crazy? Here, at the pyramids, was an answer from the earliest days of civilization: People have always been crazy." He covers the demonstrations and the denunciations of war. "French ideas, French beliefs, and French actions form a sort of lodestone for humanity. A moral compass needle needs a butt end. Wherever direction France is pointing toward collaboration with Nazis, accommodation with communists, existentialism, Jerry Lewis, or a UN resolution veto we can go the other way with a quiet conscience." Finally he arrives in Baghdad with the U.S. Army and, standing in one of Saddam's palaces, decides, "If a reason for invading Iraq was needed, felony interior decorating would have sufficed."
Peace Kills is P.J. O'Rourke as both incisive reporter and absurdist, relevant and irreverent, with a clear eye for everyone's confusion, including his own. O'Rourke understands that peace is sometimes one of the most troubling aspects of war.
Review
"Peace Kills will circulate best where readers are already committed to the I-hate-liberals humor of O'Rourke and his ideological brethren." Booklist
Review
"The senior satirist of the right returns to dissect foreign policy and Lord help us he seems to have moments of distinct sanity....[H]is backgrounder journalism is first-rate...his color reportage is smartly selective and funny." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Peace Kills is war coverage in the great tradition of Catch 22 and M*A*S*H: Wars can be right or wrong, but they are always crazy and frightening in the center and might be uproarious around the edge....P.J. O'Rourke [is] one of America's funniest serious commentators....His eye is sharp and his smirk is fixed firmly in place." John Gibson, The New York Post
Review
"Readers acquainted with P.J. O'Rourkes knock-'em-dead writings on American politics will know just what to expect....O'Rourke is refreshing [and] never fails to find the absurd." Paula Friedman, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"O'Rourke cut his teeth writing brilliantly caustic dispatches from the most war-torn parts of the world. He's in peak form with these pieces detailing America's seemingly insane foreign policy and offering a grunt's eye view of the mess in Iraq." Maxim
Review
"O'Rourke is an actual conservative, with ideas and a conscience, as opposed to the stealth flacks staying on party message that often pass for conservatives in these Hannitized and Limbaughtomized days." Zay N. Smith, Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"We are fortunate to have an erudite companion with a heavily stamped passport, a guy who can read and digest the wonkiest policy paper and still knows a good punchline when he sees one." Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman
Synopsis
O'Rourke casts his ever-shrewd and mordant eye on America's latest adventures in warfare. He is both incisive reporter and absurdist, relevant and irreverent, with a clear eye for everyone's confusion, including his own. O'Rourke understands that peace is sometimes one of the most troubling aspects of war.
Synopsis
With his latest national best seller, Peace Kills, P.J. O'Rourke casts his ever-shrewd and mordant eye on America's latest adventures in warfare. Imperialism has never been more fun.
To unravel the mysteries of war, O'Rourke first visits Kosovo: "Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months later and bomb the country next to where it's happening." He travels to Israel at the outbreak of the intifada. He flies to Egypt in the wake of the 9/11 terrorists' attacks and contemplates bygone lunacies. "Why are the people in the Middle East so crazy? Here, at the pyramids, was an answer from the earliest days of civilization: People have always been crazy." He covers the demonstrations and the denunciations of war. "A moral compass needle needs a butt end. Wherever direction France is pointing-toward collaboration with Nazis, accommodation with communists, existentialism, Jerry Lewis, or a UN resolution veto-we can go the other way with a quiet conscience." Finally he arrives in Baghdad with the U.S. Army and, standing in one of Saddam's palaces, decides, "If a reason for invading Iraq was needed, felony interior decorating would have sufficed."