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, where "NATO tried to start World War III without hurting anyone." Talking to KLA veterans, Albanian refugees, and peacekeepers doing their best impression of Santa Claus, he confronts the paradox of "the war that war-haters love to love." P.J. also tackles the Middle East, a region he finds as confusing as the algebra they invented. He travels from Egypt, "the cradle of tourism," to Israel and to Kuwait, where he witnesses citizens enjoying their newfound freedoms namely, to shop, eat, and sit around a lot.
After September 11, O'Rourke turns his attention to a country gripped by change, from the absurd hassles of airport security; to the strange ways of "post-modern protesters"; to the hideous specter of anthrax (luckily the only threats in his mail are from credit card companies). P.J. covers the fighting in Afghanistan, a war that was even briefer than the news theme jingles, and then forges on to Iraq, where he witnesses both the start and finish of hostilities (touring a presidential palace, P.J. notes that the war was justified for at least one reason: felony interior decorating).
Peace Kills is P.J. O'Rourke at his most incisive and relevant an eye-opening look at a world much changed since he declared in his number-one national best-seller Give War a Chance that the most troubling aspect of war is sometimes peace itself.
Review
"The senior satirist of the right returns to dissect foreign policy and Lord help us he seems to have moments of distinct sanity." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
With his latest collection, O'Rourke casts his ever-shrewd and mordant eye on America's latest adventures in warfare. Imperialism has never been more fun.