The CEO of the Sofa

The books of P. J. O'Rourke can be divided into three classifications. First come single-topic books, such as Modern Manners or The Bachelor Home Companion, which are (or give the appearance of being) single, unified works. Second are the collections of random essays on unrelated topics, such as Republican Party Reptile. Third are the essay collections whose individual pieces all fall under some general unifying topic, such as All the Trouble in the World or Parliament of Whores. Then there's The CEO of the Sofa, which either exists in a category of its own, or occupies a stitched-together amalgam of two or more of the preceding. Other reviewers have already cautioned the newcomer to O'Rourke's writing not to begin with this book. Heed them. If you've never sampled O'Rourke's style before, it's as likely as not that you'll be utterly at a loss if you begin here. The CEO of the Sofa is a collection of essays with a unique conceit (unique to O'Rourke, at least, as he openly admits having swiped the idea from a collection of columns by Oliver Wendell Holmes): each is purportedly one of a series of conversations around the house with family members, friends, his personal assistant, and some imaginary neighbors. This is used as a means of linking, however tenuously, a series of essays that would otherwise have little to do with one another. The essays themselves are essentially unchanged from their various prior publications, and often the only reminder that a particular piece is supposed to be part of a dialogue is the occasional (sometimes jarring) insertion of the other party's name. Like most experiments, this one is not entirely successful, although only the pedant will allow it to detract from essays that he or she would otherwise enjoy. The book's contents themselves are essentially what one has come to expect from P. J. O'Rourke; vaguely libertarian, mostly hilarious musings on a variety of subjects. In this case they include Hillary Clinton, the 2000 presidential election, the current (or then-current) crop of celebrities, and anything else he happens to cast his critical eye upon. His style is unchanged; he can still zero in on the dumbest-sounding passage in a book or speech and gleefully quote it, he is still adept at pointing out hypocrisy and contradiction, and he is still capable of generating hilariously descriptive similes about ninety percent of the time (likewise, about one simile in ten is a groan-inducing dud that thuds to the ground and dies; my biggest general criticism of O'Rourke, a writer whom I treasure, is that he is slightly too much in love with his narrative voice to effectively edit out the clunkers). If you are an aficionado of O'Rourke, you will like this book, or should. It is never boring. If you haven't sampled his writing before, my admiration for the man demands that I warn you away from this one, at least for the time being. By all means you should give him a shot, but you would be best served

I love political satire and humor,both left and right wing.I can't believe it;but this is the first book of PD's that I've read.I know he is a popular writer,his books are everywhere;but for some reason I've passed them up.I guess I just wrote them off as popular fiction.I've got nobody to blame but myself ,but now that I've found him,I'll be reading more. A lot of writers of political satire confuse hatred, foul language and outright nastiness with humor.Not so with PD.He takes the ordinary things that go on all the time and comes up with off-the- wall thinking and makes very different and truly humorous comments and observations.His approach is reminiscent of Twain and more recently Mark Russell.He had my sides splitting without resorting to mean spirited character assissination.His humor is more like the type of thing you get on "Roasts". He amazed me time and tme again,by pointing out great humor where I had not even realized it existed. If you like one-liners the book is littered with them. Here is a little bit of the sort of thing he gives us: "NABAA--The National Association to Ban Almost Everything" "Clinton's popularity ratings are getting so high he's starting to date again." "If I had a cell phone, I'd lose it.I lose everything,I left my first wife in the back of a cab somewhere." "The only thing the UN is suited for,according to its charter, is an invasion from Mars." "The Web is just a device by which bad ideas travel around the world at the speed of light." "NAPWETD--National Association of People ith Not Enough to Do." "Ideas are to Hillary,what sex is to her husband." "Since the time of Jimmy Carter,Liberals have been chasing their tail,and,last heard,they've caught it and begun eating and had chewed their way up to the back of their own ears." "The computer becomes the handgun of modern mugging." "This spawned a multitudinous generation of white-collar criminals who can't even be bothered with the collar." "Kids today may be wizards with virtual reality,yet they seem a little foggy about what makes reality virtuous. He does some great takes on a book "Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing",obviously from the left: "Sure,the task force seems to be nothing but a rat bag of shoddy pedagogues,athletes of the tongue,professional pick- nits filling the stupid hours of their pointless days with nagging the yellow-bellied editors of university presses, which print volume after volume of bound-wad fated to sit unread in college library stacks until the sun expires. "Why doesn't the task force just combine "she" and "it" and pronounce the thing accordingly." If you've ever read Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", or seen the movie,and wondered what it was all about;PJ explains it all for you. "A thrilling saga in which nothing much happens--a fitting example of the picaresque for the Now Generation.One of the things Hunter did

Being an avid reader of O'Rourke's material, I must say this book is one-of-a-kind. It is written in the style of Oliver Wendell Holmes' "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" which was a brilliant collection of essays and observations of life. As O'Rourke notes, "Holmes pulled this off with so much wit and charm that there was only one way I could pay his idea the compliment it deserved. I swiped it." P.J.'s own collection of essays features Holmes-like alter-egos ("The Political Nut" browbeating the Democrat neighbors and frustrating O'Rourke's wife makes for some of the best one-liners in the book) and collections of O'Rourke's own superbly-written essays. From travels through India (beware the customs officials) to the U.N. Millenium Summit ("At the UN they put butter on their bagels. No wonder these people can't achieve peace in the Middle East."), O'Rourke's own wit and charm somehow makes sense of senseless situations. But please, don't believe that this book is only for the ivory-tower intellectual clique -- essays are included which feature everything from a Drunken Wine Tasting Test to helpful automotive tips. ("Use a lighter weight oil in the winter. Johnson's Baby Oil, for instance. Rub this all over somebody cute, stay home, and forget about starting the car.") The book's politics will primarily delight Republicans and irritate Democrats, although anyone who can laugh at political absurdity will find this a great read no matter what their personal political leanings. O'Rourke dissects (and flambes) Hillary Clinton's book "It Takes a Village," he offers his own arbitration of the 2000 Presidential debacle, the topic of Social Security privatization is discussed (an unintentionally relevant topic four years later), and the last chapter of the book is rife with all the sardonic partisanship one would ever need to convulse on the floor with laughter. In short, this book covers a year's worth of topics, and before you realize it you've read the whole book in one sitting. Quite fitting, from someone who describes the theme of his book as being "One year in the life of a man who said, 'Mind if I put my feet up? I think I will take this lying down.'"

P. J. O'Rourke can inject more humorous insight into some of the dullest subjects than anybody else writing today. His caustic wit and blend of skeptical conservatism, often well-oiled with gin and always with a healthy irreverance for do gooders, allows him to pack a good quip into almost every sentence. He takes the mundane, the politically correct, and the traditional and stands all of them on their respective heads.His take on child rearing books as a good description of management training is spot on. His hard knocks on both Gore and Bush during the campaign are much more illuminating than what we get from the mainstream press. His acerbic review of Hillary Clinton's "It takes a village" finally puts that ill-conceived book and concept to rest. His general maturation from a young, hip conservative to a middle-aged one might make some old fans and current skeptics wince, but he has not mellowed with age.Yes, you have to have a certain sense of irony or cynicism to enjoy O'Rourke. For those who do, it is a fun read.

I resisted this title for months, thinking I'd have no interest in a parenting tome, but don't repeat my mistake by judging this book by its cover!I've been a PJ fan since his NatLamp days in the 70s. Even when my politics were much different from his, I've always appreciated his brilliant wit. This book is actually a collection of some of PJs recent magazine articles (none of which I had previously seen) and some unpublished bits, glued together with a faux-family-and-hired-help-narrative thread, which actually works quite well.Here we get hilarious advice on how to choose vehicles for minimum winter utility, wry glimpses of the bureaucratic chaos at the UN, raw bludgeoning of Bill Clinton, and a surprising amount of digs at PJ's own conservative compatriots.PJ, maybe the top satirist of our age, draws much humor from his own love of drink, and it continues to amaze and amuse, as in his Blind [Drunk] Wine Tasting chapter.As with most of PJ's work, there's a gut-buster on nearly every page. Leave your prejudices behind, and embrace his for a few hours, and your sides will ache, guaranteed!