Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: Twenty-Five Years of P. J. O'Rourke
by P. J. O'Rourke
On This Page
Description
The political humorist shares his transformation from dirty hippie to conservative middle-aged grouch: "An incorrigible comic gift" (The New York Times Book Review).The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Give War a Chance was at one time a raving pinko, with scars on his formerly bleeding heart to prove it. In Age and Guile: Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut, P. J. O'Rourke chronicles the remarkable trajectory that took him from the lighthearted fun of the revolutionary show more barricades to the serious business of the nineteenth hole.How did the O'Rourke of 1970, who summarized the world of "grown-ups" as "materialism, sexual hang-ups, the Republican party, uncomfortable clothes, engagement rings, car accidents, Pat Boone, competition, patriotism, cheating, lying, ranch houses, and TV" come to be in favor of all of those things? What caused his metamorphosis from a beatnik-hippie type comfortable sleeping on dirty mattresses in pot-addled communes during his days as a writer for assorted "underground" papers? Here, O'Rourke shows how his socialist idealism and avant-garde aesthetic tendencies were cured, and how he acquired a healthy and commendable interest in national defense, balanced budgets, Porsches, and Cohiba cigars.From a former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon and frequent NPR guest, this hilarious essay collection shows that there's hope for all those suffering from acute bohemianism. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
At his best P.J. O'Rourke is a very funny, astute writer, and at times "Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut" is among his best. Combining a range of essays written by O'Rourke over decades of his life, the best essays cover his younger, radical Maoist life in the early 1970s before his move towards the conservative side of politics.
I first read this in 1996 or so during a time when I found right-wing commentators hilarious without consideration, such as Rush Limbaugh, comedian Dennis Miller, and Mark Scott ("Excelsior!:). I was really into hearing people get put down especially over the phone; anything demeaning. This was somewhat masochistic, as I was a telemarketer at the time.
In the mid-'90s I thought of O'Rourke as something special in that camp because he wrote more than he ranted and he had a partying hippy pedigree. Back then there was no Google, etc.
Now, I find him less impressive, as he was at the time and his stories such as encountering an embedded informant turning human rights lawyer proves to be an unverifiable "fiction" as labeled here. So, I lost show more respect for the man seeing him as Tom D'Antoni did:
Well, next he was a car reviewing, sports reviewer, etc. all sort of travel writing.
Bereft of autobiography this is humor and as an American humorist (the book is properly labeled), I have to compare him to Mark Twain, William Burroughs, etc. Then too much of his material is merely gratuitously crude when seen as untethered from actual events:
I think the best parts on this re-read is the introductions to the pieces...
...and what I would have rated four starts two and a half decades ago is two stars today. show less
In the mid-'90s I thought of O'Rourke as something special in that camp because he wrote more than he ranted and he had a partying hippy pedigree. Back then there was no Google, etc.
Now, I find him less impressive, as he was at the time and his stories such as encountering an embedded informant turning human rights lawyer proves to be an unverifiable "fiction" as labeled here. So, I lost show more respect for the man seeing him as Tom D'Antoni did:
"Certainly I dislike what he stands for. He's always been an opportunist. He's always been one to further his own career, his own personal happiness, his own wealth, his own success with women, whatever, all along the way. He was left-wing when it was popular to be left-wing, and now he's right-wing when it's popular to be a right-winger. Who knows what he'll be next?"
Well, next he was a car reviewing, sports reviewer, etc. all sort of travel writing.
Bereft of autobiography this is humor and as an American humorist (the book is properly labeled), I have to compare him to Mark Twain, William Burroughs, etc. Then too much of his material is merely gratuitously crude when seen as untethered from actual events:
I’ve been peddling my ass since before I could walk. When I was six months old, I was already performing sex acts for money, or even for a change of diapers. I wouldn’t shit in my potty unless somebody gave me a quarter. I said, “If you want the kinky stuff, you’re going to have to pay.” Later, when I was growing up, I wouldn’t jack off unless I found money under the couch cushions. I’d suck the legs of a chair just to sit down. There was nothing I wouldn’t do, and where I grew up, everybody was queer, too. All the kids in the neighborhood were queer. The nuns at school were queer. A lot of the trees and plants in our yard were queer. My dad was queer—the only way he could get Mom pregnant was to blow himself and spit at her ass. ...
I think the best parts on this re-read is the introductions to the pieces...
...and what I would have rated four starts two and a half decades ago is two stars today. show less
This is an eclectic collection of PJ’s writings. Some of it is downright a waste of paper – like his “concrete poetry” inclusions. However, many of the essays are classic PJ – travelling the world, commenting on the ordinariness of people and events everywhere with his famous wit. If there’s a connection between each article, I missed it. But you can certainly see his growth and evolution as a writer.
Having gone to Miami University, PJs alma mater, I was very interested in his early writing about his days in Oxford, OH. If the stories he tells are even half true then college has changed dramatically since his day. And for the better. But his writing of this period is compelling and often touching. He has some great lines, show more such as, “It’s hard to forgive someone when you’re beginning to agree with her.”
You can see the shift in his political attitudes, but he never really explains them. Maybe he doesn’t have to. Several of these essays are outstanding, such as his speech at the dedication of the new Cato Institute building. And his article about Hillarycare is very timely given the current healthcare debate (note: this review written in January 2010).
If you’re a PJ completest, and I am, you’ll enjoy large parts of this book. But if you’re new to PJ, start with Parliament of Whores or Eat the Rich. show less
Having gone to Miami University, PJs alma mater, I was very interested in his early writing about his days in Oxford, OH. If the stories he tells are even half true then college has changed dramatically since his day. And for the better. But his writing of this period is compelling and often touching. He has some great lines, show more such as, “It’s hard to forgive someone when you’re beginning to agree with her.”
You can see the shift in his political attitudes, but he never really explains them. Maybe he doesn’t have to. Several of these essays are outstanding, such as his speech at the dedication of the new Cato Institute building. And his article about Hillarycare is very timely given the current healthcare debate (note: this review written in January 2010).
If you’re a PJ completest, and I am, you’ll enjoy large parts of this book. But if you’re new to PJ, start with Parliament of Whores or Eat the Rich. show less
Generally, this book as not gotten as good reviews as other collections of O'Rourke's. It's not the writing - it's the fact that many of these essays were written in his youth, when he was a pot-smoking, whisky-drinking, ROTC building-fire bombing college student. He's a better writer now. It is interesting to the see the progression in both his writing skills and his politics.
While still interesting and witty, this book is not as good as some of O'Rourke's other work. Perhaps that is because the unifying theme is weaker, or maybe this mish-mash was work that didn't quite make the grade to be published elsewhere.
Not as good as some of his others.
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
46+ Works 12,045 Members
P. J. O'Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio on November 14, 1947. He received a B. A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a M.A. in English from Johns Hopkins University. He worked for the magazine National Lampoon, eventually becoming editor-in-chief. He received a writing credit for National Lampoon's Lemmings which helped launch the careers show more of John Belushi and Chevy Chase. In 1981, he left the magazine to write screenplays including Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money. He contributes regularly to several magazines including Playboy, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The American Spectator, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The Weekly Standard, and Rolling Stone. He is the author of 20 books including Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, All the Troubles in the World, Don't Vote! - It Just Encourages the Bastards, and How It Got That Way (And It Wasn't My Fault) (And I'll Never Do It Again). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: Twenty-Five Years of P. J. O'Rourke
- Original publication date
- 1995
- Epigraph
- A Forgotten Hero of the Trojan War
Thersites only clamour'd in the throng,
Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue;
Awed by no shame, by no respect controll'd,
In scandal busy, in repro... (show all)aches bold;
With witty malice studious to defame;
Scorn all his joy, and laughter all his aim.
But chief he gloried with licentious style
To lash the great, and monarchs to revile...
Spleen to mankind his envious heart possess'd,
And much he hated all, but most the best.
-- from Alexander Pope's translation of The Iliad - Dedication
- In Memory of
Dennis Loy
1938-1994 - First words
- Twenty-five years of writing for a living leave me with a lot of people I need to thank -- or a lot of blame I need to spread around. (Acknowledgments)
There's a long-term problem with being a writer, and the problem is all the things that, over the long term, I've written. (Introduction)
I began to write for pay in the spring of 1970, albeit that pay was mostly peanut butter sandwiches and mattress space. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Cortez was saying, "I can get on in two, easy. A three-wood drive, a fie-iron from the fairway, then a two-putt max. But i I hook it, shit, I'm in the drink."
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 790
- Popularity
- 35,380
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.46)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 4
