Customer Reviews

Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice and Alcohol-Free Beer

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As a big fan of O'Rourke, it's hard to choose one best book but, if I had to, it would be this one. Will provide a great introduction to his work for those unfamiliar with it and a lot of fun for those who already know him. O'Rourke is known as a conservative yet you won't find him proselytizing here (well, not much and never directly). Rather, he brings his capacious wit and remarkable ability to entertain and inform at the same time to a variety of topics. The reader will laugh out loud and learn a few things at the same time.

I brought this book to a weekend getaway with a rather affluent and leftward leaning family I once knew. As I read it upon the veranda, the patriarch of this family spied the title and, assuming my outlook to be just slightly shy of fascism (I didn't inherit wealth), took the main title, "Give War a Chance", quite literally. Of course, Olympia Snowe is a fascist to these folks, so it was with no small amount of amusement that I unveiled the true meaning of the title to my inquisitor. Sarcasm, an O'Rourke mainstay, is apparently lost on the Leftist without elucidation.

O'Rourke blends his libertarian tendencies with his wry sense of humor to produce yet another uproarious look at the human condition. Give War a Chance is on par with earlier stellar O'Rourke attempts such as Parliament of Whores or Eat the Rich. You don't need to agree with the man to laugh with him and there is the added edification one may glean from political counterpoint. For Libertarians, there is no commentator more enjoyable or satire more cutting. O'Rourke has an eye for irony.

P.J. O'Rourke is a humorist and one of the most eloquent mainstream advocates of Libertarianism around. O'Rourke believes the Jefforsonian axiom that government is best that governs least. In pursuit of that truth, he travels around the world looking for examples that prove his point. All of that, however, is secondary to the fact that he's a damn funny writer who enjoys tweaking liberals, which he does with the very title of this book. Regardless of your polictical opinion on the Gulf War, you will find O'Rourke's take amusing and informative. And as for the alcohol free beer? Well, some things are better left unsaid.

Conservative political writers (and their liberal colleagues) tend to be shrill and vitriolic. O'Rourke in contrast uses humor and the results are devastating to his targets. He has a gift for stripping away the self-importance and pomposity of his political opponents and exposing their laugable essence. My favorite pieces in this book are his review of Iaccoca's autobiography and his recounting of the Nicaraguan election in 1990. No political writer is as funny as O'Rourke and this book contains some of his best work.

Having been in many parts of the world which O'Rourke describes, I find his conclusions very accurate and worthy of reading over and over. He has been to these places, participated in their activities, and spoken to individuals from opposing sides. He is funny (though sometimes too vulgar for some people's taste) and his humor is not bitter. Though the reader may be unfamiliar with some of the names of people and events in history O'Rourke uses to illustrate things, the author is still able to make his points. His writing style with rich vocabulary is refreshing in a time when political writings read like children's essays. Overall, a very educational read.

PJ O'Rourke is an author whose niche is opening the eyes and minds of those who have OD'd on conventional wisdom. PJ is not brilliant or particularly insightful, but he is enormously funny and he knows and writes to his audience with great precision. I may be biased in that I (to my great surprise) make an appearance in this book, but I've always loved PJ's writing since Parlaiment of Whores came out. This book is certainly worth reading.

I got the book as gift and have enjoyed reading it. Not having traveled abroad but having lived through the period he describes, I found O'Rouke's various travels to former soviet republics, Latin America and the Arab World witty and lively. I kept remarking to myself, I wish I would have written that. Many times, I read excerpts aloud to my wife.

As a typical American, I forget about political events that shaped my adolescence and early adulthood. Having fought my share of wars with my schoolyard "sandalistas," I am glad that Mr. O'Rouke jogged my memory and washed it historical vindication.

For those of you who say that liberals are too starchy for O'Roarke's satire, well, let me say this. I personally have no use for Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, Moore, or just hypocrites in general. But O'Roarke is another beast altogether. The rest of these guys want to indoctrinate you, they want your soul, your money, your vote. O'Roarke, on the other hand, just wants you to drop your pants in the checkout isle at WalMart and if you get away with it he will take you to Rick's Cabaret and get drunk with you whether you are black or white or republican or liberal. O'Roarke is a republican, but unlike the others mentioned above, if you are not a republican he doesn't think you are evil, he just thinks you are amusing in a kind of comical martian kind of way. He's about political satire rather than political invective, which means that even if you are a liberal you might find him a lot funnier than Michael Moore. He's like the Hunter S. Thompson of the right, and probably just as likely as Thompson to take flight from DEA agents.

I've been reading O'Roarke since his days at National Lampoon, which while O'Roarke was the editor was the funniest magazine ever created. What makes O'Roarke such a gifted writer is his eye for the signs of the times. He can find the smallest details in everyday society, like the new menu at McDonalds, things that most of us ignore, and use them to represent, say, the affects of NAFTA on the underground trafficking of bootleg tequila. It's kind of uncanny.

The other notable thing about O'Roarke is his work-drunk prose. Unlike his conservative competetors (and liberal competetors in the political comment vein) O'Roarke is truly a lover of the English language and I would rank him alongside Thomas McGuane as among the most talented essayists we have.

O'Roarke will offend the politically correct, but be assured he paints the right-wing kooky fringe with the same broad brush he applies to liberals.He does think the Clinton's are strange, but no stranger than that element of the right wing which is obsessed with smearing them. For instance, liberals would surely love his peice on the Heritage USA theme park (stories like this are why you won't find him on the bookshelves next to Hannity). Anyway, I've read a lot of O'Roarke's stuff and GWAC ranks right at the top next to Holidays in Hell.

Say what you like about P.J. O'Rourke, liberals don't scare him. An utter pragmatist, the irrepressible O'Rourke looks past all the whining about intentions and good-hearted, well-meaning policies and shines a blistering spotlight on the results. I especially enjoyed the section of the book in which he discussed the ousting of the Sandinistias in Nicaragua. Communist governments have killed more of their own citizens in this century than all the soldiers and civilians killed in World Wars I and II by soldiers from foriegn countries. Despite the fact that the lone holdouts today are North Korea, China and Cuba, you wouldn't know that socialism is on it's last legs by talking to some liberals in America and Europe. P.J. O'Rourke expertly reveals the fantasy land that these people live in as they blindly and resolutely continue to pursue policies and ideologies that just plain flat out don't work. Best line: The introduction, in which he defines a liberal as someone who gets warm happy feelings over the fact that 10% of the profit from the sales of Ben & Jerry's ice cream goes to promote "world peace". He then says that say what you like about greedy corporate executives; a trader on wall street who bags a cool million in one year contributes over $150,000 in taxes to the public coffers, some of which goes to support the United States Marines, who have done more to promote world peace than all the Ben & Jerry's ice cream ever sold.

This is funny stuff, and it makes you think a bit too. Read it, especially if you get tired of the same old story line and the same old assumptions coming from the talking heads on TV. Some may call PJ conservative, but he is sure no Pat Buchannan or Bob Dole.