Amazon.com Review
As one of the few folks who made it out of the
National Lampoon alive and writing, P. J. O'Rourke is--a comment that might please him more than most humorists--an elder statesman of American humor. While this says much about the thinness of the field, you gotta give him his props.
Modern Manners is good, early O'Rourke, a book that you can read and enjoy without being to the right of Francisco Franco. Who can resist lines such as "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat." Or, "Don't wear a tweed jacket to work unless you expect to flush a covey of quail from behind the Xerox machine." Manners are a moving target, and some sections are in need of revision (cocaine really was a big deal, wasn't it?), but don't let that dissuade you. By and large, Modern Manners comes through admirably.
Review
Modern Manners is O’Rourke doing what he has always done: making hilarious, insightful, often vicious fun of the world and all its inhabitants.” Kim Hubbard, People
It’s high time we deep-sixed the Emily Post and went with the O’Rourke.” Frank Gannon, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Modern Manners is the sort of book that will have you calling friends at odd hours, and maybe even pestering total strangers seated near you on airplanes, just so you can read some particularly amusing passage out loud.” Joe Leydon, Houston Post
A reader who rushes through [Modern Manners] from cover to coverlike I didwill feel like a child who has gorged on chocolate cake: happy, but a bit disappointed that it’s all gone. The reason O’Rourke’s book is so successful, however, is not just his great sense of humor. O’Rourke’s writing has a cutting edge behind it, which makes a reader’s laughter just a bit thought-provoking, and just a bit rueful. . . . Much of [Modern Manners] is too risqué to reprint, but it’s all very funny.” Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune
Extremely funny . . . [Modern Manners] must not be left where children can find it, for not only will they imbibe [O’Rourke’s] ideas on sex, drugs and booze (he’s for them), but they will also receive guidance on other forbidden things, like playing with food, which must be done exactly right or it will lead to social disaster.’ . . . His book is the perfect companion for that laziest of summer pleasures, thoughtless fun.’” Susan Dooley, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
What O’Rourke has given us is not so much a book on etiquette as a collection of aphorisms in the tradition of Ambrose Bierce’s The DevilR...
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.