Customer Reviews

Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you enjoy the intelligent and biting humor of a Dennis Miller and the vocabulary of a George Will you will love this book. If your idea of a great satirical read is "Mad Magazine" you will enjoy this book. If you think the Als - Gore and Franken - are brilliant you will hate this book.

Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People written by P.J. O'Rourke is a humorus book. A book the will get you laughing and you will not spot till the end.

This is some of O'Rourke's early musings, but neverthless, it is a very funny, tongue-in-cheek way to spoof manners. As with most if not all of O'Rourke's writings you read it for the levity, flippancy, and jocularity, well you will NOT be disappointed.

Read this book if you want to get away from the serious side of life. As the frivolity takes hold, you'll find that you are more relazed after a really good chuckle.

This book is hysterical. I have given copies of it to all of my friends. If you are sarcastic, you will love this.

I read this book a couple decades ago, then ordered it via Amazon as a present for a friend. Those of you expecting O'Rourke to do political analysis in this book are looking for the wrong sort of thing. This is more in keeping with his writings for National Lampoon back when he was managing editor. I still like his hat advice: "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."

P.J. O'Rourke has spent some part of his life observing manners, their uses and mis-uses. He prefers the latter as they provide territory, though he approaches it with hesitation, to ponder on paper. And we are much improved for that. Where else could we learn how to run a first class funeral which is also a study in themes and variations on how to be deceased yet remembered properly by divergent groups of persons, some family, some unfriendly, some friend.

While he is rather inclined to hold his nose as he steps over the bodies of the too merry makers, he is observant and reports what he's seen and others doing.

His tongue may be in his cheek but his observances are chillingly close to accurate. The way he puts it, the satire doesn't seem real but one senses the cruel truth that lies not very far away. Persons who have read this may hesitate before inviting him to any sort of function but, as the consumer of his dissections of what occurred, one rather hopes he'll at least sneak a peek over the fence.

While not a stop on the road to perdition himself, he well knows the path that leads to it and is only to happy to point the reader toward Modern Manners done badly.

This book is a good satire of our society and its mores. Written nearly 30 years ago, it still applies to American culture today. Unlike most of his political works where he blends semi-funny jokes with right-wing ideology, in this book P.J. O'Rourke generally leaves politics alone to focus on ridiculing every aspect of modern American culture: from the drugs we take, to our sexual morals, to the insipid youth culture, and on and on. His main point, from what I can tell, is that in modern America, we've all become self-absorbed bastards. He may be on to something.

Fantastic book, very funny. I was a bit annoyed this edition cut down the picture at the front of the book, which were the funniest parts of the original edition (hence four stars and not five), but nevertheless a very good read.

This book tells you everything you need to know about how to deal with people, situations and life in general without getting bogged down in questions of good or bad taste If you are ever concerned about whether or not you should do/say/wear something then you need this book to give you clear guidelines on how to do and and then not care about the result. Buy it

I've never thought of myself as a book-burner, but after reading the beginning of this book i'm prepared to make an exception in this case. This is the most facile piece of intellectually insulting drivel I have ever read.

Armed with a topic which offers a wealth of material for a skilled satirical writer, PJO totally missed the boat on this one.

There is only one reason anyone should buy this book: as a self awareness test. If you enjoy this work you should get the message that you should give up reading entirely and concentrate on more intellectually enriching pursuits, like reality TV.

To save someone else from having to experience this text, I am going to burn my copy; or perhaps grind it up for compost.

i thought id enjoy a book from o rourke. i find his interviews rather cool. it turns out the humor got predictable and boring real fast. it reads like a dorky teen humor magazine