The CEO of the Sofa (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)

by P. J. O'Rourke (Author) "I was just going to say, when I was interrupted... "Nobody interrupted you," said my wife..." (more)
Key Phrases: winter driving, New York, Social Security, United Nations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Not content to rest on his laurels, the bestselling humorist O'Rourke (All the Trouble in the World, etc.) instead settles back on his caustic couch to offer a wide-angled worldview from his own living room, his salon of sarcasm. He introduces readers to his assistant, friends, family and smart-aleck babysitter, as he reflects on such topics as cell phones ("People are willing to interrupt anything, including hiding under the bed, to answer a cell phone"), Christmas catalogues, Instant Messaging, MP3s, Nasdaq, toddlers, TV and how the "Gettysburg Address" would have turned out if written on an iMac. On a serious note, he praises the "philosophical legerdemain" of Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He also reviews the "profound cogitations" of Hillary Clinton's 1995 It Takes a Village ("Some kinds of stupidity cannot be faked"), compares Vegas's Venetian resort to the real Venice ("Will video poker ever inspire a novella by Thomas Mann?") and contemplates the results of bias-free language ("What a piece of work is person!"). For "senior-management types," one hilarious chapter explains youth culture and current celebs, including Moby, Eminem, Carson Daly, Hilary Swank and Beck: "Beck dropped out of school after junior high so we can't blame the dot-com mess on him personally." Though his vitriolic wit is couched in humor that elicits the gamut from giggles to guffaws, O'Rourke never cushions its impact. The comedic crescendo is his centerpiece, a summary of mankind's achievements at millennium's end. This insightful (yet also funny) essay alone is worth the price of admission. (Sept.)Forecast: The 150,000 first printing is backed up with an appealing cover photo, a $150,000 promotional budget, a national ad campaign, an 18-city author tour plus online promotion. O'Rourke will undoubtedly find himself on the bestseller list again.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
O'Rourke (Eat the Rich) has come to the fore in the current school of New Journalism that put Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe on the literati map. Like or dislike him, one must admit that he has the power to draw the reader into his psychological inferno. His new book crackles with indignation, a lot of it centered on Democrats, liberals, and the Clintons, about whom he writes with such an infusion of malice that it amounts at times almost to rage. In addition to incinerating these evil specimens of humanity, he also does some tub-thumping on such topics as parenting children, wine tasting, Earth Day, and India. The book will prove abundantly entertaining to those who enjoy O'Rourke's attack-dog style of writing and share his views, but it will surely derange the digestion of all others. Unless something cataclysmic happens, the book is likely to find its way to best-sellerdom.
- A. J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (July 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080213940X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802139405
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #725,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK for O'Rourke fans, not for novices., October 16, 2001

By	Michael H. Siegel (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The CEO of the Sofa (Hardcover)

CEO of the Sofa is an uneven book. It's basically a collection of some of P.J.'s writings on everything from Hillary Clinton to driving to being a new father. It is linked together in an homage to Holmes' "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" as a series of diatribes P.J. unleashes on the Democrats next door, his assistant, his wife, his daughter, his godson and the baby sitter (usually as his alter ego, the Political Nut).

I can't, in good faith, recommend this book to non-P.J. fans. The wit is there but the book lacks the coherence, factual analysis and dogged persistence on a subject that characterize his best books - Eat the Rich, Parliament of Whores and All the Trouble in the World. Even his previous collections - Vacations in Hell, Give War a Chance and Age and Guile - had related articles sandwiched together in sections. This just sounds like someone rambling on and on from topic to topic with no rhyme or reason. If you're not familiar with O'Rouke, I recommend the above-mentioned books, which are excellent.

Some of the stuff in the book is very good. Some of it isn't. His open letter to Democrats, his discussion of how being a parent changed his outlook, his (well-deserved) lambasting of Hillary and his analysis of the impeachement scandal in which no side is spared his sharp tongue, are top notch. But the CEO linkages annoyed me. Moreover, he took his old articles and pasted in asides to his (fictional) audience. The pasting is obvious and the asides are unnecessary and distracting. If he'd just done this as a coherent collection of his writings, it would probably be a 3.5-4 star book. As it is, it's 3-3.5 stars for PJ fans, probably less for novices.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better Satirical Commentary Than Most ..., December 19, 2002

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The CEO of the Sofa (Hardcover)

P.J. O'Rourke spares no one, especially not himself, in his sharp and funny observations on life, politics, culture, more politics, and family. I like his writing. Humor is a risky and delicate thing because it depends so much on knowing the reality behind the joke. For example, I am sure that there are many hysterical jokes that, oh, glass blowers tell among themselves that would elude me completely.

O'Rourke has the knack of being able to find the universal in some rather arcane scenery - like the bureaucrats in India, and has a lot of fun with wine tasting and altering the senses in general. He also likes to tee off on both of our political parties, though, being a Republican there seems to be more glee in his hammering on the Democrats (or maybe my being conservative and Republican, I get more glee from his pounding on the other guys. But I must admit to relishing his exposing the hypocrisy on the right as well.).

This book is a collection of his published articles (at least one unpublished before) that are woven (pasted - pastiched?) together as if they came out of events in O'Rourke's life rather being set up as separate articles. This device works OK and offers the P.J. the opportunity the opportunity of setting up a few more laughs.

I am sure you will enjoy some articles more than others, as I did. Again, humor is a difficult thing and sometimes you find yourself outside the point of the joke. But there are plenty enough delicious barbs that you will find yourself laughing out loud more than few times. It ends in August of 2001 so it comes from the pre-9/11 world and that shows a bit. But, hey, it is still very good stuff.

Four stars: while it is very good writing, it isn't the best O'Rourke - but it is still far better than most other satirical commentary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Skip the filler, re-read the good parts, November 13, 2001

By	Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The CEO of the Sofa (Hardcover)

I'm a big PJ fan, and found much in 'The CEO of the Sofa' to enjoy. The problem is the good parts are embedded -- like a fly in amber -- in a conceit that never really clicked: PJ's homage to Oliver Wendell Holmes's 'The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.'

What PJ has done here is create a semi-fictional community, and embedded his essays (à la Holmes) as monologues delivered to these family members, friends, neighbors, and his long-suffering assistant, Max. To his credit, PJ is very up-front about what he's trying to do. In the Acknowledgements, he writes, 'Holmes pulled this [conceit] 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.' Like a successful actor or director, PJ seems to be in a position to get his publisher to indulge his personal pet projects. Like Holmes, PJ is witty. Charming, I guess, is a matter of taste. I found it dull and contrived, and skipped over it as quickly as I could in order to get to the actual essays.

The good news here is that most of the essays are PJ in fine form. Fans of 'Parliament of Whores' will savor his coverage of the United Nations Millennium Summit. And if you enjoyed his deconstruction of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter's tome way back when, you'll prize the way he tears apart 'Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing' and (especially) 'It Takes a Village.' ('The village is Washington. You are the child.').

Interestingly, the parts I found most funny were those that involved, or were suggested by, Christopher Buckley. The Blind (Drunk) Wine Taste Test and the section titled 'Who the F___ Are They?' are, for pure humor writing, some of the best things in the book.

It was Christopher Buckley who coined the equation PJ = SJ [Perelman] + LSD, but you won't find much of the latter in this book. The author of the classic 'How to Drive Fast on Drugs while Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink' now finds himself writing about childcare, the stock market, and the vicissitudes of home computers. These are some of the sections I skimmed over, as PJ veered terrifyingly close to (Lord have mercy) Andy Rooney-dom.

Despite those scares, though, there is still great material here. I found the occasional recycled joke, but there are also many true O'Rourkean one-liners to enjoy ('What a feckless, timid, timeserving [Republican] revolution that was in 1994, as if the sans culottes had stormed the Bastille to get themselves jobs as prison guards.' [p. 102]).

So ... good try on the Holmes thing, PJ. It wasn't my cup of tea, but *de gustibus ...*. The rest is still worth the trip.