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P. J. O'Rourke
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Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) Paperback – August 9, 1996

by P. J. O'Rourke (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
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Readers may be shocked to discover that America's most provocative (and conservative) satirist, P. J. O'Rourke, 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, O'Rourke chronicles the remarkable trajectory that took him from the lighthearted fun of the revolutionary 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 causes a beatnik-hippie type, comfortable sleeping on dirty mattresses in pot-addled communes - as P. J. did when he was a writer for assorted "underground" papers-to metamorphosize into a right-wing middle-aged grouch? Here, P. J. shows how his Socialist idealism and avant-garde aesthetic tendencies were cured and how he acquired a healthy and commendable interest in national defense, the balanced budget, Porsches, and Cohiba cigars. P. J. O'Rourke's message is that there's hope for all those suffering from acute Bohemianism, or as he puts it, "Pull your pants up, turn your hat around, and get a job." "From the fictionalized accounts of his career as a hard-drinking hippie to the Benchley-in-the-age-of-macho lampoon of fly fishing, Mr. O'Rourke shows an incorrigible comic gift and an eye for detail that keeps the wild stuff grounded." - The New York Times Book Review
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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Atlantic Monthly Press
  4. Publication date
    August 9, 1996
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0871136538
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0871136534
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Readers can be excused for a little motion sickness when reading this collection of pieces from P.J. O'Rourke. To go from preaching "Armed Love" (whatever that is) to being anointed as the ultra-libertarian Cato Institute's favorite humorist in only 25 years is an astounding transformation.

Still, whether it's New Left juvenilia or high-octane auto journalism scrawled in the Age of Cocaine, one thing holds true: O'Rourke writes one hell of a sentence. Here's P.J.'s impression of Nixon explaining Vietnam to a bunch of hippies: "To be really out front, I get off on ego trips, power games. But, like that's where I'm at ... I mean you can put me down for kicking your ass but don't put me down for being an ass-kicker 'cause that's my movie." Then fast-forward 17 years: "Sure, everyone says the Sixties were fun. Down at the American Legion hall, everybody says World War II was fun, if you talk to them after 10:00 p.m." Age and Guile is fun, whatever time it is.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press; First Edition (August 9, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871136538
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871136534
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.09 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

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P. J. O'Rourke

P. J. O'Rourke

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P. J. O’Rourke was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and attended Miami University and Johns Hopkins. He began writing funny things in 1960s “underground” newspapers, became editor-in-chief of National Lampoon, then spent 20 years reporting for Rolling Stone and The Atlantic Monthly as the world’s only trouble-spot humorist, going to wars, riots, rebellions, and other “Holidays in Hell” in more than 40 countries. He’s written 16 books on subjects as diverse as politics and cars and etiquette and economics. His book about Washington, Parliament of Whores, and his book about international conflict and crisis, Give War a Chance, both reached #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. He is a contributing editor at The Weekly Standard, H. L. Mencken fellow at the Cato Institute, a member of the editorial board of World Affairs and a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait… Wait… Don’t Tell Me. He lives with his family in rural New England, as far away from the things he writes about as he can get.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • The Redneck Jaco
    5.0 out of 5 stars Should be made mandatory reading
    Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    FORGET Jesse Ventura and stop making HIM money by buying his "oh guess what I learned when I was governor" silliness. P.J. O'Rourke was once a vapid liberal himself; and you can read how and why his opinions sort of "grew up" in this book. Try to imagine reading Hunter Thompson (whom the author knew) without the miasma of the "illegal substances" that eventually caused him to take his own life. O'Rourke is every bit as amusing (and vastly less pontificating!) as was the good doctor, plus you don't have to read HST's endlessly redundant drug-riden ranting about (this is just two) Christians or Conservatives. I will never...well, "knowingly," plagerize another author, no matter how mny words I might could get away with rearranging or mispelling, but I think I've quoted O'Rourke in just about everything I myself have written since about 1995. This book is hilarious, but especially read the story "So Drunk." No, no "dead grandmothers crawled up O'Rourke's leg with knives in their teeth," nor did any predatory bats swoop down upon him and his "Samonan Attorney." O'Rourke doesn't write, merely to deliberately provoke like HST did - but he too "has been there, done that, bought the t shirt, and moved on." This is Mandatory Reading, folks...
    5 people found this helpful
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  • GWitt
    4.0 out of 5 stars Age & Guile........
    Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    O'Rourke always makes me laugh. I enjoy his work.
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  • Gary A. Grelli
    5.0 out of 5 stars Do you like to see sacred cows gored?
    Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    P.J. has long been a favorite of mine. He is snarky, sarcastic and very funny. Put aside your personal opinions while reading him.
    Otherwise, you WILL be offended. He's like a very smart, 12 year old boy and makes fun of everything political, cultural and pompous.

    He wrote for National Lampoon in the 70s. If you know National Lampoon you have a taste for this.

    This particular volume focuses on his earlier writings. The period from 1969 to 1995.
    I live in Baltimore and PJ wrote for the underground paper called "Harry" while he attended Johns Hopkins University. I remember it from my own countercultural youth. Those essays were of particular interest to me.

    If you can laugh at yourself, you're in for a treat with PJ.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Chris Serger
    4.0 out of 5 stars Can't go wrong with PJ
    Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2011
    This is an eclectic collection of PJ's writings. Some of it is a down-right 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, 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 recent 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: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government or Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics (O'Rourke, P. J.).
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  • steeze
    5.0 out of 5 stars Always great.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    As usual this is just another spectacular collection of his prose. fantastic for a fan or for a first timer.
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  • Jeffrey Ellis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Politics, stories, and concrete poetry -- best of everything
    Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2001
    PJ O'Rourke has always been one of my favorite cultural and political commentators. An unrepentant Libertarian Republican who used to be an unrepentant Marxist radical, O'Rourke is a conservative who writes with all the wit and verve that, supposedly, only liberals are capable of. P.J. O'Rourke is the Al Franken of the American Right, if Al Franken were actually funny. Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut is made up of O'Rourke's previously uncollected writings over the past three decades. As such, the book begins with a few choice pieces from his angry days as a Marxist journalist in the early '70s (where, it must be said, O'Rourke still writes with a wit that proves that funny is funny not matter what the ideology) moves on to cover his brief period as an adherent to Concrete Poetry (an art form that he admits still having no idea what to make of) and finally closes with a few of his recent essays as Rolling Stone's Foreign Affairs Editor. Best of all, O'Rourke includes a few short stories that he wrote and published while editor of National Lampoon. The stories, all dealing with his past as a '60s radical, are a perfect mixture of radical nostalgia and modern day clear headedness and, along with an unexpected pathos for his lost characters wandering through the political wilderness of protest, they also rank amongst the most hilarious of O'Rourke's writings, perfectly displaying his trademark style of detached irony and self-depreciating wit (one can always sense O'Rourke saying, "Can you believe they actually pay me to write this stuff?"). Perhaps most nicely, the pieces in this collection are arranged by chronological order so that the reader literally goes through O'Rourke's political and literary evolution with him over the course of the book. As such, we're provided with a nice view of the political odyssey of both O'Rourke and America over the past 30-odd years. If one thing remains the same it is that O'Rourke, whether conservative or liberal, consistently refuses to accept anything at face value. He remains, always, the eternal skeptic. And we, as readers, are all the better off for it.
    21 people found this helpful
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