- Paperback: 341 pages
- Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (9 Aug 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0871136538
- ISBN-13: 978-0871136534
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,944,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"No time left for pamphleting and leafleting, picketing and petitioning, talking and walking around. Time to TRASH THE STATE!" Abbie Hoffman? Huey Newton? No, it's P. J. O'Rourke, circa 1970. Now America's most provocative (and conservative) satirist - O'Rourke was at one time a raving pinko, with the scab on his bleeding heart to prove it. Through twenty-five years of his writing, Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut guides us on the journey that has taken O'Rourke from the lighthearted fun of the revolutionary barricades to the serious business of the nineteenth hole.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evolution of a Republican Journalist,
By
This review is from: Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)
This book charts the metamorphism of a peacenik-hippie to a wry righton right-wing hack, in a wry humorous and at intervals insightful way, from pieces taken throughout Mr O'Rourke's career. It gives an account of his truly miraculous survival of the 60s decade, to his first proper job as satirist-in-chief at the National Lampoon plus other assorted pieces ranging from the perils of testing SUVs in Wales (having to ask the locals for directions) to the deeply symbolic meaning of hunting woodcock in today?s society.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Collection,
By A Customer
This review is from: Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)
It's a collection of PJ O'Rourke's essays from his 'younger days' to the present. The older stuff generally isn't funny, a lot of it isn't strikingly intelligent, (as he points out himself) but it provides an insight into how his opinions and style have changed over the years. Most of the later stuff is very funny. Especially the essays on test-driving cars!I'd recommend it if you like his other books, but don't buy it until you've read some of the others!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews) 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Politics, stories, and concrete poetry -- best of everything,
By Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)
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.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The evolution of a writer,
By Trevor Seigler - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)
I first got into PJ O'Rourke when I started reading his book "Republican Party Reptile" and realized that I could laugh heartily at his wit, as opposed to the often divisive rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News Channel. O'Rourke is equally scathing in his approach to "born-again" nutjobs as he is to "pinko" enviromentalists, and his is a style of writing I wouldn't mind trying to emulate in my own belated (and as yet unpublished) career as a writer."Age and Guile" caught my fancy because I had heard it was a collection of his pieces from over the years, and I tried to find it at the local library and various bookstores, but was unlucky in my pursuit. I ended up checking out a Books-on-Tape version of the book, read by Norman Deitz, and I was quite pleased. The early material is amatuerish, to be fair, but there are nuggets of wit to be found amongst the "juvinelia". The Truth About The Sixties was actually one of my favorite parts of the book, I found it very involving and fascinating to hear. The rest of the book tickled my funny bone. I just don't have enough good things to say about this book. So, I ordered it on Amazon, and I've recieved it, and it's joined my collection of P.J. O'Rourke books. A liberal at heart myself, I agree with a previous reviewer that O'Rourke celebrates individual freedom and doesn't care for those who try and take it away. I only hope I can be as good at conveying that in my own writing, he's certainly one hell of a teacher. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stellar! (After the first 41 pages),
By mwotoole@hotmail.com - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.) (Paperback)
Having read all of P.J. O'Rourke's books, I can safely say that this was one of my favorites. Save for the first 41 pages, I was thoroughly entertained and stayed up 'til the wee hours giggling like a mad squirrel. Rip the first chapter out and it's a five-star read.
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