Book review: P.J. disappoints

At one time, I was a big fan of P.J. O'Rourke. His writing for National Lampoon -- particularly the 1964 High School Yearbook -- was both highly satirical and hugely funny. His earlier books, notably Holidays in Hell and All the Trouble in the World, made me LOL. They served up of humour, with a side of political commentary. Good stuff, with lots of fun poked at American society and American culture for relish.

At about that time -- the 1980s -- someone called P.J. a "Gonzo journalist", so he started trying to live up [or down? Ed.] to Hunter Stockton Thompson's image. Perhaps the person who hung the tag on P.J. was thinking of "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink", a March 1979 National Lampoon article, since republished twice. But that piece was derivative, clearly inspired by HST's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Being inspired by someone is one thing. Emulating the source of your inspiration is another.

[Get to the new book, please! Ed.] OK OK! My point is that when O'Rourke was trying to be funny, with political and social commentary a secondary goal, he usually succeeded. But when he decided to make political and economic analysis the main point, with humour used as a polemical device, he didn't fare so well.

Parliament of Whores and, more recently, On the Wealth of Nations, were neither funny nor politically effective. Sort of like when Norman Lear got the religion of political correctness. All in the Family was never the same afterwards.

Now we have Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). I only chanced on it at my local library this week. I don't recall seeing it reviewed or even mentioned in passing in the lamestream media. Perhaps that's because there is very little to be said for or about it.

This latest opus is little more than a collection of quotes from other works on politics and economics, strung together at considerable length. O'Rourke helps himself liberally (in the sense of "freely") to the expressed thoughts of the great classical writers, such as John Locke (really!), Thomas Jefferson and Jane Austen (more really!). Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776) gets no fewer than nine citations in four pages, and that's just in one chapter.

So my first quarrel with this book is that a large part of it was written by others. P.J. must thank God that copyrights don't last forever. O'Rourke himself says, on the first page, that his book "is not too original, and I mean that in a good way. Nothing is worse than a too original political theory..." But Walt doesn't demand original thinking, only original writing.

It wasn't enough for P.J. to rehash the thoughts and words of others. Oh no. He quotes himself too, time and again, ad nauseam. To justify doing so, he quotes (will it never end?) Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Imagine the author of the excellent piece of advice, 'Know thyself', never alluding to that sentiment again." And, says O'Rourke, "I've used that before too, in The CEO of the Sofa".

So, gentle reader, if you've read Parliament of Whores, All the Trouble in the World, Eat the Rich, and/or On the Wealth of Nations, you can safely give P.J.'s latest "opus" -- and I use the word in its loosest sense -- a pass.

Don't read, let alone buy Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards. It will just encourage P.J. O'Rourke.