[.ca] The CEO of the Sofa (ISBN 080213940X)

Right-wing satire of the highest order:
"The CEO of the Sofa" is structured into 12 monthly instalments - sort of stream of (un)consciousness essays - from the world according to P J O'Rourke. You may have come across O'Rourke before......he's a one-off, the world's only funny Republican ! And this book is, often if not consistently, very funny. We get his trademark satire and cynicism on a huge range of topics. And if it is true that much humour is about probing for and exploiting frailty, O'Rourke is a comic master. He claims "I just make fun of things". This is an uncharacteristic understatement - he is pathologically unsympathetic, and relentless in his pursuit of what he perceives to be weakness or pretence. And that includes a lot. As he confesses, "everything is bugging me, I'm at that stage of life" and, he should add, apparently rather enjoying it too ! India, religion, talentless 15-minute-of-famers, wine-tasting, for example, all come under his scornful gaze. Neither is he averse to turning the sights on himself. Indeed, he is unapologetically lazy, witness a driving lesson for his godson in the depth of winter, which consists merely of a catalogue of excuses to stay in - that's the real key to good bad-weather driving ! But it's when he enters the realm of politics that O'Rourke starts to really let rip. Often, this is through his alter ego, The Political Nut, who, coincidentally, calls round the moment Democrats (or alcohol) appear on the scene. Although he is "a Cro-Magnon republican of long standing", in truth his party is that of the extreme libertarians. He is against intereference in any shape or form, reserving his most savage blows for the UN and Democrats - Hillary Clinton, especially, would clearly get a 'warm welcome' at the O'Rourke household. He abhors also both the bleeding hearts and those people who put themselves in positions where hearts bleed for them. How selfish these people are, being so feeble as to cause the government to levy taxes from the likes of him to support their weakness ! Some of his most hilarious moments are reserved for what he would consider to be forced correctness in any form. Ever heard of the Task Force of Bias-Free Language for the Association of American University Presses ? Imagine how they get both barrels ! In the end, he refuses to be tied down by any recognised -isms which impinge on his freedom. In fact, he doesn't believe in the political world at all - I guess Republicanism is just the closest he can find to a non-political party. "The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take 100 of its most prominent numbskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm". He does have some basic tenets - "there is no human liberty without property rights...and...you own you, your efforts, what you do" - but, beyond that, everything is fuel for his indignation. Despite having little sympathy with his espoused values, I still found the book an extremely entertaining and provocative commentary of the early 21st century (US-centric) world. Despite the constant onslaught, there is a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecation which makes O'Rourke very appealing rather than very arrogant. For example, despite all the bluster, he is completely in awe of his wife and small children, accepting that they are the ones who really get things done - he's just the guy watching TV and scribbling notes in the corner. All in all, highly recommended. Incidentally, the 12 month period covered by "The CEO of the Sofa" runs to August 2001 - I wonder what chapter 13 might have looked like ? Now read "Stupid White Men" for the alternative worldview......

O'Rourke mocks at - just about everything:
In this book O'Rourke is his usual savagely funny self as he gives his views on politics, welfare, medicare, republicans, democrats, the Clintons, Monica Lewinsky and life in general. He is particulalry funny when demolishing Hillary Clinton's book 'It Takes a Village' and another bizarre book, apparently a handbook of politically correct language (this book sounded so totally weird, I wasn't sure that he didn't invent it as a joke). His piece about India is particlarly good, nobody else writes about foreign parts as well as O'Rourke. Occasionaly I found myself getting irritated, as when he gets all Michael Moore-ish about women, going on about how intelligent, efficient, competent, and generally more adult and better than men they are. I hate this. Not being at all efficient, competent and adult myself, I find myself deeply loathing Mrs O'Rourke and all thoise other smartallick women who are so different from me. He's at it again later in the book when he's on about women being wonderful with children etc. Crikey, all these female paragons he seems to know make me tired. And it startles me a bit to find that he doesn't believe that Elian's father had any right to have his son returned to him, as a father himself I would have expected him to be more sympathetic to father's rights. However, in general this is a very funny book (his comparisons between Venice, Italy, and Venice, Las Vegas, had me in stitches, likewise his experiments with wine-tasting).His most profound comment in the book is "the difference between having one child and having two, is like the difference between keeping a dog and running a zoo" That is SO true. And his wife is probably not as tiresome in real life as she seems to be in this book. Very funny.

Not one of his better efforts....:
After all the brilliant books to come from the pen (word processor?) of O'Rourke, this comes as a bit of a disappointment. It is a disjointed effort - while it contains a lot of O'Rourke's usual wit, there isn't the cohesive theme you find in many of his other books. He rambles around, recording conversations with his assistant or teenage nephew for much of the book. There is his biting lampooning of the bad and not-so-great, and many salient points are made; but very often the humour feels contrived. Perhaps this is a book that needed just a little more spit and polish.

Better Satirical Commentary Than Most ...:
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.

A big boring read!:
An friend recommended I read anything by P.J. O'Rourke, so I purchased CEO of the Sofa, since it sounded like a fun title. Boy was I wrong! This guy O'Rourke is just plain boring, whiny, and unfunny! Save your money and rent Caddy Shack instead.