Age and Guile: Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut

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Synopsis

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."

Copyright:
1995

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
368 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781555847067
Related ISBNs:
9780871136534
Publisher:
Grove Atlantic
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
P. J. O’Rourke
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Humor
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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