Product Description

New York Times best-selling author P. J. O'Rourke has toured the fighting in Bosnia, visited the West Bank disguised as P.J. of Arabia, lobbed one-liners on the battlefields of the Gulf War, and traded quips with Communist rebels in the jungles of the Philippines. Now, in The CEO of the Sofa, he embarks on a mission to the most frightening place of all -- his own home. Ensconced on the domestic boardroom's throne (although not supposed to put his feet on its cushions), he faces a three-year-old who wants a cell phone, a free-lance career devoted to writing articles like "Chewing-Mouth Dogs Bring Hope to People with Eating Disorders," and neighbors who smell like Democrats ("That is, using smell as a transitive verb. When I light a cigar they wave their hands in front of their faces and pretend to cough"). Undaunted -- with the help of martinis -- by middle age, P.J. holds forth on everything from getting toddlers to sleep ("Advice to parents whose kids love the story of the dinosaurs: Don't give away the surprise ending") to why Hillary Clinton's election victory was a good thing ("We Republicans were almost out of people to hate in the Senate. Teddy Kennedy is just too old and fat to pick on"). And P.J. leaps (well, groans and pushes himself up) from the couch to pursue assignments such as a high-speed drive across the ugliest part of India at the hottest time of the year, a blind (drunk) wine tasting with Christopher Buckley, and a sojourn at the U.N. Millennial Summit, where he runs the risk of perishing from boredom and puts readers in peril of laughing themselves to death.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #922155 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Not content to rest on his laurels, the bestselling humorist O'Rourke (All the Trouble in the World, etc.) instead settles back on his caustic couch to offer a wide-angled worldview from his own living room, his salon of sarcasm. He introduces readers to his assistant, friends, family and smart-aleck babysitter, as he reflects on such topics as cell phones ("People are willing to interrupt anything, including hiding under the bed, to answer a cell phone"), Christmas catalogues, Instant Messaging, MP3s, Nasdaq, toddlers, TV and how the "Gettysburg Address" would have turned out if written on an iMac. On a serious note, he praises the "philosophical legerdemain" of Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He also reviews the "profound cogitations" of Hillary Clinton's 1995 It Takes a Village ("Some kinds of stupidity cannot be faked"), compares Vegas's Venetian resort to the real Venice ("Will video poker ever inspire a novella by Thomas Mann?") and contemplates the results of bias-free language ("What a piece of work is person!"). For "senior-management types," one hilarious chapter explains youth culture and current celebs, including Moby, Eminem, Carson Daly, Hilary Swank and Beck: "Beck dropped out of school after junior high so we can't blame the dot-com mess on him personally." Though his vitriolic wit is couched in humor that elicits the gamut from giggles to guffaws, O'Rourke never cushions its impact. The comedic crescendo is his centerpiece, a summary of mankind's achievements at millennium's end. This insightful (yet also funny) essay alone is worth the price of admission. (Sept.)Forecast: The 150,000 first printing is backed up with an appealing cover photo, a $150,000 promotional budget, a national ad campaign, an 18-city author tour plus online promotion. O'Rourke will undoubtedly find himself on the bestseller list again.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
O'Rourke (Eat the Rich) has come to the fore in the current school of New Journalism that put Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe on the literati map. Like or dislike him, one must admit that he has the power to draw the reader into his psychological inferno. His new book crackles with indignation, a lot of it centered on Democrats, liberals, and the Clintons, about whom he writes with such an infusion of malice that it amounts at times almost to rage. In addition to incinerating these evil specimens of humanity, he also does some tub-thumping on such topics as parenting children, wine tasting, Earth Day, and India. The book will prove abundantly entertaining to those who enjoy O'Rourke's attack-dog style of writing and share his views, but it will surely derange the digestion of all others. Unless something cataclysmic happens, the book is likely to find its way to best-sellerdom.
- A. J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Dick Hill makes a great CEO of the Sofa as he breezes through P.J. O'Rourke's rants on everything from parenting to technology to politics. Nothing is safe from O'Rourke's ridicule, and from his vantage point on the conservative couch, he manages to press every liberal button over and over again. Hill reads these essays with gusto, seeming to relish each subject and the casual format. He also seems to suffer O'Rourke's egocentrism and know-it-all attitude, bringing a much needed grounding voice to the essays. Hill makes O'Rourke's sometimes funny, sometimes irritating opinions and observations easy-to-swallow food for thought, no small task considering O'Rourke's extremist views. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

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.

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.

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......