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"The government is huge, stupid, greedy and makes nosy, officious and dangerous intrusions into the smallest corners of life–this much we can stand. But the real problem is that government is boring. We could cure or mitigate the other ills Washington visits on us if we could only bring ourselves to pay attention to Washington itself. But we cannot." —from Parliament of Whores |
“Modern Manners is O’Rourke doing what he has always done: making hilarious, insightful, often vicious fun of the world and all its inhabitants.”—Kim Hubbard, People “It’s high time we deep-sixed the Emily Post and went with the O’Rourke.”—Frank Gannon, Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Modern Manners is the sort of book that will have you calling friends at odd hours, and maybe even pestering total strangers seated near you on airplanes, just so you can read some particularly amusing passage out loud.”—Joe Leydon, Houston Post “A reader who rushes through [Modern Manners] from cover to cover—like I did—will feel like a child who has gorged on chocolate cake: happy, but a bit disappointed that it’s all gone. The reason O’Rourke’s book is so successful, however, is not just his great sense of humor. O’Rourke’s writing has a cutting edge behind it, which makes a reader’s laughter just a bit thought-provoking, and just a bit rueful. . . . Much of [Modern Manners] is too risqué to reprint, but it’s all very funny.”—Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune “Extremely funny . . . [Modern Manners] must not be left where children can find it, for not only will they imbibe [O’Rourke’s] ideas on sex, drugs and booze (he’s for them), but they will also receive guidance on other forbidden things, like playing with food, which ‘must be done exactly right or it will lead to social disaster.’ . . . His book is the perfect companion for that laziest of summer pleasures, ‘thoughtless fun.’”—Susan Dooley, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) “What O’Rourke has given us is not so much a book on etiquette as a collection of aphorisms in the tradition of Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary. No matter what you call it, you’ll laugh.”—Roger Harris, Newark Star-Ledger |
