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  • Holidays in Hell

  • In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, 'What's Funny About This'
  • By: P.J. O'Rourke
  • Narrated by: Dan John Miller
  • Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)
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Holidays in Hell

By: P.J. O'Rourke
Narrated by: Dan John Miller
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Summary

Holidays in Hell follows P. J. O’Rourke on a global fun-finding mission to the most desperate places on the planet, from the bombed-out streets of Beirut to the stultifying blandness of Heritage USA. P.J.’s unforgettable adventures abroad include storming student protesters’ barricades in South Korea, interviewing Communist insurrectionists in the Philippines, and going undercover in Arab garb at Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock Mosque. Packed with P.J.’s classic riffs on everything from Polish nightlife under communism to Third World driving tips, Holidays in Hell is one of the best-loved books by one of today’s most celebrated humorists - a full-tilt, no-holds-barred romp through politics, culture, and ideology.

©2011 P. J. O'Rourke (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This is funny, outrageous, perceptive stuff, written with brio.” ( The Washington Post Book World)
“O’Rourke... seems to have teethed on brass knuckles and suckled on bile. He is also one of the funniest writers in America, or wherever else he may go to satisfy his desperate need to extract humor from folly and chaos.” ( Time)
“P. J. is sui generis.... He’s wickedly amusing. I count a per-chapter average of at least two dozen laughs-out-loud and a half-dozen zingingly apt observations.” ( The Baltimore Sun)

What listeners say about Holidays in Hell

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Every sentence has to be a funny quote!

while it's an interesting collection of travel memories, some of the jokes fall short and the whole audiobook just feels like a ten hour long mediocre stand up comedy.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Uncomfortable listening

It’s of its time. Not in a good way. I couldn’t get beyond about half way through as it was so awful.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Absolute dross

Avoid. Smug American patronising nonsense. I cannot understand the positive reviews for this book. Hated it.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dated

Probably funny in it's day, but in 2023 I barely broke a grin. The narrator did his best.

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