Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-bending, Celebrating America the Way It's Supposed To Be -- With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac ... of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn
Selected Book Details
- Hardcover
- Author: P. J. O'Rourke
- Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
- Release Date: June 2009
- ISBN-10: 0802118836
- ISBN-13: 9780802118837
- List Price: $24.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryA collection spanning thirty years, chronicling famed humorist and gearhead P. J. O’Rourke’s love affair with the automobile from mid-twentieth century to now—from heyday to sickbay. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Driving Like Crazy
Rating:
I LOVE to drive, which is why I own a BMW (my third) and I am of the age of remembering my first car (a 1949 Ford!) therefore this book brought back memories, envy of his life experiences, and I split a gut at his phenomenal turn of a phrase, the cynical asides and the colorful, detailed descriptions of his various escapades! SUPERB!
It wasn't a jar of pickles! I'm very happy.
Rating:
In hindsight, I'm surprised at how much I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. When I first heard his next book would be about cars, I sighed inwardly, expecting to enjoy it with that expression of determination I remember from childhood when I insisted to my brother I loved pickles so much I could eat a whole jar. As I got to the bottom of the jar, I knew I wasn't enjoying it, he knew I wasn't enjoying it, but damned if I'd admit it.
But!! It's not the Jar of Pickles!! It's actually hilarious. And the reader is one of the best to ever read a PJ book (which is saying quite a bit, since most readers have been outstanding, with one exception). He captures the spirits of PJ's prose style perfectly.
There was one that I'd heard before, "How to drive fast and...". It's one of my least favorite pieces of PJ's, I must admit. But it's followed by a piece which is, in essence, the older PJ telling off the younger PJ. That's worth the price of admission right there.
It's always fun to have a book you were looking forward to end up being great. But to have a book you expected to disappoint you turn out to be great... that, my friends, is bliss. I got to the end and started over again.
one man's attempt to have as much fun as possible with a ca
Rating:
O'Rourke has had a long and well-deserved reputation as one of America's finest satirists and political commentators. He has written widely on foreign affairs, economics and social mores. In his new collection of largely republished articles, he takes on "car journalism", or as he describes it: "Car journalism from 1977 to the present, a sort of social history with all the social science crap left out."
The articles represent one man's attempt to have as much fun as possible with a car - driving long stretches of forbidden and difficult desert stretches from Kyrgyzstan to the Baja run in Mexico, being entertained by car culture such as NASCAR, especially in the US deep south, and experiencing amateur rally driving.
O'Rourke writes for another time - long ago in fact, "(when) DUI was not yet a sin on the level of smoking or raising children with low self-esteem".
O'Rourke writes fondly of his 30 years' experience of automotive fun. He writes: "For some reason automobiles attract good people, the kind of people with whom you'd gladly go on road trips." And he writes warmly of long, difficult trips and shared experiences - travelling, stopping, breaking down, waiting for repairs, more waiting, then setting off again, only for the cycle to repeat itself in some of the most remotest corners of the world. While the collection is probably not his consistent best, he does provide a number of very funny moments and his comments on the significance of the car to American popular culture are as succinct an account as one is likely to find.
"Born to Run"
Rating:
For anyone wondering where American's developed their love for cars, desire to run free, and their obsession with raw horsepower came from, Driving Like Crazy answers all those questions and more. Back when the song "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen did not just tell the story of escaping reality on the highways in the rural Mid-West, but told the story of the everyday lives of kids growing up in the era. If you ever wondered why that song was so well know, its because the song brings the story to the rest of the world creating a story that everyone knows and can relate. The book gives the history of cars in America, not the boring factual information about the creation of the first car, but about how the American people were effected by the changing idea of the car. The book is a comical look into why the speed limit is set to 55 on the highway and also filled with stories of the authors childhood involving cars. For anyone who likes cars this book is perfect for you, it is a comical and accurate look into the evolution of the car culture in America with funny stories along the way. I could not put the book down once I began to read, it's a page turner that will keep you amused the entire time.
Was waiting for it.
Rating:
If you like PJ, a new one is a treat. You may get hooked too.
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