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 Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn (Unabridged)
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3.9 • 8 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A
New York Times best-selling author and America's preeminent political satirist, P. J. O'Rourke also has another side to him - a gear-loose gearhead, automotive devotee, and terrifying driver.
Son and grandson of car dealers in Ohio, P.J.'s family has been in the motor vehicle business since before there were motors in vehicles. And P.J. has been writing about cars - for Car and Driver, Automobile, Esquire, Forbes, and other publications - for what seems like almost as long.
In this newly collected anthology of spiels-on-wheels, O'Rourke celebrates cars and berates car haters, and chronicles America's relationship with automobiles from love for a powerful chariot of freedom to tolerance of an oversized household appliance with an extra-long extension cord. Driving Like Crazy brings together 30-some years of journalistic cornering on two wheels, none of which has been reprinted before. Or almost none of which. P.J. did include his classic "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink". And he's written an appendix to that piece of sage advice for those who, like himself, are 30 years older now: "How to Do Ditto While the Drugs Are Mostly Lipitor".
Customer Reviews
It wasn't a jar of pickles! I'm very happy.
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.
Like Hanging Out with P.J. in a Scrambler
I'm a longtime fan of Mr. O'Rourke's writing and DRIVING LIKE CRAZY does not disappoint. Its mix of vintage articles with contemporary wraparounds and reflections makes the book a cool cocktail of nostalgia and current events. When I realized that Mr. O'Rourke was NOT the narrator I was at first slightly reluctant to purchase the audiobook, but the gentleman reading the book, Christopher Lane, is wonderful. With a sensibility completely in tune with Mr. O'Rourke's, Mr. Lane brings multiple characters as well as literary nuances to life in every chapter. Incredibly, Mr. Lane's work adds even more humour to an already wild ride. This audiobook was a great traveling companion on a too-long return trip from Montreal to Toronto. Highly recommended.
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