In this compelling and amusing portrayal, P.J. O'Rourke fearlessly delves into the circus that was the 2016 presidential election. With his characteristic wit and biting sarcasm, O'Rourke offers readers a unique and entertaining perspective on the political spectacle that unfolded during that tumultuous period.

However, it is important to note that the author's strong Republican leanings do occasionally overshadow the narrative, which may become tiresome for those seeking a more balanced viewpoint. Nevertheless, this is precisely what one should expect when delving into the pages of a P.J. O'Rourke book, as his unabashed partisanship is a defining characteristic of his writing.

One notable aspect that sets this book apart is its contemporaneous nature. Unlike many other political analyses that emerge after the dust has settled, O'Rourke's account captures the chaos and drama of the election as it unfolded. This immediacy lends an extra layer of authenticity and excitement to the narrative, allowing readers to experience the events as they happened and form their own opinions.

While the author's staunch Republican views may not be to everyone's liking, it is worth acknowledging the value of his unique perspective. O'Rourke's unabashed support for his chosen party offers readers a glimpse into the mindset of a particular faction of American politics, providing valuable insight into the thinking and motivations behind their actions.

Despite the occasional weariness that may arise from the author's political bias, the book remains an enjoyable and entertaining read. O'Rourke's sharp wit and biting humor infuse every page, ensuring that readers are consistently amused and engaged. His ability to find humor even in the most absurd and baffling moments of the election keeps the narrative lively and prevents it from descending into a dreary analysis of political machinations.

In summary, while P.J. O'Rourke's book may not be for everyone due to its author's unwavering Republican stance, it offers a genuinely funny and entertaining account of the 2016 presidential election. Its contemporaneous nature grants it a unique appeal, allowing readers to witness the events as they unfolded and form their own judgments. So, if you are willing to embrace O'Rourke's unabashed partisanship and appreciate his razor-sharp wit, this book is sure to provide an enjoyable and insightful reading experience.

A funny, yet grounded, take on the hellscape we currently all live in and how we got here. A few intersections missing in his analysis, but overall enjoyable.

DNF Review - I requested this back after the election because I was p*ssed off. I still am, I dislike this entire administration. The reason I lost interest in this isn't that my opinions changed, but that reading about politics just tends to make me angry and confused at this point and that honestly, I don't want to read the stuff I have to read for Gov/Econ let alone extra stuff, not the books fault, just a change in personal preference/interest in reading.

POLITICAL PUNDITRY

For a long time now P.J. O’Rourke has been a source of amusing anecdotal storytelling in the political realm. He’s covered the news and offered his reflections on the political scene for years, mainly in the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine. His books have always offered keen insight coupled with laughs. Now he takes on the election of 2016.

O’Rourke takes on all comers reflecting on the vast number of candidates to be found on the right and the more or less token candidates on the left. While the right was filled with candidates he found numerous issues with and plenty of fodder for quirky remarks, the left had their bugaboos as well this time around. No one was safe from the comments of O’Rourke.

But something is different with this book. While I’ve enjoyed the books of his I’ve read in the past as well as numerous articles he’s written, this O’Rourke felt different. Perhaps that’s due to age as he’s now 69 years old. His style here is curmudgeonly as he takes on not one or two candidates but all of them. In reading I didn’t find support towards any of them in evidence, as if he felt they should all be tossed out with the bathwater and a new tub filled with fresh candidates.

At times the book read like nothing more than a list of complaints. It was as if that guy who sits on his front porch yelling at the kids in the neighborhood was asked what he thought of the election and let loose. The witty commentary and humor normally found in his books felt missing here, replaced by a negativity I’d rarely found in his writings, and that includes books written about socialism and it’s ills.

I’ll continue to read O’Rourke and in the end my guess is this book would be much better read further down the line when time has passed and the election isn’t as fresh as it is currently. With so many who continue to discuss the topic, including candidate Clinton who hawks her own book on the subject, it may take longer than one would think. It’s worth reading if nothing else than to get a perspective on what happened that isn’t from someone too close to the subject. Just don’t expect the laughs one usually does from O’Rourke.

After the past year of a nasty campaigning and crude, mean digs that didn’t end election night, and an ongoing dread to turn on the news, I found it very pleasurable to look at the entire mess from P.J. O’Rourke’s cynical, informed yet entertaining and humorous angle. Finally! Someone who realizes we are where we are, just look back in laughter and try to maintain a sense of humor about the future. O’Rourke doesn’t try to solve all the world’s problems, nor does he set himself on a throne to judge the plebeians beneath him. He appreciates that he is but one voice in a sea of screaming, angry, verge-of-breakdown voices, but his is refreshingly full of optimism and grace.
Thank you for a well-written overview of the campaign without reminding me that the world will end tomorrow. And thank you for your undying humor! We need more of that in today’s angry environment.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for making it available.)

This journalist is awesome. I jumped right in and could hardly pull myself out. I am a conservative, but I'm afraid of what our Administration is capable of. I appreciate hearing from other folks who feel the same.

Even when you don't agree with him, PJ O'Rourke is one of the funniest writers out there. Although it flags in a few places, his newest book on the 2016 elections does not disappoint. It's laugh-out-loud funny in some places and ends with a great analysis of the results from his viewpoint.

Heck, he is about the only writer I know of who can turn an endorsement into a rant, as he did with his endorsement of Hillary.

Two of his chapters fall down a bit because his humor is better done as a series of comments on a topic than it is in a sustained set piece. Two of the chapters, his letter to his 1968 self and his chapter on First Ladies running the country, suffer badly from this problem.

I didn't really expect to enjoy this book, but I did, it was a riot.

P.J. O'Rourke's view on the 2016 election is as expected - witty, biting and cynical. Although, to my mind, it's STILL too soon to try and find amusement in what happened, it made me feel better to read his take on it and attempt to locate a little humour SOMEWHERE.

You're right, it's a good title. P. J. O'Rourke's always been good at titles ([Eat The Rich, Don't Vote, it Just Encourages the Bastards, The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn’t My Fault)). When it comes to his politics, your mileage may vary.

O'Rourke's beliefs are not mine: he likes guns, God and the American Way; I like peace, Dawkins and a more equivocal Captain America. But that's OK, that's fine; if you only ever read people who agree with you, you're going to be very tiresome at parties.

That said, neither of us likes Donald Trump, so we can at least come together around the roaring tyre fire of American politics.

Journalists are going to be trying to make sense of the Donald's win for decades to come – many were trying before it even happened. As a first pass, this collection of essays is as bewildered as the rest of us; as O'Rourke acknowledges, "if my book lacks a coherent narrative it's because I couldn't find one."

While I can sympathise with his confusion it doesn't make for the best of reads. He is reliably funny and insightful ("Americans appreciate bad taste or America wouldn't look the way America does") but the lack of focus leads to repetition, a certain degree of disingenuousness, and some brashness verging on outright offensiveness (I genuinely don't think his problem with Hillary Clinton is her gender, but he's too happy to make her gender the subject of his jokes).

Filters set and allowances made, I'll be reading more P. J. O'Rourke. He's the semi-acceptable face of American conservatism (with all the moral relativism that implies) at a time when that label is better associated with mendacity, bigotry and the neediness of a five-year-old. But while funny, this just particular book just isn't a particularly insightful or enlightening history of its subject. Shame.

A confusing hodge podge of a book but I guess that correctly describes the US election and the result.
Flashes of the PJ O'Rourke wit but a bit too in depth and boring for a non US audience.

I wasn’t familiar with P.J. O’Rourke, but his Wiki page painted an interesting picture of this political satirist and journalist and the book’s blurb teased that within its covers the author eviscerates every presidential candidate. Well that sounds like fun! I’d been a long distance observer of the election and, like a number of people in post-BREXIT vote UK, I was wondering throughout how America had managed to come up with two candidates who most people seemed to intensely dislike. Could this election be as decisive and possibly as destructive as the UK vote?

The author, it turns out, is a ranting mouthpiece who hardly has a good word to say about anybody or anything. He’s a political shock jock who throws gratuitous insults around amidst a bunch of facts and figures that may or may not be in any way meaningful. He’s overly opinionated and rude, but he did manage to throw up some genuine light bulb moments for me. He also made some really interesting and insightful observations that I found to be truly thought provoking. And best of all, there are moments of true hilarity. I really haven’t laughed so much whilst reading a book in years!

I don’t think this is a book that could or should be read in a single sitting – that would be way too much rich food on the plate. But picked at over a few days it does offer a diet of tasty morsels, even if some of it is a little heavy for my personal taste.

P.J. O'Rourke continues to make me laugh and want to bang my head against a wall. Though I often find myself in disagreement with him, I always enjoy coming along for the ride.

This is a collection, with minor subsequent editing, of some of P.J. O'Rourke's journalism and speeches on the 2016 US Presidential election…which pretty much tells you all you need to know. My politics are most certainly not the same as his, but I always find him both amusing and thought-provoking (and occasionally just provoking). This is, as usual, full of wit, bile and genuine erudition, and if you like O'Rourke's work, you'll like this.

There are, of course, plenty of laughs. He hasn't lost his ability to come up with a scathing one-liner or a crushing put-down. A couple of examples I liked are:
"…a progressive Republican. This is a creature something like the pshumi-pullyu in the Dr. Dolittle stories but with two butt ends." Or the (in context) slightly self-mocking "To me, most popular music sounds like angry potty mouths falling down a flight of stairs while carrying a drum set." He excoriates pretty well all the candidates, because he thinks that they are a bunch hopelessly unfitted for the office of President, but deluded enough to think they have what it takes. He is merciless on both Trump and Clinton – but does manage to be very graceful about both Ben Carson (Republican candidate) and Joe Biden (Democrat who didn't stand), which I found very refreshing.

It's not all brilliant; it gets a bit repetitive at times, and there are some longish passges which didn't do much for me (like an extended riff on the wives of past Presidents), but this is an amusing and insightful read which I can recommend.

Funny, Insightful, and As Evenhanded As You Could Expect


I've always liked P.J. O'Rourke's work, from his National Lampoon days and throughout his professional career. I guess we've sort of aged together, and have shared the same interests and preoccupations as we've aged. Anyway, I admire his political commentary. He's a bit conservative for my tastes and has what I consider to be a few blind spots, (especially regarding Rand Paul), but in today's hyper-partisan, truthiness world, he seems to try harder than almost anyone else to be evenhanded and to get it right. I take it as a given that he will rail against the liberal establishment, but he's also more than happy to call out Republicans who have wandered too far to the edge of reason.

So, it was with relish that I sat down to read his take on the Trump phenomenon and the general state of the 2016 elections. I was not disappointed. Because this was such a target rich environment, and because it seemed clear that voters were particularly dissatisfied with their range of choices, there are more insults, put downs and cheap shots than usual for O'Rourke. He's certainly good at that, but his short pieces usually just pepper in snarky insults to spice up his more wry and insightful commentary. Here, he's gone more for the jugular, handing out red meat to readers who want real takedowns of the candidates they despise. I guess that's due in large measure to the unusual nature of this election, and if it's red meat we want, well O'Rourke is among the best at serving it up with as much wit and style as possible.

That said, there are also some interesting and entertaining bits that don't relate directly to the election. For example, there is an extended piece in which O'Rourke reimagines all of the Presidential administrations from George Washington on, but with the first ladies as the Executives, (Abigail was a lot smarter than John). It's wide ranging and clever, and serves to remind us that O'Rourke is more thoughtful and more deeply engaged in the history of U.S. politics than your run of the mill pundit.

So, no matter your partisan leanings, O'Rourke is as close as we'll get to an equal opportunity critic. If you like your commentary wry, with an edge and a bit of tartness, (and anger, despair, and resignation), this might be the best place to start coming to grips with the 2016 election.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

A chronicle of how the USA had no-one capable of mounting a challenge to Trump, sleepwalking itself to disaster. Acutely observed.

No political writer living is as funny or as insightful as P.J. O'Rourke. With great anticipation I picked up his reflections on the recent presidential election, How the Hell Did This Happen?: The Election of 2016, in which he asks the question all of us asked throughout the debacle of an election season. As expected, he is hilarious, and he has some serious moments of insight. But given the amount of ridiculous material he had to work with, I don't feel like he capitalized sufficiently on the opportunities for skewering Trump and Clinton.

The Democrats presented the electorate with Hillary Clinton. This fits the trend started with the election of Obama. "The Democrats are determined to elect 'the first ______ American president.' African-American, Woman, Native American, Latino, Gay. They've checked off No. 1 and are determined to do down the list in order of historical victimhood." The GOP just wanted someone who could win. They were "in no damn mood for competent, experienced politicians with broad popular appeal" like Kasich or O'Malley. And even though Trump, in many ways, didn't fit in the GOP, he proved "you can't get kicked out of an American political party no matter what you say or do."

Where O'Rourke really shines is boiling down political philosophies. For example, his summary of America's "two vague political tendencies." "One tendency is to favor a larger, more powerful government to make things better. The other tendency is to favor a smaller, more limited government to make things less worse." On Trump and Clinton specifically, neither will lower taxes: "Elect Hillary, and we'll get obvious higher taxes--on our incomes, investments, and businesses. Elect Trump, and we'll get hidden higher taxes--in the form of worthless U.S. dollars being printed to fund the deficit and debt." In both cases, the "exact answer to the question of how much money would be required to fulfill campaign promises is that there isn't that much money in the world." Truth.

One platform issue that divides the parties and the candidates is the approach to poverty. "Democratic politicians care so much about poverty that--far from warring on it--they have become a kind of conservationist group, devoted to preserving it forever. Democrats are the Sierra Club of Poverty." That's a classic O'Rourke line! In a more specific policy proposal of sorts, O'Rourke writes, "Giving poor people money is a simple and straightforward way to eliminate poverty. But the government is spending 46 percent more money to eliminate poverty than it would cost to eliminate poverty by giving poor people money." Makes you wonder. . . .

O'Rourke makes clear throughout How the Hell Did This Happen? that he thought little of both candidates (and their primary contenders didn't do much better!). He finally gave his endorsement to Hillary, albeit reluctantly. O'Rourke sees Hillary like The Grinch, a la Dr. Seuss: "You're a smug one, Hillary, . . . you're cuddly as a cactus, . . . you're a limousine liberal, Hillary, your heart's an empty hole, . . . I endorse you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!"

How the Hell Did This Happen? is an equal-opportunity offender. O'Rourke doesn't really have much nice to say about any of the candidates. However, he either overlooks some of the worst offenses and accusations of the campaign, or treats them very lightly. It's almost like he felt that he knew he would alienate partisans on both sides, but didn't want to do so irrevocably and drastically. This is a fun read and valuable keepsake of memories of Election 2016.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

How the Hell Did This Happen? is only the latest treatise dealing with politicians that P. J. O'Rourke has inflicted upon the willing reading public. In the past he has skewered Congress, politicians, and Republicans, but this time he aimed carefully at making sense of the 2016 U.S. Election cycle. And what he found out surprised him (and us)!

P. J. O'Rourke composed much of How the Hell Did This Happen? during the election cycle and the book reads that way. The focus jumps from one topic/group of candidates/concept to another with no rational rhyme or reason present. Looking back over the book as he was trying to make sense out of the contents of book and the 2016 Election, he realized that there was no rational continuity. He had thought that the monumental Clinton would be out in the electoral desert surrounded by Republican "Gaza gerbils" fighting over who would run. While he was prepared for surprises, he was not prepared for what those surprises turned out to be. Strange and weird candidates, sudden sweeping changes in polls, Bernie Sanders, political gaffs, and bizarre behavior. It makes a voter hum/sing the Capitol Steps song "Brand New Pair of Candidates" before it all comes crashing down.

P. J. O'Rourke enjoyed writing the book and the reader is likely to enjoy at least parts of the book. Highly recommended are the Author's Note, the Preamble (especially the opening paragraph), the descriptions of the candidates (rabid squirrels anyone?), and especially "The Letter to Myself in 1968" where P. J. wishes time travel or at least communication to the past existed so as to fix the situation early! If you are trying to figure out what just happened, How the Hell Did This Happen? is a place to start.

3.5 stars.

"If my book lacks a coherent narrative it's because I couldn't find one.", so says P.J. O'Rourke at the beginning of How the Hell Did This Happen?: the Election of 2016.

I dipped my toe into How the Hell Did This Happen?, thinking I would read a few pages, and I couldn't stop reading. Much like I can't seem to stop reading and watching the media to see what's going on in US politics every day. I consume it in the form of tv sound bites from CNN and MSNBC, a wide variety of newspapers, and some comic relief from Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, SNL and Seth Meyer. I'm convinced it's not healthy, but I don't seem to be able to stop. And I know I'm not alone, even amongst my fellow Canadians.

And I've surprised myself agreeing with people at very different ends of the political spectrum. And that brings me back to O'Rourke's book. I'm not familiar with his writings, but it's crystal clear that he and I wouldn't agree about much when it comes to politics. Self described as a libertarian, he has nothing generous to say about the types of economic and social policies I tend to subscribe to.

But it turns out that I don't have to agree with his politics to find his collection of essays about the 2016 US election interesting. People can have pretty dramatic disagreements about politics generally these days and still have similar horrified reactions to the outcome of the 2016 US election and it's fallout. And if there's a lesson to be learned from the election, it's that it's healthy to try to understand people you don't agree with.

O'Rourke did not write this collection after the election. These are essays written as the campaign was unfolding, concluding just after the election.

Bottom line, much of the book is funny -- if you like your humour to be really bleak. O'Rourke has a clever acerbic turn of phrase. His libertarian politics did make my toes curl big time more than a few times. But he spares no one -- although he most most reluctantly endorses Hillary Clinton. And he reserves his best wickedness for a certain someone currently wreaking havoc in the White House -- and pretty much every where else.

I wish nothing more than for American politics to become boring again, but in the meantime thank goodness for political humour.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book for review.
I picked it up because I just couldn't pull myself out of reading about the daily politics and I knew it would be humorous. I haven't read much of PJ O'Rourke for years so it was a delight to jump into the book and read his take on our current state of affairs. He was an equal opportunity basher so even though he is a Republican and I am a yellow dog Democrat, he didn't offend me.

It appears that the book was mostly written before the election. The first part was written since and addenda were added here and there to bring things up to date. As is usually the case with O'Rourke, the tone was very conversational and in some places, additional editing would be useful (which may occur since this was an advance copy). Rambling at times, he runs through US presidents starting with Washington to give historical perspective to many of the things he discusses. His discussion of populism in the last chapter is more serious and gives one reason to believe that he has serious concerns about the direction our country is taking. I recommend the book for its insight and entertainment.....sometimes it is better to laugh than to cry.

P.J. O'Rourke is one of my favorite political writers for one reason - his pure and very humorous honesty about the state of politics in America. And this book is no different. O'Rourke takes apart the 2016 election bit by bit and he does it in a way that reflects the crazy and disjointed nature of the whole election cycle. Each candidate is equally criticized and praised, as is the entire election process starting with the primary and caucus process, through the hot mess that was the debates, to the final two choices that literally left the country asking "How the Hell Did This Happen?" Equal parts crying and laughing to help us plow through the next four years!