Holidays in Heck

Book excerpt: Humorous essays from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author on travel, late-life parenting, and other perils. P. J. O’Rourke, hailed as “one of America’s most hilarious writers” by Time, is the author of the classic travelogue Holidays in Hell, in which he traversed the globe on a fun-finding mission to what were then some of the most desperate places on the planet, including Warsaw, Managua, and Belfast. In Holidays in Heck, O’Rourke embarks on supposedly more comfortable and allegedly less dangerous travels—often with family in tow—which mostly leave him wishing he were under artillery fire again. The essays take O’Rourke on a whirlwind of adventures, from the National Mall in Washington to a family ski vacation (to the Aspen of the Midwest—Ohio—where the highest point of elevation is the six-foot ski instructor that his wife thinks is cute). He also experiences a harrowing horseback ride across the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The result is a hilarious and often moving portrait of life in the fast lane—only this time as a husband and father. “In this cheeky follow-up to Holidays in Hell, former war correspondent O’Rourke trades battle zones for more appealing travel destinations, often with his family in tow . . . O’Rourke loses none of his sly humor, finding many opportunities to lampoon American politics under his new guise as a traveling family man.” —Publishers Weekly “[O’Rourke] provides colorful, earthy descriptive passages regarding stag hunts in Britain, extreme horseback riding in the wilds of Kyrgyzstan, a poignant look at his bout with cancer and a brief jaunt to Kabul, Afghanistan.” —Kirkus Reviews