Very early on in All the Trouble in the World (Grove/Atlantic; 340 pages; $22), P.J. O'Rourke's look at "the lighter side" of overpopulation, famine, ecological disaster and other global environmental woes, the reader begins to wonder whether somewhere between writing Republican Party Reptile and this latest effort the author suffered a stroke. Left intact are O'Rourke's accustomed descriptive flair and facility for throwaway lines -- " 'dying like flies' is not a simile you'd use in Somalia. The flies wax prosperous and lead full lives." Gone, however, is any faculty for building an argument.
In this disjointed collection of essays and...
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