Every adolescent should read and fully understand the novels To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice & Men, Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

En udødelig klassiker!

If you don't love HST then you've somehow failed.

Not only is this one of my all time favorites, but I dare anyone to find a better opening in any book, ever. On top of the fabulous craziness in Fear and Loathing, you should definitely get a copy with The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved (the true birth of Gonzo) and Strange Rumblings in Aztlan (one of the best pieces of straight journalism ever). Read It!

Few authors in history have successfully synthesized logic and imagination (or the conscious and subconscious minds) as did Thompson. Perhaps the most relevant part of this edition is the longform article, Strange Rumblings in Aztlan. In it, Thompson covers the civil unrest in the East Los Angeles barrios of the 1970s. It's an all too familiar American tale of racial profiling, police brutality, and peace protests turned to riots by aggressive law enforcement. Particularly relevant is the scandalous police cover-up of the killing of Ruben Salazar, a prominent Chicano journalist.

If you've been to Las Vegas, you'll understand it probably would be the most terrifying place to be high on drugs. Or maybe you speak from experience. In any case, I don't think you've done as many drugs as Hunter S. Thompson/Raoul Duke reputedly does in Fear and Loathing in any locale. People are clearly drawn to this book because of it, and it is perversely fascinating, truth be damned. It's a dysphoric period piece capturing the burnout from the 60's with Thompson's own weirdness melded in.

It was only after I saw the movie (yeah, yeah, I know - highly recommended though) that I realized how comedic parts of F&L really are. Comedy that skids off the road, though, into sobering horror and near-misses of all kinds of violence. There is something really dark lurking beneath, and I think it has a lot to do with the entitlement of dominant masculinity.

Also, "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" and "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" were good additions.

the movie follows the novel pretty damn closely, so i wish i had had the opportunity to read this before seeing the movie a million times. still mad and enjoyable! makes me want to take a crazy, drug-fueled adventure.

4 stars, but i already loved it before i read it so i am biased.

I dig it yo, a true literary visionary. Get into some sort of insanity then write it.

A thought-provoking and beautifully written journey that challenges and expands perspectives.

I find it does the soul a power of good to occasionally follow Raoul Duke and Doctor Gonzo ("He is a very crude man.") down the rabbit hole, on their heroic and paranoid pursuit of the American Dream. Indeed. The Modern Library edition that I plucked off our remainder table many years ago also features some valuable supplemental writings from the fevered typewriter of the good Dr. Thompson.

One depraved scene of drug-abuse and inhuman behavior after another, peppered with the occasional philosophical musing and cultural commentary about the kind of depraved city that is obviously where the American Dream has fled to to survive. My kind of book.

By the way, did you know that Thompson in his letters (was it February 15. 1972?) admits that they didn't take those drugs described here, but he just threw in some stuff he knew and made it all happen in Las Vegas? This is pointed to him (by I don't remember who), who says that he immediately realized, reading the book, that they didn't really were on drugs on that trip. Thompson gets a bit annoyed, but has to admit that that in fact was the case. For his defense he says that the staff at Rolling Stone magazine at least was very well fooled.