A drug induced journey as dated as the word “groovy”. Beyond redemption and a favorite of those critics who appreciate raw language as somehow a sign of genius. To show you how entertaining it was, I slogged through 137 pages of a 204 page book and concluded it was more worthwhile to stop reading than to continue.

Hotdamn, this guy is a beast. I heard about the movie before I knew there was a book, but I didn't watch it and only caught snippets of it on YouTube after reading through the first parts of the story. I don't think I could stand watching a whole 60+ minutes of this craziness because it probably would have made just as much sense as the writing, which, in a drug-induced insanity, could be called making sense. I watched interviews with Johnny Depp as he talked about Hunter S. Thompson and then watched interviews of Hunter S. Thompson with David Letterman and saw that Johnny Depp did a superb portrayal of him in the movie.

The other two essays were nice work.

"I spent about two hours in the bar, drinking Bloody Marys for the V-8 nutritional content and watching the flights from L.A. I'd eaten nothing but grapefruit for about twenty hours and my head was adrift from its moorings." pg. 104

"Why bother with newspapers, if this is all they offer? Agnew was right. The press is a gang of cruel f*ggots. Journlism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for f*ckoffs and misfits--a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage." pg. 200

"It would have taken extreme physical force to keep me off that plane. I was so far beyond simple fatigue that I was beginning to feel nicely adjusted to the idea of permanent hysteria. I felt like the slightest misunderstanding with the stewardess would cause me to either cry or go mad . . . and the woman seemed to sense this, because she treated me very gently." pg. 202

"But this is a hard thing to do, and in the end I found myself imposing an essentially fictional framework on what began as a piece of straight/crazy journalism. True Gonzo reporting needs the talents of a master journalist, the eye of an artist/photographer and the heavy balls of an actor. Because the writer must be a participant in the scene, while he's writing it--or at least taping it, or even sketching it. Or all three. Probably the closest analogy to the ideal would be a film director/producer who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least a main character." pg. 208-9

"Nothing is fun when you have to do it--over & over, again & again--or else you'll be evicted, and that gets old. So it's a rare goddamn trip for a locked-in, rent-paying writer to get into a gig that, even in retrospect, was a kinghell, highlife f*ckaround from start to finish . . . and then to actually get paid for writing this kind of manic gibberish seems genuinely weird; like getting paid for kicking Agnew in the balls." pg. 212

Book: borrowed from Skyline College library.

My first and propably the only Gonzo book that i read. What i think of Hunter S. Thompson is that he was a hostage of this book. Everything he did after Fear and loathing in Las Vegas was looked thru perspective that this talented author was some kind of loose cannonball ( well he really was that too) and just writes about funny drug related amok stuff. Hunter Thompson is far better (brilliant) journalist with good taste of humor and wisdom. Liam Gallegher's life style, but brain more like Springsteen. This book is though quite good, worth checking at least

I liked it, the movie adaptation is almost too faithful to parts of it (I saw the movie first awhile ago) so parts of it were almost too familiar. All-in-all I think I'll give reading anymore of Hunter S. Thompson's stuff a break for a while. Parts of this book were funny, poignant/apt, and interesting but it also has its share of tedious bits and I think alot of the political commentary/satire was lost on me. From what I've read of his work, these points are often scattershot throughout his work making them feel a little uneven to me. Frankly, I enjoyed Hell's Angels better but if someone would want to read this book I definitely wouldn't steer them away from it.

This book is a great introduction to Hunter S. Thompson. I'm glad I got to read more than just "Fear and Loathing" for such an intro. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is an interesting piece, and was more than I expected. It's not just a drug tale after all. It is actually quite the incisive period piece and it makes me see how much we are still living today in the shadow of the Nixon era and the counterculture movement of the 60's. The theme of chasing the American Dream but awakening to the ever-growing fork in the road of what it means to be "American" - or what "The Dream" is - was especially poignant. The divisiveness of today is nothing new - this shit has been going on for 50 years and here is the proof.

"Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" is the real gem of this collection. As with "Fear and Loathing," this story is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. It is prescient, really. Disgustingly, nothing seems to have changed a bit. Cops are still pigs and liars, they're still deliberately killing citizens, and they're still getting away with it. And as Thompson said in "Fear and Loathing," "One Hand Washes The Other." Ergo the District Attorney washes the blood off the cops' hands by never charging them with their crimes, and the "Law & Order" system self-fortifies. If you ever want to murder someone with total impunity, become a cop.

"The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" is overrated. I mean, if you change the context from the Derby to, say, the Daytona 500, would anyone I know still care about this article? No. Thompson makes a few insightful observations, as always, but this one falls short of its potential. It had the makings of quite the caper, but lacking in details, this article really just withers on the vine.

I bought this because I loved the movie Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. While reading the other stories, I discovered that I really dig Gonzo Journalism; A first-person narrative of the reporter, that reads like fiction and is a brash, telling of events, without the claims of objectivity. Filled with sarcasm, hyperboles, and hilarious reporting escapades. I need more.

As for the adventure that these stories took me on, I've never laughed so much in my life reading a book. So many lines slammed my funny bone. Most of which started with "As your attorney..." but my favorite line that hit the hardest with the truth was:

"Jesus, what a terrible thing to lay on someone with a head full of acid."

Aside from the drug-induced ranting that had me laughing hysterically, the stories blare the sirens of morality. Events that needed a voice got it from Hunter S. Thompson's journalism. Corruption, racism, inequality, and more. Most of which we're, unfortunately still, facing decades later.

My takeaway? Things change on the surface, but humans as a whole remain the biggest pieces of shit on this planet to this day. If you look around, not much has changed, and we're still fighting the same socioeconomic wars. As an intelligent species we're pretty fucking stupid.

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Rating - 7.1

A read where you really have to have exposure to the time period/culture to appreciate the author's story; It is unfathomable all the drugs/felonies that Hunter/Oscar consumed/committed wo death/arrest

Learning about the Chicano tension in LA during the late 60's was interesting & very similar to the Race tension; The police arrogance & brutality is indicative of a 'white' society that needs an overhaul

I don’t know if I would recommend it to many people and I don’t plan on reading it again. That said, the book perfectly captures an unreliable narrator in the midst of drug fueled mania - allowing the reader many insights into the moral panic and general disarray of the 60s and 70s, much of which is applicable to the present.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the telling of Hunter S. Thompson's wild and hysterical drug filled romp in Vegas. It does a great job of depicting the hilarious insanity and paranoia of a drug binge. Vegas is the perfect place for all of these off the wall situations and responses. I read this over a Vegas weekend bachelor party - my trip wasn't quite this crazy. This novel has one of the better opening lines, 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.'

For more info, check out:
Hunter S. Thompson on wikipedia
Ralph Steadman
The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved story


5/8 - f&L in LV - 8
a wild and hysterical drug-adled?filled romp in LV
hilarious insanity and paranoia of a drug binge depicted clearly
hysterically outrageous and bizarre
off the wall situations and responses - pure lunacy, but of the fun variety
my trip to vegas wasn't quite this crazy.
awesome opening 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.' p. 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/archiv...
http://www.ralphsteadman.com/
jacket - 5/9 - 5 - somewhat interesting gonzo journalism - journalism vs fiction. true? but changed some so couldn't be arrested? some political diatribe as well
rumblings in aztlan - 5/10 - 7 - interesting and depressing article about 'chicano' rights. hard to believe written by same author; nice day in the life of with no real conclusions
derby - 5/11 - 7 - nice preview of f&L, not quite as crazy
http://www.derbypost.com/hunter.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kent...

I found this book in the Local Interest section. No, this is Fantasy, this is Autobiographical, this is a Classic. Nobody but HST captures so accurately the fever dream that is Life. Spend a weekend, spend a year, spend a decade in Las Vegas & you’ll feel all the same. Drugs and hallucination aside, this is the American experience in poetry— its tangible & real & sickening.
Hunter S Thompson isn’t a novelist, he’s a guy you hang out with. Reality is stranger than fiction, and who better transcribes it?

A very different style. Interesting read.