So, what else could one follow classic fantasy with other than gritty 20th century gonzo journalism? It all seems to fit together so perfectly.

A great deal has been said about Hunter S. Thompson's impact on American culture and journalism. After his passing, there were numerous depictions of him. Some regarded him as a brilliant innovator of the written word, while others labeled him an egotistical madman who cared more about himself than the story.

All I can say is that anyone who actively seeks the company of men like the Hell's Angels is either brilliant or crazy, and I'm inclined to believe the former.

This book is fascinating for many reasons. For one thing, it poses more questions than it answers. Some of the simpler ones are covered quite well, such as where the Angels came from. There are sociological theories, psychological theories, and economic theories, but Hunter doesn't really bother to try and determine which one might be the best. Another question that lingers throughout the entire book is what we should do about them. The answer, as far as I can tell, is to keep a loaded gun around the house and hope they go away without breaking too much stuff.

There's no doubt that the Angels have earned their reputation for raising hell, but Thompson writes as if that reputation has taken on a life of its own - we created the Angels as they are today from the seeds they planted. From his observations, there's no real agenda for the Hell's Angels - they don't want to overthrow the squares, they don't want to destroy the world that has wronged them. They really just want to drink, take drugs, and have fun, and if they were the only people in the world, they could do that without anyone getting stomped.

Unfortunately, there are other people in the world, and it's very difficult for everyone to coexist. "Normal" society can't deal with the strange ethos of the Hell's Angels, and the Angels can't compromise their ethos for society's peace of mind.

Thompson follows a group of Angels around for a few months, observing them play, party, and fight, and the impression I got from what he wrote is that for all their savagery and menace, they are an inevitable product of modern America. There's no single factor that can explain them, but a combination of events and influences that came together to give the Angels a chance to exist. All we, the squares, can do is get out of the way and hope that America changes so that it no longer needs the Hell's Angels. If history teaches us anything, though, that day is a very, very long way off....

Is there anything more delicious than when the infamous writes about the infamous? I'm hardly one of those whacked-out Hunter S. Thompson-ophiles, but "Hell's Angels," his nonfiction-ish account of spending the mid-1960s with the motorcycle club as it revved its way into mainstream media, is a total kick.

"Weird as it seems, as this gang of costumed hoodlums converged on Monterey that morning they were on the verge of'making it big,' as the showbiz people say, and they would owe most of their success to a curious rape mania that rides on the shoulder of American journalism like some jeering, masturbating raven. Nothing grabs an editor's eye like a good rape."

Thompson follows their runs, when the group converges on a city, preemptively terrorizing the locals. The locals envision all the raping and pillaging they are about to have foisted upon them. It's not a baseless fear: the Angels are known for brawls and gang bangs. They reason that the women they encounter know what they are in for. He writes about their commitment to uncleanliness, the bikers' uniform, and rumors of inner-circle homosexuality. There's also the drinking, drugs, their day jobs (or lack thereof), and seemingly pedestrian pursuits. As they grow in popularity, the Hell's Angels become publicity seekers who want to charge money to share their stories.

Associating with Hell's Angels does little for Thompson's reputation with his neighbors. He is evicted when there are complaints about the visiting motorcyclists and their wild ways. In my favorite moment of the book, Thompson confesses that the really bad stuff wasn't even done by the Hells Angels. Their visits were just loud music, a few bikes on the sidewalk, and an occasional shot out back window.

"Most of the bad action came on nights when there was no Angels around: One of my most respectable visitors, an advertising executive from New York, became hungry after a long night of drink and stole a ham from the refrigerator of a nearby apartment; another guest set my mattress afire with a flare and we had to throw it out the back window; another ran wild in the street with a high-powered Falcon air horn normally carried on boats for use as a distress signal."

Not to mention the time a visiting poet chucked a garbage can under the wheels of a passing bus.

In the last third of the book, Thompson gives the Angels a bit of access to his life. This is where the Angels start hanging out on Ken Kesey's land and taking LSD, which strangely mellows them out. There's Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, nudity, and police cars.

(Obviously I'm going to have to read "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" now, since I enjoyed this so much.)

*coughs*

I'm going to make this brief. In my younger days, I was completely obsessed with Hunter S. Thompson. I vividly remember the exact moment when he passed away - what I was doing and where I was. He had an enormous influence on my life. His writing was like a guiding light that kept me going during those tough times when life really sucked. I have devoured most of his novels, such as "Generation of Swine", "The Rum Diary", "Hey Rube", "Proud Highway", and "Songs of the Doomed", to name just a few. Each one of his works was so unique. His voice would leap off the page and hit you like a slap in the face. He would sic his Doberman on you and then finish you off by blasting you away with his Desert Eagle. Hunter was definitely not someone to be trifled with. He was strange and unbalanced, but that was precisely the appeal for me. His oddness and awkwardness were what made him so endearing. I simply love the odd and the awkward.

When he wrote, he would create pure magic. His writing always intrigued me because of his brutal honesty, his harsh manners, and his tendency to be an overall asshole. People either loved him or hated him. He had a cult following. His personality was what set him apart. He was an oddball, a really wicked oddball.

"Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga" was just as I expected - friggin' awesome. Listening to his writing took me back to those early days when I was feeling angsty, writing in my composition book about how society sucked and the reasons why. It makes me laugh now when I think about it. I already knew a fair bit about the stories due to the numerous articles I had read regarding him and the Hell's Angels, but this book had some things that I didn't know. It was truly Hunter at his best.

So, do you want to know what I learned about the Hell's Angels? Well, here it is - don't fuck with them, that's what.


- Ralph “Sonny” Barger is the founding member of the Oakland, California chapter of the U.S. Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club (1957). The relationship that developed between Hunter and Sonny is really interesting. It reminded me of making friends with that particular person who always got you into trouble. It was a recipe for disaster.

If you want to learn more about the Hell's Angels, I highly recommend picking up this book. You will get the inside scoop on what it takes to be part of this infamous motorcycle club. It is definitely worth a read.

This book had a truly unique effect on me.

The Hell's Angels are no more than media-created celebrities who are actually losers and lowlifes engaged in disorganized crime.

The meandering story offered an astonishing perspective on the 60's media and the general mindset of that era.

I adored the author's sense of irony.

Both the Hell's Angels and Hunter are maniacs.

I wouldn't choose to be friends with either of them, yet I thoroughly relished listening to what they had to say.

I picked up this book with the intention of understanding motorcycle culture, as I've had experiences drinking beers beside the Angels and other clubs in upstate.

They are completely different from the Angels of the 60's.

It's fascinating to see how things have changed and how this book provides a window into a bygone era.

The vivid descriptions and the author's unique take on the subject matter make it a captivating read.

Even though the characters may be extreme, their stories and the context in which they are presented offer valuable insights into a particular time and place.

Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in motorcycle culture, the 60's, or just a good, thought-provoking story.

Get your motor running. However, on Mr. Thompson's wild ride, there will be no buckling up for safety as he plows through the history of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang like a steamroller on speed.

Mythologized by the media and fantasized about in film, the Angels, according to the now-deceased Thompson, are truly just a group of fun-loving yet misunderstood social misfits who engage in rape, pillage, brawling, and drug dealing across the United States of America.

Skipping chapter 17 is advisable unless you have a need to feel existentially sick about both the author and this book's subject, the merry band of bikers.

RIP Hunter S., who lived a life of burning, burning, burning like a fabulous yellow Roman candle, exploding like a spider across the stars (literally). His work on the Hell's Angels provided a raw and unfiltered look into a world that many only knew through the lens of glamour and fiction. Thompson's vivid descriptions and unapologetic style made this book a controversial yet captivating read. Whether you loved or hated it, there was no denying the impact it had on the perception of the Hell's Angels and the counterculture of the time.

I enjoyed this piece much more than the fear and loathing it might have initially invoked.

The anecdotes were truly insane. There was one line that really stood out to me. It was when he was conversing with some cops about the angels and they inquired, ‘are they really as dangerous as they say?’ And his response was, ‘probably worse’.

This offers a great critique on the disparity between what the media portrays and the actual events, as well as the general use of fear. I'm not entirely certain how much this tied into the bits about the new generation being lawless, but it's interesting to know that such a sentiment has always been around.

However, I must admit that he was a bit more casual about rape than I would have liked to see. Additionally, it seemed as if a significant number of people back then were pedophiles.

Overall, it was an engaging read that made me think about various aspects of society and human nature.

This is such a systemic racism and rape culture perpetuating piece of 'literature'.

At one point, the author makes a truly offensive statement like "women are terrified of rape and yet in the back of every womb there is a nerve that twitches with excitement at its mention". The author frequently uses disgusting figures of speech, especially in the beginning of the book. For example, the phrase "they're not Arab whores" was used (presumably in reference to their old ladies).

Also, Thompson mentions that the angels require a potential member to do something crazy like beating up a cop or raping a waitress at work before they will accept them. But then, on the very next page, it's like "Well, the Angels say they don't rape". It's obvious that this is not the truth as rape is brought up constantly in a very casual way.

The entire book is full of racist white supremacy garbage. They claim they only wear swastikas to freak people out and are aggressive towards anyone who's not white, except for maybe 5 people. Black people are not allowed to join the Angels as a rule, and they constantly use slurs and tear down civil rights protests to "keep them in line". They even tore down protests against the Vietnam War and bashed the protesters as if it's all a joke.

Thompson constantly states how crazy and wild the angels are and how they'd do anything. But then, just a few paragraphs later, the preferred reading or whatever is suggesting that the police give the angels an overly hard time, which is so unjust. The cops and politicians are supposed to be the bad guys, but they're really not that bad. I don't like them much either, but if they're trying to stop a bunch of jerks whose sole purpose in life is to ruin others', then what's the problem?

I'm glad he gets bashed at the end, and I wish he had elaborated further because I really enjoyed it. Also, there are a lot of spelling errors throughout the book.

Ended up just listening to the audiobook,

but it was pretty good. It was interesting to hear a Hunter S. Thompson story where he actually reports on something that happened rather than going on a bender in Las Vegas.

This is a topic I didn't know much about before and probably don't have too much more interest in learning about in the future. However, it was an interesting history of the Hell's Angels that I didn't know much about.

It's pretty cool how now I read "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" and this book tells of the same party at Ken Kesey's house.

The details and the perspective provided in the audiobook added a new dimension to my understanding of that particular event and the people involved.

Although I may not become an expert on the subject, it was a worthwhile listen that broadened my knowledge a little bit.

Overall, I'm glad I chose to listen to this audiobook and it has given me something to think about.

Maybe in the future, I'll explore more of Hunter S. Thompson's works and see what other interesting stories and perspectives he has to offer.

To view the Hell's Angels as guardians of the old 'individualist' tradition 'that made this country great' is merely a painless means of avoiding seeing them for what they truly are - not some romantic remnant, but the vanguard of a future.

The Angels are prototypes. Their lack of education has not only made them entirely ineffective in a highly technological economy but has also afforded them the leisure to foster a potent resentment and translate it into a destructive cult that the mass media persists in depicting as a kind of isolated oddity.

The Angels' collective perspective has always been fascist. They assert and seemingly believe that the swastika fetish is nothing more than an anti-social joke, a surefire gimmick to irritate the establishment.

If they desired to be artful in irritating the establishment, they would abandon the swastikas and adorn their bikes with the hammer and sickle. That would truly cause chaos on the highways.

This analysis reveals the complex and disturbing nature of the Hell's Angels, challenging the common perception and highlighting the need for a more accurate understanding of their ideology and actions.

I have been wanting to read Hunter Thompson for quite some time. I am truly glad that I finally purchased "Hell's Angels". His writing style is simply amazing, being the beginning of Gonzo Journalism. It has such a powerful allure that it draws me in completely, to the extent that I don't even want to put the book down for a moment. The vivid descriptions and unique perspectives he presents make the reading experience truly captivating. I have made up my mind to read more books by Thompson. I am eager to explore more of his works and discover the different worlds and ideas he has to offer. I believe that each of his books will be a new adventure and a source of inspiration for me.

Like the best New Journalism, Hell’s Angels feels as volatile as guerrilla filmmaking.

In a recent C-SPAN interview, historian Douglas Brinkley (Hunter Thompson’s literary executor) points to Hell’s Angels as a kind of origin story for Jan. 6. The outlaw bikers, according to Brinkley, begat today’s Oath Keepers and QAnon insurrectionists.

Thompson’s work chronicles a disturbing array of behaviors. He details sexual assaults and drug abuse within the biker gang. Racism and fascist politics also rear their ugly heads.

While Thompson condemns the media exploitation surrounding the bikers, his nascent gonzo sensibility brings its own brand of iconic self-mythologizing. Once he begins participating in beer runs and taking bennies with the Angels, we are plunged into the bosom of fear and loathing.

The vivid descriptions and personal experiences Thompson shares make Hell’s Angels a captivating and thought-provoking read that continues to have relevance in understanding the undercurrents of society and the evolution of certain extremist groups.

The experience wasn't as interesting as I had hoped, unfortunately.

It was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. I was really looking forward to something more engaging and exciting.

However, that's just the way it goes sometimes. Maybe next time it will be better.

Cheers Jecky.

Despite the disappointment, I'm still grateful for the opportunity.

And who knows, perhaps this uninteresting experience will lead to something more remarkable in the future.

So, here's to hoping for better things to come.

Cheers!