When your audible reading list is as long as mine, it implies that there is more than a year between adding a book to the list and actually getting to it in an orderly progression. This means that sometimes, you are not capable of remembering why you added a particular book more than a year ago. I suspect this book was added because I was pursuing an author who was known to me only as a name from the 1960s.

This book was apparently first published in the nation around 1965. As you progress through the book, you learn that the author spent a year living with the Hells Angels in California. Other than my desire to know something about this author and my fixation on the 1960s as a true baby boomer, I would not usually be attracted to a book about any motorcycle gang, especially the Hells Angels. I'm sure this is another example of a book that I probably wouldn't have completed if I had to read it in print. Listening to the audible version made it more interesting and helped me get to the end.

If you want to know for sure what the author thought about the Hells Angels, you have to wait until the last part of the book where he tries to be honest about what he really thinks of these people he spent a year with. In summary, it's complicated! The stories are interesting but repetitive. The line between fact and fiction is somewhat blurred. For example, the discussion of what might constitute rape has a bit of a 1950s feel that hasn't aged well since it was written. Or maybe the author was just trying to say what he thought the Hells Angels might say if they thought it was important enough to explain what they thought. But as the author makes clear towards the end of the book, he saw them as mostly a follow-the-leader crowd rather than individually thoughtful.

The writing has a certain style, and I suppose I can say that I'm glad I've now experienced it. And this experience will go wherever these kinds of books go when you can't quite figure out what they have to do with your own life or concerns. It's interesting that the author turns on his outlaw friends in the Hells Angels when they turn against the antiwar protesters in Berkeley/Oakland around 1965. The book ends ironically with the author riding his own motorcycle down the California coast highway after being stomped by a group of Hells Angels for an unexplained reason. Maybe they learned what the last 5% of the book said!

You can sense the essence of his remarkable later work percolating through the paragraphs and sentences within this rather journalistic book.

It makes me不禁 wonder what this individual would think of the present world. What is the closest equivalent we have to this nowadays? Perhaps Andrew Callaghan with Channel 5, yet that is still somewhat of a distinct approach. It also kind of lacks the electrifying intelligence that characterized HST's writing.

Anyway, it's wonderful to explore the brilliant mind of an old departed friend. I wish there was more of his material available (including the unreleased work). Sadly.

This book serves as a reminder of the genius that once was and leaves us longing for more of his unique perspective and insights.

Although we may have contemporary counterparts, they simply don't quite capture the same magic and brilliance that HST brought to the table.

Nevertheless, we can still cherish the work that he has left behind and continue to be inspired by his creativity and audacity.

Of all the full length writings of HST, this one is my absolute favorite.

It presents the most interesting topic that I believe he has ever written about.

Unlike his typically renowned "Gonzo" style, this particular piece has its own unique charm.

The story is truly captivating and engaging, to the extent that you simply won't be able to put it down.

It draws you in from the very beginning and keeps you hooked until the very end.

You'll find yourself completely immersed in the world that HST has created within these pages.

Every sentence, every paragraph, seems to be carefully crafted to keep your attention and make you eager to know what happens next.

Whether you're a die-hard fan of HST or just someone looking for a great read, this writing is definitely worth checking out.

It offers a different side of HST's writing skills and showcases his ability to tell a compelling story in a style that is both accessible and enjoyable.

So, if you haven't already, give this writing a chance and prepare to be amazed.

Thompson likely sacrificed reality for sensationalistic entertainment value by making some of the HA's into exaggerated caricatures of themselves in this book. However, regardless of whether this claim is true or not, this book is a great and at times very humorous read. It offers a unique perspective that keeps the reader engaged from start to finish. The exaggerated portrayals, if indeed they are such, add an element of excitement and drama that makes the story all the more captivating. Even if one were to question the authenticity of the characterizations, the overall entertainment value of the book cannot be denied. It provides a lighthearted and enjoyable escape from reality, filled with witty remarks and amusing situations. Whether you are a fan of Thompson's work or simply looking for a good laugh, this book is well worth the read.

Definitely didn't enjoy this as much as Fear and Loathing, but it was still a really good read.

I love his writing style. Although he seems to make it hard to discern between fact from fiction, he still has a way of presenting all the facts that is often humorous and also bizarre.

I also really enjoyed reading about the Hell's Angels in general. He was able to leave nothing out and described them as the raw and grimy people they were and I'm assuming still are.

The author's unique approach to storytelling makes this book a captivating one. The blurring of the lines between fact and fiction adds an element of mystery and intrigue.

Reading about the Hell's Angels gives a fascinating insight into their world. The detailed descriptions bring to life their rough and tough nature.

Overall, despite not enjoying it as much as Fear and Loathing, this book is still well worth the read for its engaging writing style and interesting subject matter.

Though written in late 2016, I recently came across this fascinating article in The Nation. It discussed how with his work Hell's Angels, Hunter Thompson had predicted the rise of Trumpism. Intrigued, I decided to revisit the book for the first time in 13 years to assess the accuracy of this claim. Personally, I found it to be remarkably on point.

Many of us, myself included, often lament that Thompson isn't here in the Trump era to offer his unique perspective on national politics, as he did so vividly during the previous five decades. To gain a better understanding, I delved into some excerpts from the book's final chapter. Here, Thompson begins to make straightforward and concrete appraisals of the Angels. For the sake of fun, I substituted the word "Trumpers" for "Angels" without altering another word.

The passages I uncovered were both revealing and thought-provoking. They painted a vivid picture of a group that, like the Trumpers, were seen as caretakers of a certain tradition but were, in reality, something entirely different. They were prototypes of a future that our history had not prepared us for, individuals with a powerful resentment born out of their lack of education and their sense of being left behind.

Perhaps the most telling excerpt was the one that described the Trumpers as losers, dropouts, failures, and malcontents. They were rejects seeking revenge on a world that had marginalized them. Thompson's words seemed to capture the essence of the Trump phenomenon, highlighting the anger, frustration, and sense of disenfranchisement that lies at its core.

In conclusion, The Nation's article about Thompson's Hell's Angels was spot-on. Despite being a historical document about a group of American outlaws from over 50 years ago, Hell's Angels suddenly seems incredibly relevant and timely in the context of today's political climate. It serves as a reminder that history often repeats itself and that we ignore the lessons of the past at our peril.

I happened to reread this particular piece a few months ago. To my great surprise, I found that it was still as thrilling and engaging a read as I vividly remembered it to be. The early-era Thompson was truly an outstanding observer. His keen eye for detail and unique perspective made the whole experience of reading his work a wild ride.

This rediscovery got me thinking that I should write a really outstanding review to do justice to this remarkable book. However, I often find that those reviews which I set out to write with great enthusiasm and high expectations are the ones that I end up not writing at all, or writing in a rather inadequate manner. It seems that the more I strive for perfection, the more difficult it becomes to put my thoughts into words.

In any case, maybe next year will be a better time. This year, 2024, seems to be running on fumes, and I just don't have the mental or creative energy to do justice to this book review. But I remain hopeful that in the coming year, I will be able to pen a review that truly captures the essence and brilliance of this work.

Everyone an outlaw, until it time to do outlaw shit. I picked up this statement because THE NATION recommended that if I, a pasty suburban leftie liberal, wanted to understand the "forgotten man" Trump voter, I should read this. Near the end, I found out that the goddamn NATION magazine paid the tab on HST's drink account to dictate this into a handheld tape recorder. Shady indeed.

However, the suggestion is not "that" wrong. As with everything HST wrote, there is a near-perfect, poetic epiphany right near the end of the article/book that just sparkles with soul-cleansing crystal magic poetry. In the case of the Angels, HST crafts it out of the sheer loserdom that defines the cyclists' whole reason for being.

"In terms of the Great Society, the Hell's Angels and their ilk are losers - dropouts, failures, and malcontents. They are rejects looking for a way to get even with a world in which they are only a problem. The Hell's Angels are not visionaries but diehards, and if they are forerunners of the vanguard of anything, it is not the "moral revolution" in vogue on college campuses but a fast-growing legion of young unemployables whose trapped energy will inevitably find the same kind of destructive outlet that "outlaws" like the Hell's Angels have been finding for years. The difference between the student radicals and the Hell's Angels is that the students are rebelling against the past, while the Angels are fighting the future. Their only common ground is their disdain for the present or the status quo." (p. 256-257)

Lost by their own hobbying, addictions, and purposeful sense of community and belonging, the Angels still receive a certain nodding respect from conservative society and its wide-belted police force. Because, at the end of the day, they are still young white boys and probably could be rehabilitated.

HST does an amazing thing, much like Arendt. He unpacks the bluster to strip the myth down to the most banal reality of the outlaw. While he never coins the phrase, the HELL'S ANGELS can be seen as a study in the "banality of hooliganism." The long stretch where HST does a play-by-play of the party at Bear Lake illustrates just how absurd the whole game of cat and mouse becomes - where the most dangerous things are the "squares" armed to the teeth and those teeth floating in a bile of pent-up fearful rage. The begrudging respect the police afford the motorcycle revelers and the pure drunken inaction of the revelers themselves put a fine point on the weekend adventure.

But there are honestly disgusting and troubling aspects to the Angels - their attitude toward women, sex, and rape is primal and tribal. I wonder to what extent their embrace of demeaning and owning women, beating them into submission, and forcibly raping them did not just give full articulation to the mores of the post-war American spirit?

Not to mention their reactionary racism. While they seem to have no issue with individual blacks, they hate "the blacks" writ large. They fear retaliation after kicking the shit out of a young black guy in their bar. The white paranoia was conservative and unironically embracing the "law and order" tactics that are used to corral and harass them as well.

But the most embarrassing part of the book is when the Keasey/Ginsburg crowd adopts the Angels. I mean, why wouldn't old Uncle Alan want to make it with some greasy-smelling bears while quoting Whitman as he came? The Angels were made for his fiddling bits, and the slumming would be delicious. He even wrote a four-page nonsense poem about them - under the pretext of convincing them not to wail on his gentle anti-war protesting friends. Oh, the wiles of the poet, his song weakening the brutal heart of the barbarian to spare the valley of the river nymphs!

Bleck.

HST's book is an artifact of a time when America was still outraged by the unkempt appearance of the Hell's Angels, before the "look" became ubiquitous. Now the sight of a bearded, shirtless, leather-vested man's man roaring down the highway, spilling beer and flipping off the camera, is used to sell watches to stockbrokers, not to instill fear into the hearts of upstanding mom and dads.

And maybe that is what the Trump supporters are most angry about. They are no longer feared, and their existence is no longer considered outlaw. They are "forgotten" because their idea of outlaw culture is no longer outlaw.

I've never read Hunter S. Thompson before, and after reading this, I don't understand his appeal at all.

He seems to be just a tourist, telling us about how he hung out with a bunch of big, bad biker criminals and how they were cool with him.

When he manages to stop talking about himself, his writing is almost totally incoherent.

He argues that the media created a hysteria around the Hell's Angels, but then goes on to tell us about the terrible stuff he witnessed them doing.

The absolute nadir of the book is when Thompson explains away the numerous rape charges against the Hells Angels as the result of women who really wanted it but changed their minds afterward.

And he even has the audacity to say that even if it was really rape, doesn't every woman deep down inside really wonder what it's like to be raped?

This kind of thinking is not only offensive but also completely无视 the trauma and pain that rape victims experience.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to anyone.

Well, there are indeed times when this book proves to be really interesting.

Specifically, it serves as a notable critique of media-narratives and government overreach.

However, there are also occasions where the author, who quotes and sometimes doesn't quote various Hell's Angels, spends an inordinate amount of time discussing rape without really making particularly salient points.

It's almost like a strange version of critiques related to the use of rape charges against Black men.

And there might actually be some validity to the specific over-prosecution of Hell's Angels by California police.

If that were the sole point of the book, one could argue that there would be an earnest critique.

Nevertheless, Thompson ties this point to the idea that ALL rape charges against Hells' Angels are overblown.

Again, this is an idea that might have some resonance if he didn't spend large portions of this book being specifically scared in the presence of Hell's Angels and having them threaten sexual violence against his wife.

The book's interesting points initially emerge as a critique of how a disingenuous and inaccurate report by the California Attorney General and news outlets that picked up that report suggested that Hell's Angels were a growing and severely dangerous threat.

Thompson astutely points out that the report is salacious, even if it contains some truth, as it highlights the Hell's Angels but represents only a tiny fraction of total crime.

And while the reporting might also have some veracity, it sensationalizes the numbers and, according to Thompson, actually bolstered Hell's Angels numbers.

This situation reminds one of the ways in which MS-13 violence crept into so many Republican election scare tactics in the last few years.

Just like with those, the danger of any given interaction with MS-13 is no less real, although the chances of the general public having such interactions are slim.

So, in the end, the book turns out to be quite a mixed bag.

Thompson呈现出了不一样的风格。

这本书是在他成为“伟大的猎人汤普森”之前写的，在书中他少了很多古怪、疯狂和酷炫的时刻。

这是一本相当直白的关于与地狱天使共度一年的记录；描述详尽，但没有什么可说的故事。

然而，我却很喜欢它。它很有趣，而且有一些闪光点。

这本书让我们看到了汤普森早期的写作风格和他对特定主题的探索。

尽管它可能不像他后来的作品那样具有强烈的个人色彩和震撼力，但它依然有着自己的魅力和价值。

对于喜欢汤普森的读者来说，这本书是一次了解他创作历程的有趣之旅。

而对于那些对地狱天使或摩托车文化感兴趣的人来说，这本书也提供了一些独特的视角和见解。

This is early Thompson, before the concept of gonzo journalism took hold. There's no need to exaggerate or turn on the colored strobe lights here. The subject itself is a hallucination; some might even call it a nightmare.

I became aware of the Angels when I was still a young boy. As this book reveals, a great deal of press coverage followed as the Hells Angels were elevated to the throne of counter culture, along with a sea of dizzy hippies, aging beatniks, and those protesting the Vietnam War. We also learn that they were almost always misquoted and misrepresented.

Back then, I was in love with them, or rather, the idea of them. In truth, I was in love with their motorcycles; the modified jean jackets, beards, and long hair only added to their allure. They seemed like an unrestrained combination of freedom and outrage - a rebellion against the systems of control that I was already observing on television broadcasts where Ronald Reagan named Angela Davis public enemy number one.

This was before I was 10 years old, and words like rape, gang bang, and racist had not yet entered my vocabulary. This book could not be written (or published) today - these words and many others within are considered trigger words. There is no safe space in this narrative. You read it as a historical document, yet many of the moral questions raised in these pages remain relevant today.

Also, I've always been an outsider. I became one on the day I was born when my mother put me up for adoption. The family, that institution known for holding society together, had rejected me. Before I knew it, the universal horror idols: the Wolf Man, the Frankenstein monster, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon - were my heroes. They were misunderstood creatures longing for love in some way, and the social machinery that created them was bent on their destruction. It wasn't fair, and I was on their side. I passionately rooted for them. When the Angels entered my view of the world, they fit right in.

But enough about me. Suffice it to say that from the first pages of this book, I was a captive audience. I've been reading Thompson for decades, and when he's at his best, his erudition and concise prose draw me in. His sentences are like knives drawn in a barroom brawl, and the truth they convey here aims to distinguish fact from fable.

So it's the writing and the attempt to get to the truth about the Angels that kept me turning the pages. HELLS ANGELS established him as an unyielding journalist, not to be swayed by popular politics, comfort zones, or money.

There are countless phrases and assessments in the book that seem worthy of quotation here, but I will refrain and leave it up to the curious to find their way into this maze of mayhem. For the best results, leave your assumptions at the door.

P.S.

Anyone who flips the bird to America's status quo, smugly dressed in self-assured righteousness, will always be high on my list of those who make me swoon.