Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream | Hunter S. Thompson | What were they thinking

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Fear and Loathing ...

	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Hunter S. Thompson Vintage, 1998 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 417 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

one of a kind

Instructions for gonzo reading (according to Hunter Thompson)

*Half pint, 10-inch hypo-needle (the kind used for spinal taps & inoculating bulls)

*Fill this full of rum, tequila, or wild turkey & shoot the entire contents straight into the stomach, thru the navel. This will induce a fantastic rush - much like a 3/4 hour amyl high -plenty of time to read the whole saga.

*Read straight thru, at high speed, from start to finish, in a large room full of speakers, amplifiers & other appropriate sound equipment. There should also be a large fire in the room, preferably in an open fireplace & raging almost out of control.

It is this kind of thinking to which you will be subjected if you choose to read this book. I highly recommend it, if you've got the stomach for that sort of thing.

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What were they thinking

I don't quite understand the people who read this and then were shocked like Claude Raines when it turned out to involve wacked out drugs tails. Hunter was the original Gonzo Journalist, get it? And for those who want greater meaning and depth go read a sociological study of the 60's & 70's. But for those who want to laugh until tears roll down their face and relive some of their antics well I don't have to tell you to read it, you already have. One point is valid though, it doesn't cross the generations well. I have passed this onto a number of youngsters and many don't get it and not a few don't believe a time like Thompson describes could exist. All I can say is it's a good thing it doesn't anymore but I'm glad I was there for the ride.

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Must Read !!

If you made it through the seventies, you'll love this flashback. "Hunter did not die, he is alive and chillin' with Timothy Leary ".

The Ultimate Trip

Forget looking for deep meaning, plot, character development and all of the other stuff you might find in most novels. In true Hunter S Thompson style this is the wacky, mad diary of a road trip to Vegas. That the book was so popular tells you something about the era, when drugs were funny.

Don't expect the feel and breadth of Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, this is a more like someone placed a cranial bug in the demented brain of Thompson. What comes out on the page is just as it happens.

None of this is bad. Its over the top tale is funny, outrageous and worthy of the quick read. Just remember the author's final exit plan.

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IN THE TIME OF THE BEAST

I have reviewed Dr. Hunter Thompson's more political works (Fear and Loathing in the 1972 Campaign, Songs of the Doomed, etc.) elsewhere in this space. This book is, however, the most famous of his works. It is an attempt, a failed attempt according to Thompson himself, at what he later called `gonzo' journalism. That was an attempt to twist so-called objective journalism on its head by having the formerly objective reporter become a participant in whatever action he or she was covering. Fear and Loathing is the closest approximation to that ideal. While the story line of a madcap, drug-addled journalist and his crazed lawyer (the mythical Brown Buffalo) in search of the true meaning of America in Las Vegas is a little dated some of the observations about the nature of the beast, America (whether under the influence of drugs, or otherwise) still hit the mark. While this is not Thompson's attempt to write the great American novel he sure as hell could write. For close to forty years he made us smile or want to call for his head on a platter. We will not see his like again.

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