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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780679785897
Edition: 2nd
ISBN: 0679785892
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: May 12, 1998
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: May 12, 1998
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times Book Review, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its trunk, they stow "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls," which they manage to consume during their short tour.
On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first-rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past, and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren
Product Description:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.
Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Opens everywhere on May 22, 1998.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I'd already seen the movie (and couldn't have been happier with the casting of Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro), so I knew approximately what to expect, but as is often the case when books are adapted for the screen, what movies gain in literal representation they lose in flavor of language. And that, I would say, was the best part of this book: Thompson's rollicking, piquant wordplay that both lives up to and brings to life the outrageous escapades described over the course of 200 breathlessly rambling pages.
If Thompson and his nameless attorney consumed even half the drugs he says they did, it must've been a bender of frightening proportions, that much is clear. But amidst the staggering amounts of illegal substances, boorish behavior, and assorted misdemeanors, what comes out through it all is Thompson's keen eye for human nature, mordant wit, and ability to turn one colorful phrase after another. Countless times I wanted to reach for my pencil to make a note or copy down a particularly choice quotation, but instead let myself be carried along by the rushing, post-Kerouackian current of Thompson's prose, figuring that blasting along without stopping was more in the spirit of the thing anyhow.
Kids may not be reading it in school 100 years from now (in fact, I hope they're not!), and anyone looking for character development or serious philosophical reflections is looking in the wrong place, but for sheer joy of language it has lessons that a lot of writers could learn from.
Rating: -
I had the seen the movie over 5 times before I decided to read the book, and let me tell you that even though I knew what was about to happen most of the time, I found it exponentially better than the movie. One of my favorites thus far.
Rating:  -
The Lost Highway of the American Dream.
I love social satire. I don't need my characters to be loveable; I don't even need them to be likeable. I just need them to be what they are, even if it's revolting.
Now, I wasn't old enough to remember much from the late 60's early 70's let alone the political aspects of Nixon's presidency or the drug culture of the time, so this review won't have any profound social or political commentary, except that comparisons can well be made to the drug culture of today, and it's glaringly apparent that not much has changed except for the chemical constituents.
Considering the climate of the time: Nixon's presidency, the war in Vietnam, and the country's young men succumbing to the draft, it was no wonder that an entire generation wanted something more, for this was not the American Dream they had been sold. Sound familiar? And for some, the only way to drown out the hypocrisy gnawing at their brains was to give their brains an escape. Expand your mind, as that might be the only part of you that truly is free. Whatever it takes to get you directly out of your head - the higher the better. This story chronicles a journey utterly devoid of restraint and reason, as these two men, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, and their trunk full of felonies set themselves loose on Las Vegas - to them, the last vestige of the American dream. However, their idea of the American Dream is not how most of us would understand it, but somehow, through the fog of hallucinatory metaphor, we can actually see and feel what the main characters are searching for so desperately.
All that aside, even if the 60's sub-culture is beyond your age group, Thompson's writing is worth the read. It's brilliant, sarcastic, and frighteningly absurd: Bars seething with has-been lounge lizards, tearing the patrons to shreds; blood soaked tacky hotels rooms; police car chases; kidnapping; gambling; excess; and debauchery ... not to mention the Narcotics convention. The dialog is brilliant written, and through the drug haze, we get offered a media-spinless clarity, a clarity that can only be articulated by the truly disenchanted. Harrowing and ludicrous experiences abound: it's amazing that the two main characters manage to make it out of Vegas alive, san the straightjackets.
Definitely a wild ride for all. The movie was quite good as well, but it lacks some of the subtleties that can only found in the written word. Thompson's word.
Rating: -
this book is my #1 favorite Hunter Thompson book, get this, it will blow your mind
Rating: -
This book is labeled as journalism / nonfiction. I am not sure that I believe it is fully either, but it is none the less a very interesting read.
Fear and Loathing claims to be a "savage journey to the heart of the American Dream" but I find it hard to believe it was all that honest of a search if one set out to pursue it as Mr. Thompson and his attorney claim they were. There is more drug use and hallucinations in this text, then I hope, most are used to. However, that is an integral part of the book, and works for what seems to be Thompson's ultimate goal.
Although I don't approve of the lifestyle of its two main characters, they are in fact disgusting people, they are still intriguing, and I found the text to be an easy and enjoyable read. The last 100 pages are far superior to the first 100, as it is in the later half of the book that Mr. Thompson seems to be getting to his point.
The "American Dream" really lives in the hearts and minds of those who pursue it, and thus if the heart and mind pursuing it are not all that together, then the dream seems to be lost. This book is peopled with such characters. Most are fearful of the world that surrounds them, and most also loathe themselves and the world around them. The book is an interesting exploration of our self destructive tendencies, and how we are the biggest inhibitors of our own happiness. Thompson laments the lost spirit of the 60s in this text, all the while truthfully acknowledging the only people to blame for that are the very people who preached and practiced it.
Thompson has a very unique writing style. The man had talent and deserves to be praised for it. His sense of irony and wit are immensely enjoyable, and the prose fits the story and the personality of the text's main characters. These outrageous characters and circumstances come across as totally believable, and that perhaps is Thompson's greatest achievement with this book.
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