Rating: 
Summary: respectable first novel
Review: To be honest, this book isn't nearly as entertaining as HST's other works. The first chapter starts off good with a humorous account of the main character's run in with a fellow airline passenger. Right away I knew that this was going to be classic Hunter S. Thompson. Sadly, that was the first and last time I chuckled while reading this book. True, he was only twenty-two when he wrote this, but it seems that he was either too drunk or too afraid to take any chances with the story. The characters are two-dimensional at best. Paul Kemp, the man whose eyes we peer through for the duration of the novel, is the least developed character. The novel flows at a languid pace and often appears to be monotonous in tone. Nonetheless it is an engaging read that should appeal to a larger audience than his other books. To me the ironic thing is, had he not been consumed by alcohol and narcotics, he could have gone on to be one of the greats. As it stands he is a legendary counter-culture journalist who is more famous for his addictions than his writings. Kids my age--in their early to mid twenties--read HST because of the drug laden content; because it's "cool". Which is all the wrong reasons to read. I fell in love with HST's works when I was a teenager--and when I subscribed to the lifestlye that he describes--and although I appreciate his work now, his prose is absolutely remarkable, I can't help to wonder what could have been. As I said it's a respectable first novel, one that could entertain his fans as well as fans of Hemingway or Kerouac, but it's no masterpiece. I would recommend this novel so one could further understand how a talented writer ends up where he is. Or if you're just looking for a solid read that isn't knee deep in artistic integrity or bourgeois sentamentality, then pick this up today.
Rating: 
Summary: a tad lackluster
Review: this was one of thompson's first novels, and it shows. having been released to the general public after the publication of his first set of letters, this one is set in puerto rico and shows the authors clear influences of hemmingway and fitzgerald. what you get is a decent story, but more importantly the view of a writer searching for his voice. only recommended to people who really enjoy that style of writing (hemmingway and the like) or those who really enjoy thompson's evolution.
Rating: 
Summary: An Outrageous Lifestyle
Review: The Rum Diary was an excellent book. Thompson was clearly writing about a life, which was similar to the way his was heading at the time. More so a life that he didn't want to get trapped into. The main character Paul Kemp had a job that was taking him nowhere, and a lifestyle that caused him nothing but trouble. Thompson showed the life of an American journalist working in Puerto Rico in the 1960s. The life was wild, the work was poor, and the system was corrupt. Big money and big connections could get you anything, but without it you were stuck. When I was reading the book, I was always interested to see what would happen next. I could never tell who was about to cause trouble, if someone was going to get mugged, or if the paper would finally fold. Thompson did a great job keeping me hooked on the story, and the plot was outstanding. Thompson provided detailed character descriptions and also filled in the background information as he went. I was never in doubt of how the character got into the position they were in. He told an intriguing story of a young journalist and his experience of a lifetime. Thompson didn't hold anything back. He included all of the successes, failures, and encounters of the San Juan experience. It was my first experience reading a book of this type, and also a first time reading Hunter S. Thompson. I was really impressed with the novel. I would give it five stars.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book from my favorite author!
Review: This book starts a little slowly and doesn't have all of the drug induced craziness of some of his later works, but I really liked it. The tension builds slowly at first, but before I knew it, I couldn't wait to start the next page. Good work Hunter!
Rating: 
Summary: Let's get wasted!!
Review: Hunter S Thompson's editors claim that this is his long lost first novel. Why do I not believe them? In any case, it's pretty entertaining even though there isn't much of a plot. It's very much like HST's perceived lifestyle imprinted on a short novella with lots of drinking. Now isn't that a surprise. One thing I really liked was the size and the type font. I bought mine in Norway and it came in a tall thin format that shrunk each para down to almost newspaper size. For me, this made the book very easy to read and much more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Succeeds where many others have failed
Review: "The Rum Diary" is a young man's story written by Hunter S. Thompson well before he became a cultural icon. Based on his own experiences living in San Juan in the 1950s, "The Rum Diary" is the story of several bizarre and often rundown expatriates many of whom are associated with a derelict local newspaper. The story is told by thirty year-old Paul Kemp, who despite his inveterate drinking, carousing, and propensity for violence, appears to be the most sane and lucid member of his circle. Kemp's travels take him from the struggling newspaper and a ramshackle tavern to evening romps on the beach, a brief stint in jail, a hilarious court proceeding, the insanity of Carnival, and ultimately to a moral showdown resulting from sexual betrayal. These events and this story line could easily degenerate into tedious, schoolboy bravado, but the young Thompson tells a fascinating, action-packed story with remarkably mature prose. Some authors such as Tom Beller have similarly anchored their stories in a compelling location, but have failed to do so with competent prose. Others, such as Josh Davis, have written about the hedonistic lifestyles of young people, but unlike Thompson, their writing is strangled by excessive and artificial attempts to be profound. If anything, Thompson's early work resembles some of Hemingway's albeit without the excessive machismo. His blending of exotic locations, outrageous behavior, and subtle moral inquiry makes "The Rum Diary" a precursor to some of Bai Ma's later works, most notably, "The Night Safari".
Rating:
Summary: Mayhem in San Juan, though not Thompson's strongest work
Review: To begin with, fiction isn't Thompson's strength, even though this work is a mesh of fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps it's better to say that novels aren't Thompson's strength. That said, it's a good book, full of his trademark sarcasm and wit and a funny story. Anyone who reads Thompson will of course want to read this book and will enjoy it immensely. However, those who haven't and want to get a taste of Thompson will be ill-advised to begin here. His best works will always be the offbeat Gonzo Papers collections, and provide the most variety
Rating:
Summary: Innocents abroad, with soda.
Review: The Rum Diary is a revelation. It proves that Hunter Thompson was always more than the drug addled father of Gonzo journalism most people know him as. It's a tale about a group of wandering occassional journalists who converge for a few months in time to work at the doomed San Juan Daily News in late 1950s Puerto Rico. True to later form, Thompson's journalists spend more time on the streets than in the newsroom, but this cast of characters is in San Juan for just that reason - they're more interested in living than newspapering and the sinking San Juan Daily News' publisher, an ex-communist, is desperate enough for help to put up with their carousing, excesses, and poor attendance records. So far, no surprises. Typically HST live-fast-die-young-leave-a-goodlooking-corpse sensibility informs the thinking of most of these wanderers. But there's more. Thompson isn't hiding behind his later trademark cocky bravado here. It's all out there for anyone who hasn't sensed it behind his later work to see: these people aren't driven so much by their need to sate their appetites as they are by the need to shut out the harsh realities of a world they didn't ask to be a part of and yet can't escape. They're less rebels than idealists coming to terms with the harsh realities of life, and what they discover about themselves. You'll be disappointed if you buy this book for another balls-to-the-wall careening Gonzo adventure through the landscape of the culture. Buy it instead for a glimpse of the depth of a great American writer's ability. This book proves beyond a doubt that Thompson didn't need the excesses of the sixties to kick start his career. The talent he exhibits here shows he could have made his mark as a latter day Hemmingway, or Fitzgerald. There are a bunch of garbage blurbs on the cover of the book intended to sell it as another typical HST raving rant. But there's one that I think captures the essence of the book, from the Washington Post Book World: " At the core of this hard-drinking, hard-talking, hard-living man is a moralist, Puritan, even an innocent. The Rum Diary gives us this side of him without apology....with a kind of pride." Lots of people here haven't seen that. Lots of people don't see a lot of things.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, though a little off
Review: I've just started exploring the works of HST. So, far I've found his works to be quite enthralling. The Rum Diary is no different. It's a fun book that brings you into the strange world of a few drunken journalist in San Juan. Filled with alcohol and debauchery the story sent my mind wandering to things I should've done. At any rate, I've recommended the book to all my freinds. If I do have a complaint, it is that the story leaves you wanting more as the book can be quickly finished.
Rating:
Summary: When Hunter S. Thompson writes, people read.
Review: Imagine Hemingway in a really bad mood. No, a REALLY bad mood. That's what parts of this remind me of. The story is pretty pat. There are no surprises (but, then again maybe I'm just jaded). The writing is brilliant. His dialogue is almost perfect. The basic premise is that a New York Jounalist goes to pieces on a small Puerto Rican paper. He gets embroiled in all sorts of things he doesn't fully understand including an accusation of murder, a rape that no one admits occurred, shady land deals and a few riots. The characters seem to be composites of real people. The ultra-paranoid paper owner is perfect. Especially when he refuses to print Pulitzer Prize level material on the basis that it won't sell. But one can't always tell where fact leaves off and fiction takes over. There are a few things that are just too convienient to not be fiction (running into the very people he's looking for during Carnival for example). But Hunter S. is at his best in his descriptions of the obnoxius Americans who try to move in and take over Puerto Rico and other islands with no regard for their culture. The liberals, the armchair sociologists and the fat cats out to make a buck by ruining what good there is in the impoverished areas. For whom he winds up working due to a bar fight that turns nasty. Most of the novel is not about working on the paper. It about the people who work on it, the politics around it and the free lance work that they all do in order to stay out of jail. The story is mainly about power and who really holds it. I would recommend this to all true Hunter S. Thompson fans. The man can write!
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