Rating: 
Summary: Mindblowing at the very least!
Review: This nonfiction account of Hunter S Thompson's search for the American Dream is a trip you won't soon forget. It is not for the meek or squeamish. The substance abuse is staggering. I imagine there is some degree of exaggeration. Thompson himself has admitted as much in interviews. I must warn that the consumption in this book will be shocking if not scandalous to many.FEAR & LOATHING rocks with an unerring intensity. This book is written like a typewriter tanked on meth. The road trip, the hitchhiker, the booze and the drugs, spending an employers money destroying hotel rooms. It is a full force assault on the senses. It left me dazed and confused. It is hilarious at times but in that guilty way when you know that you really shouldn't be laughing. Raoul Duke is like Jerry Seinfeld in that you know he's a jerk but you can't help liking him. Thompson was an extreme individual. He was notorious for missing deadlines. Reading this book makes it easy to see why. He was very absorbed in the moment. He seemed more intent on getting hammered than on writing the book. But in the end, his extraordinary talent allowed him to produce an amazing book. The description of drug use will be disturbing to many readers. LSD, mescaline, cocaine, ether. Thompson doesn't seem to be very discriminant in what he'll introduce to his bloodstream. His consumption assumes staggering proportions here. The writing is surprisingly good. Thompson is able to convey the sensation of being there as all this insanity unfolds. He had a fine grasp of the English language and a deftness at cutting a good sentence. The carefree excitement of youthfulness is captured here. I always feel more alive when I finish this book. It is also a book that I refer to a lot. It is fun to read a single paragraph and then put it away. This book is for students of the 60s and for readers who like an intense, tumultuous trip into madness. It is shocking and even offensive to some but it is a great ride for those that like a bit of shock value in their entertainment. Truly great -- don't miss it! Along with FEAR & LOATHING, I also recommend THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez, a book whose writing was obviously strongly influenced by Thompson
Rating:
Summary: Luridly Entertaining and Brilliant! Now and forever!
Review:
This nonfiction account of Hunter S Thompson's search for the American Dream is a trip you won't soon forget. It is not for the meek or squeamish. The substance abuse is staggering. I imagine there is some degree of exaggeration. Thompson himself had admitted as much in interviews. I must warn that the consumption in this book will be shocking if not scandalous to many.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS rocks with an unerring intensity. This book is written like a typewriter tanked on meth. The road trip, the hitchhiker, the booze and the drugs, spending an employers money destroying hotel rooms. It is a full force assault on the senses. It left me dazed and confused. It is hilarious at times but in that guilty way when you know that you really shouldn't be laughing. Raoul Duke is like Jerry Seinfeld in that you know he's a jerk but you can't help liking him.
Thompson was an extreme individual. He was notorious for missing deadlines. Reading this book makes it easy to see why. He was very absorbed in the moment. He seemed more intent on getting hammered than on writing the book. But in the end, his extraordinary talent allowed him to produce an amazing book.
Thompson is able to convey the sensation of being there as all this insanity unfolds. The carefree excitement of youthfulness is captured here. I always feel more alive when I finish this novel.
This book is for readers who like an intense, tumultuous trip into madness. It is shocking and even offensive to some but it is a great ride for those that like a bit of shock value in their entertainment. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez, an exceptional, manic novel I can't stop thinking about, by an author whose style was very much influenced by Thompson.
Rating:
Summary: The best stoner movie out there!!
Review: Thank you Hunter S. Thompson for making sure that the script was taken straight from the novel. This movie is so laugh out loud funny, even when it is trying to be serious. I still go out and rent this movie every so often, so I can try to remember the days that I was just like them...sigh.
Rating:
Summary: Gonzo is Gone -- his insane ride to Vegas lives on!!
Review: I was given a copy of this book when I moved to Las Vegas 20 years ago. It is a very fast ride thru an America I will never fully know. It is laugh out loud funny one moment and quietingly reflective the next.
Hunter lived several lives and lived them way beyond the limits. His writing will endure and continue to enlighten.
Rating: 
Summary: Take A Trip In More Ways Than One With No Risk
Review: Two thirty-something guys, a sports writer(Duke in the book and the inspiration for Duke in Doonesbury) and his attorney, head for Vegas about 1971 on an assignment in a convertible loaded with booze and drugs. How pleasant is it to be drunk and over-dosed for ten straight days? Well, not very.
Upon reading of Hunter Thompson's death, I felt I had to sample his work and bought this and two of his other titles. It is easy and enjoyable reading and artful writing in many ways, well worth reading if you want to see what "gonzo" journalism is all about. Kind of like looking at some of Picasso's people - interesting, but you wouldn't want to be one of them.
I guess the movie was a bit of a hit, but I have not seen it. If they remake it, I think Howard Dean could play Duke and certainly Jack Nicholson would have to be the attorney.
I got the book from one of Amazon's third-party sellers in San Francisco, where I suppose celebrations (as in this book) of the drug culture of the 1960s and 1970s still resonate with many.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: It's sad to hear that Hunter S Thompson is gone. This is the first book of his that I read and I had just started reading "Fear and Loathing on the Campaing Trail 72" when I heard of his passing. I loved Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and I find it's message very interesting. Although I'm not into heavy drugs, he asks the same question that I often do, who is more insane, the people on drugs or off them? In essence, a great book. RIP Hunter.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Remarkable
Review: I have read many books in my lifetime, and every so often, if I am lucky enough, I read a book that stays with me and more or less changes my life. Hunter S. Thompson's Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas is one of the few proud books that I will continue to have fond memories of for the rest of my life.
Popularly known as a book about a weekend in Vegas full of drug-induced debauchery, this book is also brilliantly written. Thompson truly had a gift for the written word, and for conveying his emotions and experiences in a unique yet clear visual narrative.
I couldn't even begin to list favorite chapters or passages, as the entire book is consistently entertaining.
Overall, I think this is a book that could be enjoyed by everybody. The stories are funny and entertaining enough for even the casual reader, and the more literary-minded should at the least appreciate good writing when they see it.
The world is a better place for minds like Thompson's. He will be missed a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P.
Review: Just recently heard Hunter S. Thompson passed away, and it is motivating me to write this review. His work was absolutely hilarious, this book is full of memorable moments from the beginning to the end. I can open to any part of the book and instantly recall the awkward situation the two main characters had gotten themselves into, and I immediately begin to laugh uncontrollably. Many books have dull interlude moments, but not this one. It seems that every chapter has an equally interesting and hilarious (although sometimes frightening) story to tell. That's why it was so depressing when I heard Hunter S. Thompson had committed suicide. Rest In Peace Dr. Thompson.
"You'd better take care of me, Lord ... because if you don't you're going to have me on your hands." - Raoul Duke
Rating:
Summary: I've Never Laughted So Hard: Thank You, Hunter
Review: I am saddened to learn of Hunter Thompson's death, especially when I learned it was suicide. He was a flawed human being, unlike the rest of us. He could be mean-spirited, self-centered, egotistical, and worst of all, when I saw him speak about 20 years ago, simply boring. For me, his writing also had become boring.
But I believe artists are known not by the quantity of their work but by the best they produce, even if its only one book. In 100 years will Daniel Steele or J.D. Salinger be more likely to be read and remembered?
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was first and formost just plain funny. I, lets say, "experimented," enough with drugs in the 70s for the book to strike pretty close to home. I can't remember another book that has caused me to literally roll on the floor with laughter. I probably read it half a dozen times, laughing my way through each time.
Bigger themes? Well, I think he captured a part of the drug culture of the 60s and 70s, and walks a think line between glamorizing that culture and parodying it. I'd say the book is must reading for anyone wanting to understand what living through that period and being a part of that culture was like. Don't take it literally. He's taking it to extremes that aren't possible, but are close enough to create that humor.
Hunter, I hope you're in a better place, a place where the drugs of choice are freely available, and to anyone who has the arrogance to say their vision of heaven is better than Hunter's, mine, or anyone else's, please read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," perferably while on any two (or more) drugs mentioned in the book.
Rating:
Summary: He Spilled The Beans
Review: Sometime in the February of His Loathing I postpredict Thompson will take his life in his own hands.
Too bad those hands will be cherishing a loaded gun. Unlike Bill Burroughs, he will be aiming at his own ego...
aiming to put the last hole in the handcrafted cribbage board that was Hunter S. Thompson.
He wrote about not walking around it but rather stepping in it.
A between the toes curdling Tarzan yell into a phone that answered and asked the tough question about who or whom can and will do it.
My mind grew under his looming typecastanet words to pore.
We shalt thank or curse him now because our hats will neither fit nor cover the shine of a head of our time.
Back to the FEAR and LOATHING in LAS VEGAS book thing.
I had the shirt too, Jimmy wore it out. The disintegration was like the peppered blasts from the shotgun that Hunter purportedly used to blast paintpellets onto Ralph Steadman prints deep in the begotten desert. Made up of words and pictures, FEAR and LOATHING in LAS VEGAS is a legendary art weapon best put to use in the desert.
He describes the verge in territorial terms. The people in the story are as scary as the clarity of his distortions.
I liked the hitchiker since when I read it I had no car.
I think I got picked up by Hunter once. He asked if I ever got into Tom Waits music.
(Or was it the other way around?)
But I am not here to pick up his book, only to put it down.
Like the hippy, the gonzo journalist has risen to the ranks of icon.
Now we can begin the excrutiating suffrage of chaotic echoes that fill the void with
pale imitation and endless posthumorous editions.
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