Rating: 
Summary: A fine wallow
Review: Whatta fine, seedy trip through debauchery-by-default. Believe it or not it brought to mind Sartre, with its characters' inertia and focus on maybes, mights, and almosts. Well written (I'm not sure I really believe Thompson wrote it at 22... perhaps the basic idea was worked out then) and wonderfully evocative of place and time. The characters are brilliantly drawn. And it is clearly indicative of what Thompson's later literary path would be.
Rating: 
Summary: Diary of Debauchery and Journalistic Insanity
Review: Adventures and fist-fighting, relaxation and orgies... when Hunter Thompson sits down to put a tale into print, the result almost always turns out positive. "The Rum Diary" does not show Thompson's innate gift of fluid prose, and does lack attention grabbing shock like his other work, but something emerges from within this story. The reader knows as much as Thompson's pseudonym side-kick alter-ego Paul Kemp that it must be the little things in life which go fully noticed, while bigger things will not always be remembered for what they were. The drinking and conversation, combined with the human interactions present the main theme of "The Rum Diary." The plot mutates into a survival of the fittest competition, a far cry from its beginning idea of a young man trying to escape comfortable life, the story meshes and intertwines tales of those "other people" Hunter "ran into" during his stay in San Juan. The story presents life in how it really flows, for some lucky individuals, from one unknown debacle to the next. The comedy in tragedy is really captured in this Thompson piece. He combines personal observation with character development and tales of insanity... of course! The journalistic documentation style of Thompson is certainly present in "The Rum Diary," but his extensive creative use of words and consumption of other drugs than Rum are almost non-existent. This story mainly comes through in the clutch, having the reader dig deeper and deeper into the story, but not really luring the reader. The story of Paul Kemp escaping New York City for San Juan to take a reporting job at a Puerto Rican newspaper does not give Thompson justice as a story-teller, but it is the debauchery which happens on the side of this straight and narrow job that helps the pace of the read. The debauchery slowly builds towards the end of the book where it finally dumps all over the final pages into a mess of pure madness that finalizes and legitimizes the read. Other professional reviewers hail this as Thompson's first published work, so not too much greatness is to be expected.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of reading, but not Thompson's best
Review: I recommend this book only to those who are Hunter S. Thompson fans and have already read his other books first. I found much of the Rum Diary to be too slow; however Thompson's brilliant literacy was able to keep up my interest throughout the sluggish parts. Overall, this book is good and worthy of reading, but only if you have already read some of his better works first, i.e. Hell's Angels, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.Vegas
Rating: 
Summary: the worst book ever
Review: The Rum Diary was very posibly the worst book i have ever read. There were seldomly any parts that you coild relate to in real life. This book was a blury hang over filled with a rocks stars life style. The book says that it is a romantic drama but there was realy no romace in the book becides the orgys that took place every once in a while. When the main character bored a plane he tryed to throught the old man that was out of his seat, just to get with the atractive girl that had just bored the plane. They go to Porto Rico and he has a job as news reporter ,he very rarley goes to work becouse he is always drunk. I think that this i the worst book ever and i dont think any one should be forced to read it.
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my attitude towards life!
Review: first i gotta say that this is by far my favorite book ever. there are so many things i love about it: i don't know how dr. thompson does it but reading this book i felt like the main character, paul kemp, himself. though not always getting along with his life in puerto rico, he approaches life in a way that makes me feel like nothing can ever go too wrong. the athmospere that the author creates makes you feel like being on a tropical island yourself and reading this book you just wanna sit there yourself and have a drink of rum. i wished this book would have never ended - this story about a guy i can identify with, a guy who only wants to be at peace with where he lives. a guy who doesn't care at all. don't miss it, this could change your life...
Rating:
Summary: A shot into a descriptive mind
Review: I must say with out fail, that Hunter S. Thompson is perhaps one of the most outlandish authors. For myself reading this book was like watching a full length movie. I absolutely loved it. I couldn't see how anyone who knows about this man would not want to peer into his mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun and Entertaining Romp Through Paradise Hell
Review: Well, I just got done reading The Rum Diary, and I wish that Hunter S. Thompson wrote more novels. This book races along at pace that would make a cop on a high speed pursuit look painfully slow. The most impressive aspect of this book is the great wit and laugh out loud humor that is routinely displayed on every page. Even events that you shouldn't be laughing at seem absolutely hilarious because of his writing style. The writing is so crisp, so condensed that every word actually means something, which is refreshing in modern novels. James Ellroy would not only be proud of this book, I think if he ever read it he might think he actually wrote it. The style is so much the same it is almost scary.
I love this book and I thinkeveryone should read it. Buried beneath 1000 gallons of cheap rum is a morality tale and good old fasioned tragedy, just with the typical Thompson tilt. It is a wonderful book and it will be something that you will take from the shelf and read every once in a while when you need to laugh at this sick and depraved world.
Rating:
Summary: Rum swilling American journalist hoods in San Juan
Review: That pretty much says it all. Before I decided to read any of Thompson's Journalistic books, I thought I'd see how he produced fiction, and I'd have to say I loved it. Thompson's writing is so smooth and readable. Even though the book is short there is alot of good character development, and interesting plot twists. I just love reading about drunks, and the trouble drinking gets them into. I see it all the time in my own life, and the lives of the drunks I choose to be around to know that even though this book is fiction there are so many true to life events that the book was very heartening/disheartening to read. I give it a recommendation to anyone who is interested in seeing what trouble american journalists can get into when drinking rum, eating cheap food, and writing for a crappy newspaper in a place not so familiar.
Rating:
Summary: NOT comic, but a good read.
Review: If you read the reviews on the cover of this book, you might expect it to the the laugh-a-page "gonzo" riot that Fear and Loathing was. I didn't laugh once during this book, but that didn't detract from it's quality. No, this book is not humorous; rather, it is a grim coming-of-middle-age tale. The author looks at the events in his life, searching for their deeper meaning and always waiting for that Big Thing that will make sense of it. But, like his girlfriend who can't quite achieve sexual release, that orgasmic future never really quite unfolds. What makes this book worthy is that, while it may not have any definite answers, it helps us ask questions about our lives.
That alone would make it a worthy read, but if you are an HST fan, then you certainly want to read it. Being more lucid and approachable than any of his other work (and at only 200pp), it gives you some insight not only into the author, but also the history that helped form him and many of the other authors he has been compared to in reviews on this page.
When I first started reading Thompson, Kerouac, and company, I never thought I'd be looking back at them through a half century of accrued time. When these people wrote, the latter half of the 20th century was a Brave New World, and their takes on it, their hopes, aspirations, and fears are certainly instructive as we look back on those times.
I give it 4 stars only because I reserve that 5th star for a true classic. Definitely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed and read quickly
Review: I enjoyed "The Rum Diary" though it was my first HS Thompson book. The first point in my rating is Thompson's unique ability to describe landscapes, be they the crowded silling infested streets of St. Thomas to the beautiful landscape of the surreal Vieques (sp?). The imagery was painting beautifully through prose in The Rum Diary. The second point is character development.... This book could have been a bit better if the characters/professions were discussed a little more in depth. As a non-journalist, I felt I didn't know enough on journalism in the late 50's to know any hardships of that career choice, but as the story goes, it seems it (as anything else) has it's political hurdles/hardships. Some of the characters are more impressionable and better developed than others. Sala gives the reader feelings of responsibility/truth/sarcasm; Yeamon gives a feeling of irresponsibility/intimidation/carpe diem; Chenault emotes classic femme fatale feelings; Moberg represents the "the lowest of low"/nothing to lose which by the way is already lost; Lotterman as the classic example of bureaucrat; Sanderson as a star of hope waiting to be embraced! Enjoy, it is a good read. Also recommended if you enjoy this or have read the following:
On The Road (Kerouac)
Green Hills of Africa (Hemmingway)
To Have and Have Not (Hemmingway)
Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
| 
