Rating: 
Summary: the dance
Review: A fun read about a man trying to find his reward for a lifetime of rebellion. The book introduces several very flawed characters with strong personalities and has them run a paper in Puerto Rico. The main character, Paul Kemp is a rebel hero that reads people very well but doesn't get overly neurotic about trying to help them or change them. Underlying it all is Kemp's sense of a wasted past and a more wasted future, and his search for the reward that would make it all worth while. Don't let all the nhilism fool you, the balls of rebellion pull through and the book is a riot!
Rating:
Summary: not much of a reader, but liked the book
Review: Admittedly, I am not much of a reader. It takes me months to finish anything. Unfortunately, I am like many of you, who first heard of Hunter S. Thompson through moving pictures. But that gives me the candid, average view of mister Raul Duke. This book took me 4 days to read. I couldn't put it down. I thought most people who said that were a trying to impress the pretty girl accross the hall. Not so. Thompson captures the spirit of the moment. As drab, as awful as it was, he grabbed hold and made it his own. Character development is an art that Thompson has nailed to the wall. The personalities of these individuals come through naturally, and easily, while the story isn't hindered. I have tried reading a few Earnest Hemmingway novels, and strangely, I see parody. It's a story of travel. They both can't paint the picture because they were there. Thompson's approach is much more entertaining, yet seems more severe. Quirky phrases catch your attention and grab hold. I think the pacing of this book does a lot for the readability. It's feverish, but friendly. I hesitated giving 5 stars for this book, only because, as I said, I am not much of a reader, so I can't compare it to much. I will say this, I will be reading more books by Hunter S. Thompson
Rating: 
Summary: A Rare Look at the Pre-60's Thompson
Review: Hunter S. Thompson has made a career out of becoming a part of his journalistic endeavors. He has dived into his stories so frequently and so deeply that he has developed his own character in them, the gonzo journalist. The Rum Diary, thankfully, gives us a different look at Thompson: the quiet observer. Quiet, that is, relative to the other characters in this book.The Rum Diary chronicles Hunter's own time spent in Puerto Rico. The book itself is a pretty wild ride. After arriving in Puerto Rico, Thompson goes to work for a newspaper that is in the midst of a protest. The reporters risk mugging just to enter the building. Thompson soon meets a couple of friends and drunken hijinks ensue with Thompson and everybody else gorging themselves on the local drink, Rum (hence the title). Think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but take away the drugs and add more booze. That would be close. This book isn't nearly as vital or symbolic as some of Thompson's more famous works but for true Thompson fans it offers an insight into the man, not the myth.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read
Review: Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" is knows as "The Long Lost Novel", and since it is such an entertaining book that we all should be grateful that it was found. Written when he was only 22, the novel is a very down-to-earth account of a young man's experience of working as a journalist in Puerto Rico circa 1960. Paul Kemp is a thirty-ish with no much hope for his futures. He leaves his New York and moves to Puerto Rico, to work in the only local newspaper published in English. Far from a wealthy reality he dawns in a mad world of drinking, love, jealousy and other insane things, mostly with the help of his journalist friends, until he goes as down as possible and realizes it is time he grew up. Or not. Written in fine prose with the speed of someone who devours a barrel of rum, "The Rum Diary" is Thompson at his best. His first novel has more stamina, imagination, passion and truth that many experienced writers will never acquire. Writing as someone who knows the cause, the author is able to create believable characters and situations. Anyone who has spend a week in a newspaper knows that there are all kind of people self-proclaiming journalists, not to mention yelling editors going insane all the time, and demanding heads off every day. We can find in the book --and in real life-- every sort of weirdos that are trying to find a better existence somewhere else far from home. These outsiders that inhabit Thompson's novel are the real thing, which paints a vivid portrait of people thorn between the passion of being a journalist and the fear of never acquiring any real thing in life. Deep inside this is the moral dilema that comsumes Kemp. While on one hand he has the freedon he always wanted, on the other there is fear of the newspaper being folder and losing his job with nothing in that strange country. While this doesn't happen, he can consume himself with many shots of rum at Al's. With such a realistic portray, Thompson throws his readers to the heart of this late coming-of-age tale, set in an exotic land in difficult times. Political and economical issues are in the background of the tale taking it to another level, making the book not only fun to read, but also important. The constant riots between local people and foreign journalist only prove that Puerto Rico was an incendiary place, in many levels. However, "The Rum Diary" is not a novel with wide appeal, most people won't identify themselves with the events and the characters and will be put off. But those who can stick with Thompson's masterful narrative will have fun all the time.
Rating:
Summary: Beginning a life of quiet dissipation
Review: Hunter Thompson arrives in San Juan Puerto Rico as a thirty-something journalist on an english-language newspaper rapidly heading for the skids. For fans of Thompson, this is a pre-drug dive into the nascent miasma of gonzo. A must-add to the collection. For anyone who wants to get the feel of a neo-colonial society on the brink of waterfront hotels and land barons, this book hits the spot. From the moment he staggers out of a New York City bar and takes the cab to the airport, Paul Kemp fuels his post-adolescent lusts with cheap rum, disdainful detachment and occasional guilt. Taking cast-off apartments, cast-off assignments, and finally a cast-off beauty, Kemp reels from pillar to post. Moonlighting writing promotional materials for a piggish land developer, Kemp experiences more guilt than as moonlit lover of the abused Chenault. Watching the raging paper owner's paranoid descent into bankruptcy, shady mafia financing and death is but a sidelight. As he goes down, Lotterman's ravings about his "drunks, bums perverts thieves and wineheads" presages Thompson's classic socially scabrous syllogisms. Moberg the reporter coming in drunk and pissing on the teletype machine might be the only lighthearted moment. The real action takes place in the musty tropical poured-concrete bunkers forming the hidey-holes for the lost souls of fellow expat writers. Feel the humidity drip from the slump-block as the hung-over stare follows a centipede's progress. The book echoes the grey early-morning sadness at the end of "Fear and Loathing", where the liquor's all gone, the final abuse committed, and the piper waits for payment at the door.
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: I bought this book after reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and hearing that The Rum Diary is being adapted into a film, again starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Anyway, I felt the book was amazing! The story sucked me right in and had a sense of fantasy and bitter reality all in one. It's also humorous and biting in sarcasm, a great read. It's made me a new die-hard Hunter fan, I've read several books of his since.
Rating:
Summary: Hunter's First!
Review: I couldn't believe that this was Hunter's first novel. It is one of his best.
The setting is 1960's Puerto Rico. Paul Kemp a drifting journalist is trying to figure his life out. Moving from one newspaper to the next. He makes his newest home in Puerto Rico, working for a dysfunctional english newspaper.
The plot revolves around the characters trying to find themselves and what they want out of life. They, mainly the journalists are always looking for the 'next big thing'. Of course this is Hunter S. Thompson we are talking about here, so most of the story is a drunken romp through San Juan and the troubles they get into along the way. But the actual main plot sticks together rather well.
This book is a look into Hunter's early genius, which would later produce "Fear and Loathing" and a number of his other books.
This story is great and I recommend it to all.
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)
Rating:
Summary: A Entraining Read
Review: If you are looking for something fun to read, this book is for you. It follows a newspaper writer who becomes intertwined with his fellow journalists and their problems. The book takes you to a different world, and I would recommend it to someone who is interested in escaping into an unusual life.
Rating:
Summary: Pre-caricature HST
Review: In the Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson flexes his literary muscles in a way that was matched only by Hell's Angels, in my opinion. It's interesting to see Thompson as a "serious young writer," before he began drugging up and sensationalizing all of his work. Not that I dislike his other works particularly, but how many times can we read about a naked guy on acid with lots of guns, booze and drugs around? I really enjoyed the terse, straight-ahead style of this book. A fun, refreshing read that is good for any young(ish) people who wonder what their future will look like....
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