Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas : A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

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Summary: A savage journey, indeed
Review: This book had so many unexpected turns that I never seemed to quite know where it was going. It was quite a trip.

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Summary: Rollercoaster!
Review: What a great tale; Hilarious fun. I suppose it goes without saying, read the book before you watch the movie. -and the crazy illustrations by Steadman; the whole thing is a wild trip. I would recommend this to most people. (given the subject matter, you know who you are, if this book is not for you)

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Summary: AS YOUR ATTORNEY I ADVISE YOU TO READ THIS BOOK
Review: After experiencing an incredible movie, I had to see what the book by Thompson was about. I came to the realization that everyone needs to indulge in the masterpiece known as Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas.

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Summary: Genius
Review: Dr. Thompson again shows his genius. I've read the book about 6 times now and it just gets better all the time. It is not the purpose of the book to merely relate a story, be it true or not, but to tell of EXPERIENCE. Dr. Thompson's point being that the best way to tell about something is to experience it and become directly involved. Only then can a story be purely told because EXPERIENCE is humanity

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Summary: Look Mom, No Couth!
Review: I guess a lot of people might be shocked by all the drug use in the book. Mostly I just found it self-indulgent and tedious. This is your basic story of two guys badassing around, 70s style. Really not much different from Animal House or any other frat story. It is a little ruder than F. Scott Fitzgerald and not as glitzy as Less Than Zero. Not badly written, and yeah, Vegas is ugly and scary, but this book is just too impressed with itself. Any claims of deep social commentary or other insight are vastly overinflated.

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Summary: Hunter S. Thompson is more than just a junkie
Review: A million times from a million Hunter S. Thompson fans I have heard nothing but 'wow that guy took more drugs than I ever seen 'afore.' And that is the extent of their study into this book. We look at writers from the 60's and we say: 'hey they were good writers.' When we think of William Burroughs, or Kerouac, or Ginsberg we think of their skills, they have been adopted into the pantheon of American hippie/writers and they are the greats in the field, but Thompson, sadly may not be remembered in this way. We have to first remember that Thompson wasn't a novelist by trade. He's a journalist. In between the lines containing the words 'lsd' and 'mescalin' there is a very deep and yes, subtle meaning hidden in this book. Through the drug frenzied nightmare that is his story is a sad and sentimental testament to the troubles that plague this country. On drugs, in the '70's but wasn't that prerequisite for being a writer in the 70's? Thompson has the macho tendency to play dumb, all the while keeping genius hidden from the people on the streets. You know, like how you catch Sistah Soldjah writing books, or Tupac poetry. This book is a festive celebration of memories, like all people have on introspective nghts, full of drudgery and melancholy, but only on the epidermis. Inside this book if you look really hard you will find that 1970's Las Vegas, on drugs, committing pedophilia, vandalism, fraud and a variety of other felonies, is a microcosm of the American Dream, and the sociological repurcussions of that dream. As well as a prophetic and all-to-accurate vision of things to come. Which from a man as obsessed with the prospect of Apocalypse as Thompson is quite a scary thing indeed.

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Summary: powertrip
Review: A must read for anyone not offended or prejudced by the exessive drug use in this book. For those with previous experience with these things it might as well become your bible. But dont be fooled by all the weird sights and sounds-below the surface is a great story with a lot of irony and laughs and of course the american dream whatewer that might be.

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Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: Read Hell's Angels instead of this one. His earlier books are subtle and brilliant, where this one is maniacal and completely ego-driven. In addition, Thompson himself has admitted that it is fiction, and not the product of a crazed junky's prodigious memory. Take it from a Thompson fan, it ain't all that.

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Summary: I loved this book it ruled
Review: i think if you haven't read this book you need to read it now or forever hold your peace.

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Summary: A savage stab against all that is just, holy and decent
Review: Pure genius in the fullest sense of the description. Once the reader gets past all of the drug use (the third or fourth reading), the satire and irony begin to show. Thompson is ridiculing all that is ridiculous, rabid and insane in the National Character. Res Ipsa Loqiutor.....