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

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Summary: Like being on acid without any drugs.
Review: It is hard to work out what is more amazing; that Hunter S Thompson survived the trip to Las Vegas with his life and/or sanity or that he was able to write such a coherent, a frequently stunning account of the journey.
Fear And Loathing contains clinical social comment, but the most entertaining part of the book is sheer hilarity of the situation Hunter S Thompson puts himself in; from drug-induced paranoia to forays into journalism on events in Las Vegas, there really is no let up until the end, when hopefully you will see what the American Dream really is.

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Summary: It captures the "wildness" of HST's vision.
Review: Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is like watching Uncle Sam and Bozo the Clown bludgeon to death Benji and not quite knowing whether to put a stop to the brutality or let it continue for the good of the people. The book jumps for the throat at the outset--two monsters, a Samoan attorney and a doctor of journalism, howl over the desert sands, gorging on an elephants supply of narcotics, towards the freaky stronghold of the American Dream, Las Vegas. This is a fable of excess, right and wrong, the twisted and the twisters--how far can you push it before the hammer finds its mark? Hunter S. Thompson's writing is fast and dangerous--it moves like mortar fire. There are no other comparable writers--his style springs from the self-stylized madness he dwells within--but more importantly he makes the reader laugh. Not laugh, clutch his gut in pain for fear his appendix will burst--Thompson finds humor in the darkest and most threatening corners of life and it is this talent which enables Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke to survive the kniving vortex of the American Dream. This book changed my life

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Summary: You people are too old
Review: The thought of all you baby boomers attempting to offer relevent commentary on Hunter Thompson reveals that you are all blind to the irony that you are the people he encountered in his "savage journey." I am a college student. If I loaded up a car with grass and Budweiser it would horrify your better sensibilities. This book is not a period piece. It is a refelection of an America that has not much changed in the twenty-five years since the publication of this book. Before you celebrate this "anchor" of your lives take a moment to think about how you would react to the very same thing today- a drunken maniac terrorizing hotel rooms and public places. You all are probably sitting there saying "Dammit,the world is going to hell," as Tom Brokaw reads the evening news to you in your suburban living room. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not a story of liberation but a tale of indictment

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Summary: Stop the world, I want to take a breath.
Review: It is a stunning tale. No other book takes you to situations you would normally pray to never experience. The task of reading it is something that exausts you as if you were strapped down to your sofa and forced to race at the same speed of the two.When you manage to put it down your head is jerked forward as if you were landing a 747 with a major hangover.

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Summary: This book remains one of the anchors in my life...
Review: I was starting off my adult life when this tome first appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. I return to read it at least once a decade to measure how far or wide I've gone. For it's ability to provide that frame of reference I give it an eight.

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Summary: the best road tale since "on the road"
Review: Timeless, perfectly brilliant story which faces down the best and worst of America with a car trunk full of goodies, a bad attitude and a way with prose. Further, I hasten to point out to "mdukas" below that: 1) this work did not go down in the '60s; 2) not all Americans in their 20's catch their buzzes at Starbucks and think Coupland is the literary Marshall McLuhan for 20-somethings; 3) that judging people as individuals based on Madison Avenue's perception of the generation from which they came is absurd -- recall, if you will, that the generation currently "running" the country -- once called "hippies" and "yippies" and "yuppies" -- is comprised of Bill "I inhale, I suck" Clinton, Newt "Here's the divorce papers, honey" Gingrich, Rush "Is A Big Fat Idiot" Limbaugh, Bill "What Me, Monopoly?" Gates, etc -- would YOU want to be associated with these people?? What does this have to do with Fear And Loathing? The audience for whom it was originally written is now likely its worst enemy: the power structure and the frightening beasts that emanate from it in the form of laws, so-called "morality," justice, and socially accepted forms of good fun. But, it's a book that'll nonetheless transcend generations, much like "On The Road" still fires kids up. Res Ipsa, etc...

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Summary: An important book, cererbral and visceral
Review: Dr. Thompson's tome is as important now as it was twenty-five years ago. Thompson takes his place in history among the New Journalists like Capote, Mailer, and Wolfe, and thrusts himself to the forefront, and the reader along with him. This book is like hooking the entire drug-addled trip to the frontal lobe, and experiencing the enlightening tale with augmented sensuality.

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Summary: Extremely funny surreal and serious. True gonzo genius.
Review: Since I first read this marvellous book way back then I must have bought it 20 times and passed it on. When feeling low opening this book and reading any chapter is guaranteed to make me laugh, think and raise my spirits all in one go. Ranks with Catch-22 as one of the best books of the era.

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Summary: A remarkable descent into the very soul of American dementia
Review: Wow. An excellent example of Americana. The often humorous, and always frightening, episodes of Hunter, and his lawyer, are the best chance we have to turn the young people into avid, foaming-at-the-mouth readers. Should be standard reading for every child.

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Summary: Funniest book from the 60's
Review: You Gen X ers who get high at Starbucks may not know about a true American journalist and hero, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and his voyage, like Ulysses, into the belly of the beast, (Las Vegas) and his attempt to make sense of our criminal justice system (pre-OJ and Ito) by attending a Convention of District Attorneys, with nothing to protect him but a cache of illegal stimulants, high-powered weapons and his 300 pound Samoan attorney. Before the Internet there was actual reality, which Dr. Gonzo tweaked like no one else. Read it and weep, laugh till you cry.