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What are readers saying about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream?
| Reviews of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream - Page 1 of 43 |
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-05 06:25:54.
(Language: English)
  
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded, maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"...No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.Dr. Thompson at his finest -in the guise of Raoul Duke, spewing gonzo at eighty miles an hour up and down the Vegas strip, totally fucked out of his mind by more drugs than I can pronouce, and Searching for the American Dream (which may or may not have burned down three years ago). You must read this book. 
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-11 05:13:48.
(Language: English)
Even funnier than the movie, especially when you consider just how crazy this must have sounded when it was first published in 1972. The success of the book became both a blessing and a curse by launching the career of Hunter Thompson the writer, but forever altering his persona into someone who was forced to live the "Gonzo" lifestyle in order to satisfy the expectations of his fans. I think the quality of his work only went down from here, so you may want to save this one for later if you plan on reading his other books and essays.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-03 11:22:22.
(Language: English)
A bit overrated, but still worthwhile, this book is simply put, the memoirs of a drugged out lunatic. It doesn't have a real purpose, nor does it open your eyes to a hidden reality, prove a point, or make a real statement about anything. However, it is a thoroughly and enjoyable, interesting read. The reason I think it is overrated is that Thompson seems to have this cult following that thinks he is some brilliant artist. While he is a knowlegeable writer, and an interesting person, this work is more trippy than poetic, and we're all really laughing AT him, not with him. Humble as he was, I do think he realised this about himself, which means I can still appreciate this book much more than I would if Thompson himself thought he was a brilliant and superior artist. A good read, better than the (still awesome) movie, just don't take it too seriously.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-01-21 04:46:47.
(Language: English)
Reading this book is the healthiest way to get high. I'm actually upset I finished it. Gonzo Journalism in its purest form, by a man who's so witty that the neurons that survived the massive and constant drug-taking were able to breed a novel as amazing as this, and whose sense of humor is as acid as that which he regularly uses. A brilliant and crude portrayl of the Drug Culture of the early 70's.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-20 02:47:01.
(Language: English)
When I first met Hunter, we were in Aspen in the late 80s. He gave some kind of a speech-- I say "some kind" because he was drunk and incomprehensible-- and at the end of it, my father wanted his autograph. Hunter signed something for him and then whipped the pen cap over his shoulder, in his usual fashion. My father was no real fan to begin with, and he was none too pleased. Then Hunter and I wound up chatting and he asked me if I had some dope. I whipped out a bag, which I thought we were going to split. He took it. That's who he was. A fascinating, incontinent and selfish fuck. Without going into detail, I find "Fear and Loathing" a funny, rambling, self-indulgent document of drugs, wild times with a bit of insight arguably mixed in. It wears thin with me over time. Dated. I appreciate it in the sense that something like that HAD to be written, and I definitely think that only someone as mentally ill as Hunter could've done the job. A sick, selfish genius.
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Ry posted a review at 2012-03-27 05:28:13.
(Language: English)
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-04 09:47:17.
(Language: English)
this wonderful gonzo piece makes me laugh and think in equal measure, and does what it's trying to do very well. Hunter and his exaggerated attorney search for the american dream in las vegas, the city of ambition, and find bullshit. they take the piss as much as they can, and expose vastly wrong problems with people and society in america, the fallacy of the hippy movement and the mission to save the world through peace and being wrecked and the totally bizarre and ridiculous experience of drug taking itself. the film features plenty of memorable scenes, paragraphs and observations of a philosophical, and of an observational, while completely twisted, kind. it made me laugh plenty of times and, as aforementioned, it also made me think, and provided a little insight into what it was talking about. pure gonzo. ps. the film is pretty good too, and goes some way towards visually representing everything the novel tries to do.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-22 06:23:00.
(Language: English)
Hunter Thompson is on assignment to write a magazine article. He takes his attorney, Gonzo, on a trip to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400, a bike and dune buggy race. Before starting out on the trip they load up their car with more drugs than most people will see in a lifetime--mescaline, acid, ether, amyl, tequila, rum, and pot. The trip is one long bender and Vegas, already a psychadelic experience, becomes overwhelmingly so as the two procede to ingest vast quantities of drugs and alcohol. Not my favorite book on the list, but to each his own...
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-05 03:55:38.
(Language: English)
Here's a book that was not as good as the movie. How could it be? With all the crazy wacked-out acid trips, the movie does a terrific job of giving you some bad flashbacks and Johnny Depp does bring Hunter Thompson alive. The book, which is actually a true account - a memoir if you will, albeit a fucked up one, tells the story of a few drug filled crazy days in Las Vegas before big corprations took over The Strip. Although Circus-Circus was still around and I imagine that is a fun place to drop acid, Hunter Thompson tells a much more insane account of that. A fun read, but a bit slow at times. Maybe I should have read it in college when I was in the right frame of mind.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-11 10:46:57.
(Language: English)
For a book in which I didn't know what the hell was going on most of the time, I enjoyed the gripping, dizzying ride of it. Books like this always intrigue me, because although I like to think I would have fun living that kind of destructive, high, neverending insanity, I know deep in my heart that I am an introvert who likes to be in bed by 10 and spend a lot of time playing board games and playing with kittens, etc. etc. However, I have lots of fun reading about lives I would never lead. The narrator spends much of his time in a paranoid frenzy, with the result that I become accustomed to this and stop caring about him getting caught by the cops, getting killed, being abandoned, running out of money, etc. It's still fun to read about, but I never found myself that emotionally invested in the characters and their fates. Basically it's like being on a very spinny upside down rollercoaster for a few hours.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-08 08:18:29.
(Language: English)
I find it unfortunate that most of the people I know who know who Dr. Thompson is (was...RIP) only know him by reputation, or through Johnny Depp's portrayal of him in Terry Gilliam's adaptation of this book. Though that movie was wonderful, as was Depp's performance, Hunter S. Thompson was a WRITER...an incredibly good writer. As a writer myself, I like to pay attention to how writers write, and by that I mean their choice of words, the order they put those words in, etc... From this perspective, Thomspon is one of the most creative writers you will ever come across. But there's more to being a great writer than that. Subject matter is perhaps more important. The subtitle of this book is 'A Savage Journey To The Heart Of The American Dream', and THAT is what this book is about. It is NOT about how many drugs one man can take in a day without killing himself. It is about Life In America. This is a book written by an American who loves America, who loves being an American, and who loves writing about America, but, like many of us, he has one or two complaints. His complaints are valid ones, and are worth contemplating, even if they aren't your complaints. This is a must-read, for Americans and non-Americans alike.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-31 05:13:25.
(Language: English)
Allez, meilleur road-trip du monde. Thompson lui-même, journaliste à l'origine du mouvement "gonzo" (où l'investigateur reste très subjectif et colle lui-même à son enquête de manière la plus physique qui soit), doit broder un article sur une gigantesque course de moto à Las Vegas. Désireux de trouver le rêve américain, il amène son "attorney", camé notoire et instable, qui va l'accompagner dans cet harassant périple de 72 heures uniquement rythmé par les prises de drogue et les hallucinations du duo. Entre-temps ils s'en iront même voir une conférence nationale sur les problèmes des drogues, au milieu de toute la basse-cour policière américaine condensée. Cataclysmes après cataclysmes, Thompson pourra finalement reprendre sa vie normale, publiant ce bouquin plutôt que les articles promis - qu'il aurait été bien incapable de fournir.Un film a été tourné depuis, avec Johnny Depp dedans, adaptation très fidèle du livre à l'exception d'un passage.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-25 11:14:03.
(Language: English)
What is the American Dream? HST implies that the Dream is the big money/power payoff/win in life. Is the American Dream an illusion? Is it real? What is different about the way we view the dream as individuals, social groups, communities, etc? We perceive via our 5 senses but our senses can be deceived. A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. (Latin mirare, meaning 'to appear, to seem') The interpretation of the image is up to the fantasy of the human mind, and is easily mistaken for a small puddle of water. Therefore, how can we really say that we are 100% sure of anything? Everything we all believe no matter how different we are is completely based on our individual perception of reality. All of our resulting actions and beliefs are a product of perceived reality. HST concludes that the American Dream is in fact an illusion in itself? HST was able to prove false the conclusion that, we can be 100% sure of the existence of something we perceive. The drug-reality Journey taken by Horatio and Duke from start to finish is an excellent event for proving that what we perceive is not necessarily what is actually there, and for illustrating the importance to always remember that our senses might be deceived at any time anywhere.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-09-23 06:46:22.
(Language: English)
This book was so good I read it in 3 hours. Not a huge book by any means but so fun to read that you can not put it down. I found myself laughing out loud so many times. The scenes are described in such great detail you almost feel like your on drugs and alongside the characters themselves. I can not believe I have had this book on my shelf for 10 years and never read it. I had to pick this book up and read it after finishing "Outlaw Journalist The Life And Times Of Hunter S. Thompson"
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-26 02:56:13.
(Language: English)
"We can't stop here! This is bat country!" A drug filled road trip to Vegas to report on a race turns into a mind fuck for Hunter S Thompson and his lawyer. No real plot as such, just lots of funny pieces of prose as Thompson delves into the hallucinatory word of LSD and her sister narcotics. Not the best book I have ever read, but there is certainly enough inside to warrant a 3/5 rating...
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-08 09:53:44.
(Language: English)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is an extremely entertaining read, chronicling Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer's journey through the end of the Drug Culture of the 60's in the deserts of Neveda. Their hilarious and drug-influented antics are sometimes funny and other times plain scary and questionable. After reading this book, there is no doubt in my mind that Thompson lived a life of his own and did so without regrets. His writing style is something of an honest criminal. He details every bit of journey with unintelligent and quick dialogue and slang to match. The illustrations of the book only help to give it a feel of comic book adventures in "real" life. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining read or something slightly different than most classic fiction out there.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-04-06 10:25:41.
(Language: English)
Anybody who is under the impression that all this book is about is drugs either hasn't read it, or hasn't understood it. Bursting at the seams with vicious but incredibly astute and honest socio-political commentary, in this book Thompson takes on the drug culture, the sixties, the Nixon government (and government in general) and, particularly, the perverse illusion which we have to this day - the "American Dream". It strikes me most how incredibly well he portrayed the point that while he was on so many drugs so much of the time, with his perception altered and perverted, it was the REAL world, the people around him and their obsessions, that was twisted, in reality, much more than he ever was. A true statement of a generation and a brilliantly written book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-13 12:05:53.
(Language: English)
2nd review. First time it was all a blur of drugs and weird imagery, full vivacity but who knows what was happening. The reread felt a touch tamer, at least so's I could understand the happenings, the paranoia. and this is where the book really folds out into its third dimension. The superficial dizzying thrill of the weeklong drugbinge is given depth by underlying social criticisms. Its a 'lets see how far we can push it to stick it to the man' but their excesses are just absorbed by a culture that lives on excess. the book is riddled with such critique, all beautifully wrapped in wild hedonistic abandon.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-27 01:06:38.
(Language: English)
We are in bat country... Keep your head down! Alcohol, Mescaline, Pot, LSD, Cocaine, Stimulants, Depressants, Tranquilizers, and Ether. Nothing is more sad and depraved than a man under the intoxicating effects of Ether. Nasty stuff. This book is a joyride, from outside conflict with the public to the internal conflict going on inside the two characters. Gonzo, off the wall literature, and a shining example of how to make it effective. Poor Lucy, getting every orifice raped by the large, sweaty Samoan. I wonder if she'll ever remember? There is no one scene that defines this book. Johnny Depp plays the main char brilliantly for the on-screen adaptation. Yes, both the film and the literature are standouts within their respectable genres. Highly, I mean very, very highly recommend this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-24 07:14:16.
(Language: English)
I was not as enamoured in this book as its reputation as a modern classic would have suggested. In a lot of respect its an incredibly sad portrayal of two morally inferior men who are clearly exceptionally intelligent. Thompson's illustrations of his drug addled psychosis are brilliantly composed and Ralph Steadman's illustrations, frantic as they are, are a perfect match to Thompson's journey. That said, it is one of those books that everyone should read. It offers insight into situations the majority will never find us in. The most confusing thing is that the people around Thompson and the Samoan, seem to allow themselves to be talked into almost anything by their superior intelligence and down right confidence.
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Philip posted a review at 2010-04-26 02:35:45.
(Language: English)
Thomposn's most well known work, most probably because of the Gilliam film staring Depp and Del Toro. The book is a fantastic read, giving more than the film could cram into it's length. Its read carries on well, and you can hear Depp's voice narrative if you watched the film first. If not then its an even better read with Duke Rhaoul searching across Las Vegas in a drug fused search for the American Dream. Reads fast and is relatively short.
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Michael posted a review at 2010-11-17 12:10:12.
(Language: English)
Pretty crazy story. He goes to Vegas to cover the Mint 400 and Police Narcotics Conference, and he's doped up on everything from weed to mescaline, ether, amyls and adrenochrome, to name a few. He seemed to always be aware that he could get caught at any moment, always sizing up what they would do to him if he got caught. Yet he always finagled his way out of the most dire situations. He's crazy, but intelligent too.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-26 12:05:18.
(Language: English)
"Holy Jesus! What are all these goddamned animals?""And that, I think, was the handle - -that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. "So many memorable quotations:<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/quotes">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/quotes</a>
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-17 05:00:12.
(Language: English)
I'm a bit of an addict, I have a habit of reading books around certain themes. when I get started I struggle to stop until something hits me like a cold turkey. I got stuck on Anthony Bourdain and chef culture for a while there and I've just ploughed through a group of books all about the dangers of US corporate excess. This book was randomly picked out of a bookcase and just so happened to randomly fit with my theme in a random kind of way. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is decidedly random. Yet fitting my recent theme it exudes excess. Hunter S Thompson, in search of the 'American Dream' simply pushes his foot to the floor and drives life at top speed over a drug and booze fuelled weekend in the US's city of excess - Vegas. The book itself is a trip, a real page turner full of fantastic hallucinations and sharp dialogue, I was draged along in the 'Red Shark' and the 'Whale' stinking of booze and sweating ether waiting for the inevitable crash that never came.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-16 07:34:39.
(Language: English)
I am not sure how anyone is going to read this review but if anyone is reading it i just want you to know that this book by Hunter S Thompson is crap. Everyone says it is great and they say the movie is great and he invented Gonzo journalism but after reading the book I think it was crap. I find that this book is just a pretty boring book about a guy who goes on a massive bender for a few days. There is nothing really funny about it and it all seems a little bit juvenile. Maybe i am just too old but Hunter S Thompson was 33 or something when he wrote it. I expected something more than the rantings of a drug fiend. Given all the acclaim that has been given I thought at least maybe the writing would be good, regardless of the content, but it isn't even well written. I mean good work for inventing Gonzo journalism which is very entertaining but i am afraid that it has been improved upon 10 times over. I would say that Australian gonzo writer John Birmingham is much more entertaining and readable than the content of this book. Birmingham uses a similar style but what he writes about is interesting and makes you think - which can't be said for Thompson.
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