Hunter S. Thompson

a savage journey to the heart of the American dream

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas

A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

might be the greatest american novel ever written.

Nica

This book is like if naked lunch was actually coherent and had less of the weird gay phallic undertones and more American 70s grit. I loved every page of it. 

jaya kohol

Ryan Mateyk

This book would've been better if they took all the drugs in the briefcase at once and fell into a coma and crashed their car on the first page. Would've been a lot shorter too.

siegs

My first Hunter S. Thompson read. His writing is so entertaining and the elements of this story are ridiculous. Really quick, enjoyable read.

Sarah Sammis

It seems appropriate to be writing my review of this book while not quite in my right mind. I can't blame my state of mind on any of the drugs mentioned in the book; mine is just from a migraine. I've hallucinated twice, once when my mother gave me Dramamine in case I'd get sea sick on a whale watching trip (I've never gotten sea sick) and once when on Vicadin after Sean was born (I immediately stopped taking it after that). I've never gotten drunk to the point of losing control of myself or needing to vomit (I don't like how alcohol makes my head feel) and I've tried any other drugs. Despite being the completely wrong demographic for this book, I enjoyed it!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reminds me most of Catcher in the Rye in that both are stream of consciousness adolescent rants fueled by drugs and alcohol. I did most of my reading of Fear and Loathing while Ian played Grand Theft Auto: Vice Cityand the video game compliments the book well. The only problem: I ended up picturing Thompson and his lawyer like the main character and his lawyer in the game.

My favorite parts of the book was the drive to Las Vegas and the bar scene in Circus-Circus. I loved the description of the scared hitchhiker who was unfortunate enough to get picked up by two guys tripping on just about everything while driving at break-neck speed to Vegas. Having been to Circus-Circus, I laughed at his description of the circus antics happening overhead of the gamblers and drinkers. I don't know what possessed anyone to build a place that looks like a demented version of a childhood fantasy and then turn it into a casino.

i enjoyed this experience more than the movie. maybe because i’m more familiar with the knowledge of the drugs they were using; but also the book really gives a glimpse to what these people’s minds are like on heavy drugs, compared to the movie where we are just spectators. i see this as a historical artifact of the death of the sixties west coast zeitgeist. as soon as duke boarded that plane we say goodbye to the hippies, the flower power crowd, timothy leary and the fake promise of peace and joy.

personal library, bought from periplus plaza senayan

Patricia K

i enjoyed this experience more than the movie. maybe because i’m more familiar with the knowledge of the drugs they were using; but also the book really gives a glimpse to what these people’s minds are like on heavy drugs, compared to the movie where we are just spectators. i see this as a historical artifact of the death of the sixties west coast zeitgeist. as soon as duke boarded that plane we say goodbye to the hippies, the flower power crowd, timothy leary and the fake promise of peace and joy.

personal library, bought from periplus plaza senayan

‘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 ...”’

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Zack Dihel

01010111 01000010

And as I descend from this plane. I feel like I, myself am the even monstrous reincarnation of Horatio Alger. I, myself am nature's experiment.

Too weird to live,

Too rare to die.

It seems so fitting that this book came into my life at its most gonzo point. Buy the ticket, miss the ride, buy another ticket, take the ride, see the confusion in any direction, and since it did get heavier than you thought, force your consciousness to expand: tune in, freak out, get beaten.

I'm boutta get beaten tomorrow, wish me luck folks. (Duh, as if anyone's reading this measly gonzo review!)

i enjoyed this far more at fifteen that i did just now, at twenty two, but it's still an absolute classic. a surreal novel that manages to feel gritty and real without feeling heavy or dark. whatever terrible things happen, they simply slide off the narrative, the whole story being coated in a veneer of sublime confusion. an absolute classic. 

avarni

Katherine 

This book made me feel a whole lot better about any/all illegal drugs I have ever done.. because Hunter S. Thompson and his "lawyer" have done a billion times more. And he's a famous writer! SHIT YO! 

Anyways, the book closely approximates the movie, so if you don't like reading you can just watch that. Plus, Johnny Depp is a fox. Even in a Hunter S. Thompson costume.

Dimitris Papastergiou

It was ok.

Fun at times, dumb at times, repetitive at other times, I see no secret meanings and whatnot and there's no bases on all that shit, other than reviews going on and on about it, what I DID read however was 2 people having fun doing drugs laughing freaking out and getting into trouble like they're kids but more dangerous.. 

It's funny sometimes, but overall it's kinda boring, sure it's written great, but there's no story here and it it is, it's just about a road trip and drugs. 

Going to watch the movie and see if that's gonna make it any better, but yeah. Wouldn't recommend the book.

Gavin

Tremendous prose and fantastic drawings, but at the end of it all he wasn't saying much.

Elisa Benaggoune

If you don’t want a boring book- this is the one. 

I’m just in awe of the beauty and hold this book has on me now. It’s my boyfriends favourite book and now I understand why. As soon as I finished it, I was disappointed in the way that I was no longer going to have fun with raoul duke and his attorney but the book finished in the most beautiful and shocking way which leads you to a conclusion but still a mystery of knowing that they never found the American dream and it’s all essentially an image based fantasy that you see everywhere. Plus the way they took the drugs, seemed like it almost intensified how dramatic and psychedelic the experience of America and Vegas is like. Vegas was almost more shocking than the crazy amount of they took and Hunter has an incredible way of prose and making you feel like you’re with them seeing the rose coloured glasses getting taken of in order to see the reality and overly emphasised version of America everywhere. I also liked how you could see Duke and Hunter himself as a writer was hoping for hope, considering he lived the sixties and was hoping that was still alive but it was not. He just reveals the truth in all ways possible in the story and for the reader and is like, look. We’ve reached this point and it is not how we imagined it to be and that is way more shocking than what the characters did. I’m going to talk more about this in my YouTube review video, but yes an incredible read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️-5 stars but actually way more than 5 haha it has left me speechless.

Gillian Rose

I should have known I wasn't going to like this much as I didn't care for On the Road and Kerouac. Meandering stories about drugs and traveling just do nothing for me. There was a bit of dark humor at times, but they were sexist and racist and overall, it was an unpleasant experience.

Nicholas Laurie

I don’t really know what to say about this one…I liked it? 3.5 stars for the drug use? 

Blazgorb Throxis

If you've seen the movie you don't need to read the book. They nailed it so perfectly what you see is what you get. A fun read. 

This cult classic of gonzo journalism is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken. Now a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas a savage journey to the heart of the American dream

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