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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Easily the most over-rated book I've ever read. Towards the end, Thompson puts out some chapters worth reading (the ones on the Angels and Kesey, the Angels and Ginsberg, and him riding a bike down the coast are particularly memorable), but on the whole, it's pretty self-indulgent and poorly written.
Hunter is one of those guys who, quite deliberately, divides opinion.
He created his own genre of journalism - but he was also a gun-toting, pill-popping loon. He also had some bad points...
But the key thing about Hunter's writing - think Fear and Loathing, Campaign Trail, hell even Rum Diary - is that it's essentially about him.
It's always about him. What he feels, what he experiences, what he does.
Now obviously Hunter didn't become the car-crash author of legend overnight. He had to start somewhere.
And here is where it all began, with Hunter taking a look at the social scourge of the day, the Hells Angels.
And here is where the problems begin.
For a start, Hunter isn't as good a writer when he's just observing. Sure we get flickers of the colourful prose we'll come to love, but he's too busy paying attention to what's going on to actually splurge it on the page.
If you don't know what's to come with his work, you almost certainly don't notice this. But if you started with his later volumes and are now going back to the start, then you can see what's missing.
But the bigger problem is one of time.
You see, back in the late 60s the Hells Angels were the Big Bad of the American media and politicians. No one had seen the like before, and it sold papers so the events happily got hyped. I suspect the fact the Angels were never going to sue helped matters.
But now, in 2017, we have much bigger social injustices occurring - we have actual minorities being targeted and marginalised, attacked and victimised.
It's kind of hard to feel bad for a bunch of people who were vilified for their way of life when they had actually chosen to be those people.
Times have changed, and in doing so has perhaps not been kind to Hunter's debut, but it's nice to see where it all began.
He created his own genre of journalism - but he was also a gun-toting, pill-popping loon. He also had some bad points...
But the key thing about Hunter's writing - think Fear and Loathing, Campaign Trail, hell even Rum Diary - is that it's essentially about him.
It's always about him. What he feels, what he experiences, what he does.
Now obviously Hunter didn't become the car-crash author of legend overnight. He had to start somewhere.
And here is where it all began, with Hunter taking a look at the social scourge of the day, the Hells Angels.
And here is where the problems begin.
For a start, Hunter isn't as good a writer when he's just observing. Sure we get flickers of the colourful prose we'll come to love, but he's too busy paying attention to what's going on to actually splurge it on the page.
If you don't know what's to come with his work, you almost certainly don't notice this. But if you started with his later volumes and are now going back to the start, then you can see what's missing.
But the bigger problem is one of time.
You see, back in the late 60s the Hells Angels were the Big Bad of the American media and politicians. No one had seen the like before, and it sold papers so the events happily got hyped. I suspect the fact the Angels were never going to sue helped matters.
But now, in 2017, we have much bigger social injustices occurring - we have actual minorities being targeted and marginalised, attacked and victimised.
It's kind of hard to feel bad for a bunch of people who were vilified for their way of life when they had actually chosen to be those people.
Times have changed, and in doing so has perhaps not been kind to Hunter's debut, but it's nice to see where it all began.
Interesting book. Really a document of time and place, but it still holds up. I have rarely felt empathy while reading anything by Hunter Thompson, but this was the exception.
Really not that great in my opinion...he's the best part of the book and I could care less about the motorcyclists.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape
You get to enjoy HST's writing, but with a writer who likes (some of) the HAs more than, say, the guy who profiled the Mongols after embedding with them (which I read, and am now spacing on the name of). HST seemed to spend most of his time with them at runs/rallies, or their club, or at his house, where his subjects could do their best to keep up appearances.
It is interesting to see someone writing about Sonny Barger as a young man, given that this reader knows him as the "old head" of the HAs. HST describes leadership traits that are now more widely known and agreed upon.
It was fun to see references to the East Bay Dragons, having just read Soul on Bikes, and interesting to see how Soul portrayed interplay between the Dragons and the HAs, versus how it was described here.
If you have an interest in the HAs or 1% MCs, or are one of the AMA "white hat" nerds put down so effectively by the HAs, you'd probably enjoy this book.
It is interesting to see someone writing about Sonny Barger as a young man, given that this reader knows him as the "old head" of the HAs. HST describes leadership traits that are now more widely known and agreed upon.
It was fun to see references to the East Bay Dragons, having just read Soul on Bikes, and interesting to see how Soul portrayed interplay between the Dragons and the HAs, versus how it was described here.
If you have an interest in the HAs or 1% MCs, or are one of the AMA "white hat" nerds put down so effectively by the HAs, you'd probably enjoy this book.
3.5
Definitely a snapshot in time but oddly relevant today. Media hysteria running amok and our inability to look away, understand it or put it in the proper context.
And when you consider that no writer or journalist was immersing themselves in the story like this, it’s also a literary innovation that we now take for granted.
Definitely a snapshot in time but oddly relevant today. Media hysteria running amok and our inability to look away, understand it or put it in the proper context.
And when you consider that no writer or journalist was immersing themselves in the story like this, it’s also a literary innovation that we now take for granted.
It was good, but his writing jarring.
The subject matter is what made it writing, and after hearing so much from this legendary gonzo journalist, I was a bit disappointed.
His story of what he was involved in was very interesting, but seemed downplayed from other sources I have read about this guy. The hell's angels were portrayed as very neutral and misunderstood, a far cry from what we understand about this band of outlaws today.
Things may have changed, so my views may be skewed, but luckily it was a short read. His other stuff is better.
The subject matter is what made it writing, and after hearing so much from this legendary gonzo journalist, I was a bit disappointed.
His story of what he was involved in was very interesting, but seemed downplayed from other sources I have read about this guy. The hell's angels were portrayed as very neutral and misunderstood, a far cry from what we understand about this band of outlaws today.
Things may have changed, so my views may be skewed, but luckily it was a short read. His other stuff is better.
Great book about the Hells Angels, no glamour, just harsh reality