Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #945 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Stylish reissue of a classic first published in the 1970s: Hunter S Thompson's ether-fuelled, savage journey to the heart of the American Dream. 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold! 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!' As knights of old buckled on armour of supernatural power, so Hunter S. Thompson enters Las Vegas armed with a veritable arsenal of 'heinous chemicals'. His perilous, drug-enhanced confrontations with casino operators, bartenders, police officers and assorted representatives of the Silent Majority have a hallucinatory humour and nightmare terror never before seen on the printed page.

Customer Reviews

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson is by far THE most entertaining writer in modern literature, it has to be said. His engrossing affilliation with substances that he swore he hadn't been taking during the writing of the major part of this novel, make this most probably the funniest piece of literature available. His quick wit and complete topsy-turvy sense of humour is only the beginning. As he travels through the desert with his attorney to "find the dark side of the American dream", they well and trully find it when they agree that any trip such as the one their making can only be made armed with a stupendous arsenal of drugs. And this they do. They engage in a completely twisted reality that is there's alone, and their journey, so infallible to their minds, leaps from one thing to the next supporting complete hysteria and laugh-out-louds situations, and I can honestly tell you there isn't a moment in this book that isn't ruthlessly fun.

Thompson manages to bring across madness in a sweet, yet shocking form, and produces simile after simile, metaphor after metaphor of true brilliance. I wouldn't go so far as to call this book a comedy, that would suggest that Thompson is attempting to be funny. But the fact is, he IS funny, whether you want him to be or not. His discriptions of the events that took place are superb, giving you the absolute feeling that you were right in the back seat of their car with the hitchhiker himself, and even more. His emotions and the feelings of his attorney are all described and somehow justified in some twisted way, and you can't help but get pulled into the story.

Apart from being hilarious, and wildly enteraining, the book also shows an overture on the scary American dream that was large during the late sixties. The malignant culture is portrayed wonderfully, and described from the standpoint of someone who got involved himself, and he describes the whole thing from things he saw. Even after the book has finished you'll find yourself hearing Hunter S. Thompson speaking in your head describing your every move in the form of one of his writings, almost like he's part of your sub-concious. His power, delivery and intoxicatingly clever witted nature makes this book what it is: a masterpiece. No wonder it became a modern classic.

The first stage for many....
As with a lot of people in my generation, i have found that H.S.Thompson is a very entertaining author. The first of his books i read was this (saw the film first, and this had too follow) and i really liked it. It's funny, sadistic, manic and totally absorbing.
The story followed in this book, is that of Raul Duke and his Attorney on a trip to Las Vegas, the purpose is to cover a story - of a bike race. In getting the job, Raul and The Samoan gain access to a large sum of cash, an expensive convertible sports car and a whole range of other "perks". With this, they travel through the desert to the flagship ideal of the "American dream" - Las Vegas. A place where you can ascend from rags-to-riches, from zero-to-hero and back again with nothing but a dollar in your pocket to start you off. This fact is epitomized and almost chastised through-out the book. Raul and The Samoan never pay a penny for anything (all the money they had access to was the newspaper's) and act like true animals wherever they go - using an absolute truck loads of illicit substances that are easily available and almost always right under your nose! No mater how blatant they are, no-matter un-wholesome they become, they are still allowed to let rip all over the city... and do so, never fettered...
"he who makes a beast of himself takes away the pain of being a man" - H.S.Thompson
This book is not one about drug's, about being twisted. It is not a giggly stoner book that pokes a rebellious middle finger at society. It is, however a look at how our society perceives itself... How some people can become rich & powerful, loved & hated, feared & revered and how this very privilege of our society can poison a person and twist their views. Raul's use of drugs has been championed extensively, and of course he does share these traits with his author, but what many people don't realize is that Thompson was a serious writer and a bloody good one at that. Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, and the Other Fear and Loathing titles all follow Raul Duke and follow this ebb of social dissection, Gonzo was not about Raul and his "diet" it was about how no-matter where you look, the world is god-less, selfish and un-forgiving, the balance (as it were) is quite obviously on the side that will not control it-self and how this lack of control (from up high or deep down) is almost always taken for granted. In such a world, passion is a mere pacifier, truth is an illusion and sobriety is nothing to aspire to...

This book is brilliant, the writing is cunning and smart and the narrative enthralling. If you liked to be challenged, and if you're capable of looking below the surface, this book is for you

ENJOY!!!

Buy the ticket, take the ride
The greatest book about the illusion of the American dream ever written. One of my all time favourite books though some people will simply not get it, not understand it at all. This is a fantastic work of literature and if you have the right kind of mind set you will thoroughly enjoy it. His words are incisive and often profound and this is a perfect introduction to a great author.