(Hunter S Thompson)What the sub-title means by the "Gonzo Papers" is that this book is a Thompson sampler; It collects dozens and dozens of articles and book exceprts on subjects from covering the Kentucky Derby to race tension in LA following the slaying of a prominent Latino TV reporter to Muhammed Ali's loss to Leon Spinks to Nixon's impeachment and resulting fallout. I really liked this book - I was never bored, which is no easy feat considering the wide breadth of material covered and the sheer length (almost 600 huge pages). In the voice of a less talented author, Thompson's schtick could become tiresome very quickly, but he is so engaging that this never happens. A heist late in the book where he skips out on his massive hotel bill in Mexico and flees back to the US with a drug stache that he and his lawyer decided to consume all of on the plane into Texas is just as frightening and hilarious as anything early in the book where he holes up in a hotel room shooting heroin while he's supposted to be covering the Super Bowl. If you have the slightest interest in Thompson's work, I can't think of a better starting place than this. (I've also read "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72", which I'll see if I can remember enough of to cough up a bite-sized book review.)
Now one caveat: I read this over a long period of time - I left it in the car and read it when we went out to eat, which means the book was devoured in 50-page chunks. Your milage may vary, but I probably don't recommend sitting down and knocking the whole thing out in one day - like most writers with a very distinctive voice, it's probably better to savor rather than gorge. (Gonzo Papers, Vol 2
, is apparently a collection of newspaper columns, which I anticipate will make an excellent bathroom book.)Grade: A
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