Customer Reviews

The Curse of Lono

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the blue-armed freak, to the demonic fire-glowing night in The Land of Po, this is essential HST. Throw in the Honolulu Marathon, and the good doctor serves up a characteristic glimpse of his own weird Americana that calls for all other social critics to throw down their pens in reverence and futility. This book is Thompson-Steadman harmony unparalleled. Steadman's illustrations are hallucinogenic masterpieces that complement the fury of Thompson's writing. If you call yourself a devotee, don't leave a hole in your library where this book belongs. It is pure visceral madness. The final scene stakes its claim with any of his best works and is nothing short of what those of us who care have come to know as life-blood joy and the frenzied understanding of more than a few generations of enlightenment. Read it. Now

This books is probably the least well-known of HST's books. But it was a very pleasant surprise upon reading it. It is classic Thompson, self-destructive, paranoid, and hilarious. If you take his word for it, you might never visit Hawaii yourself!

Prior to reading this book, I had dismissed the author as someone who just got loaded and made up a bunch of stuff. However, the first few chapters of Lono represent the best description of marathon madness of those times that I have ever read (I finished 6th place at the 1983 Honolulu Marathon). His insightfulness into carbo-loading parties and the running divorce lead me to believe that he first did his research sober and then crawled off to finish the book.It has given me a lot of new respect for Gonzo Journalism.And Steadman's manic drawings of a perfect match.

If your curious on why this book is so expensive, it's not because it's a rarity, it's because the thing is so giant. If I had to place a measurement I'd say its a good foot and a half long with another foot or so wide. It's so full of color and life on every page including letters from the man himself and tons of amazing drawings. Highly recommended for the HST followers.

Hunter is the creator and king of gonzo journalism. Here is a quote from Thompson about what Gonzo journalism is:"My idea was to buy a fat notebook and record the whole thing as it happened, then send in the notebook for publication-- without editing. That way, I felt the eye and mind of the journalist would be functioning as a camera. The writing would be selective and necessarily interpretive - but once the image was written, the words would be final; in the same way that a Cartier-Bresson photograph is always (he says) the full-frame negative. No alterations in the darkroom, no cutting or cropping, no spotting . . . no editing.

This is a good book, full of funny moments and hard to believe stories. There is no slow build up or filler in the middle. The book grabs you from the beginning with the author's stories and keeps you laughing until the end.

This might not be a good first book to start with. Hunter's style and actions may be hard for some to read without getting offended. Sometimes Hunter will wander into side tangents before getting back on track with what is currently going on; this may annoy some people. I recommend starting with "Hells Angels" or "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" before paying the extra bucks for this out of print book.

This particular piece by Hunter S. Thompson is less appreciated or even overlooked in favor of his more popular works, particularly his adventure in Las Vegas. Lono is the perfect follow-up to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as it reflects the recipe which catapulted Thompson's method of gonzo: travel to some exotic locale, cover some seemingly trivial yet ultimately bizarre sporting event, overstay your time exploring the local culture which will ultimately prove equally or even more entertaining than said sporting event, and finally hide in retreat after the blur of intoxication and savage alienation have been extolled upon friends, family, and locals. Not a bad formula, and not a bad writer.

I doubt that the similarity was deliberate to Fear and Loathing, but who really knows? Where Lono is unique is through the division of labor. Thompson's presence is requested in Hawai'i to cover both the brutal exertion and mindset associated with the Honolulu Marathon; he covers it well, but predictably, the real action begins afterward. Unpredictably, accompanying Thompson during his exploits is the illustrator Ralph Steadman, along with each of their families. Without going into too much detail, his companions slowly dwindle due to the harsh conditions on the Kona coast in winter as well as the mental fatigue precipitating it, thereby leaving Thompson to associate with the more seedy element of Hawai'i (within which he fits nicely). Needless to say, chaos ensues, and the reader is exposed to a Hawai'i not normally described in tourist books. Marathons, deathly pounding surf, flooded cottages, elusive marlin hunting, Samoan war axes, dreaded red fleas, and mass quantities of alcohol make for a paradise reconsidered.

Intertwining parts of pure gonzo narrative, the lush, colorful drawings of Ralph Steadman, Thompson's own correspondence, and excerpts of Hawaiian history and lore, The Curse of Lono is nearly as exhilarating as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; it's an evident example of Hunter S. Thompson, in the twilight of his writing, creating yet another brilliant exposition that's humorous, informative and entertainingly bizarre. Weird. Terrifying. Fascinating. Pass the grapefruit.

This book is so big that it won't fit on my flippin' book shelf, and the reason for that is because of Ralph Steadman's full size color pictures throughout. As a matter of fact, there's more to the pictures than to the actual writings of the good doctor. It's an interesting read, all in all, but the book itself is only 200 some odd pages and a little less than half of these pages are dedicated to Ralphs artwork. The actual read only takes about an hour, and during the read, one can't help but think that there is whole chapters missing from the text. Anyways, I consider this an essential "collectors item" from the king of Gonzo, but not quite essential reading. Just because of the unique book design and layout (and artwork) it is a real treasure to own, but it is not the "Fear and Loathing in Hawaii", as some have called it. It is worth the money (36$)and if you find one cheaper (not hardcover) I would not buy it. This is an essential hardcover buy, and if it was reduced to anything less than it is, I would have been disappointed.

I would be surprised if this book does not get reprinted. I had my first copy "stolen" when it disappeared into the loaned book abyss. I recently bought an out-of-print used copy from a local dealer, via Amazon, and two months later the author killed himself. Now, it's a little expensive.

If you can get your hands on a copy, I would rank the writing among his best work in the fictional/gonzo genre. He actually wrote this saga after two visits to Hawaii. The marathon coverage is brilliant. The characters, including his own wife, are bigger-than-life and funny as hell. The transition from a reporter covering a marathon to a man having a vacation with his wife and friends really has to be studied to be appreciated. The slow but inevitable decent from humour to insanity is captivating, witty and enormously funny. When Thompson was motivated to make himself laugh, he did a great job.

This was one of the books that he had friends reading aloud to him in his kitchen prior to his suicide. I do not rate Lono his best work, especially not when you know this author was capable of the kind of gritty realism that he lashed together in books like Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, but it is a true gem. You cannot appreciate Hunter Thompson's late-life writing style without it.

As a major fan of Fear & Loathing Las Vegas, I thought no book could compare. Think of my shock when I heard about this book. A book set in Hawaii AND it's written in that same Fear & Loathing, Hunter-ish style!

It's true what they say about this "lost" book.

Flown down to write about The Honolulu Marathon, The Curse of Lono (which is in all honesty part fact & fiction) is his best: very funny, interesting writing - and very informative on Honolulu itself as well. True that last! He did not just come down here to Honolulu to drink and do drugs and write whatever was left floating in his brian. Hunter did SOME research on the culture and history of the Islands. Here, for ex., we learn that Lono is the Hawaiian god of fertility.

HST is the master of details. Seeing things that others may have missed. This is what makes him a great writer. A great observer. And along with the fictional The Rum Diary, he also has an awesome, imaginative eye.

This book will hold your attention and expand your imagination (which is very important to me), and your funny-bone.

A good book is an extension of a writer's persona. And just like Fear & Loathing, The Curse of Lono does that in spades.

Even BETTER in this book.

It's insane and surreal with its creative descriptions, and the art work is just amazing.

I hunger for more Lono...

ps: Be ready for the film version, produced by Sean Penn, coming soon!

In 1779, Capt. James Cook, a British Explorer, stopped by the Hawaiian Islands to repair his ship and gather a few supplies. He was promptly clubbed, slaughtered, and as legend has it, eaten by a vicious tribe of islanders. Nearly two hundred years later, a world famous drug crazed journalist attempts to make the same journey in between battling the forces of nature, blowing things up, and covering a running marathon. And then later things get ugly. Now consider that this story (shaggy dog though it may be) is mostly nonfiction, and the incentive for running your greasy mitts through its pages becomes clear, though be warned that it may fade as you dive deeper into this newly reprinted, strange and terrible adventure.

Since this is a sequel of sorts to previous Gonzo sagas, perhaps it is expected that family and friends are presented as characters in it. While this might sound appealing and like a good opportunity to push some character development in, it serves more as an anchor to reality that drives a rift between the myth and man of Hunter S. Thompson more than anything else. For example, Ralph Steadman, the surrealistic illustrator of many of Thompson's works may work well as the frumpy comic relief, but on occasion he would say something that struck me as a little too wild, or not typical of an admittedly boring individual. It's not so much that I can't believe a well mannered character wouldn't overact after a string of stressful scenarios, but when he does he does it using signature vulgarities I'm already familiar with having read them in past books by the same author. This presents a fascinating look into an author's writing process as I can now see how he gauges himself in adding his own words when quoting others, but it also pulls me out of the story. In any case, this will only be a problem to those who have read books or articles by Steadman; otherwise you'll have no reason to believe anyone is putting anything into his mouth.

Even if Ralph Steadman doesn't always work as a character, as an artist he does well enough. With many drawings, I had to seriously restrain myself from taking an axe to them and then impaling them onto my wall, while others I would hardly consider worthy to be scribbled on a soiled dinner napkin. Unlike most other Thompson/Steadman collaborations, the illustrations in Curse of Lono are colored, and beautifully so. There is a wonderful contrast in many of the drawings between simple ink designs, and then fantastic, vibrant, and multi-hued colors with the occasional undertones of violence. They are a great compliment to Thompson's writing.

And compliments it needed since this work was admittedly written just for the money, and the lack of inspiration was overbearing for the seasoned reader of The Good Doctor. In past novels and material I believed the craziness of the characters and the language they used with the utmost ease and decadence, but this time around it looks like the same colorfully apocalyptic dialogue has been rehashed and injected into characters that were probably meeker than the author would like you to think. There's no actual evidence to support my claim, just an overall gut feeling that the author was putting more than a few lines into his own words. But even so there are also the excerpts from history books about the Last Voyage of Capt. Cook. I enjoyed reading these, but the manner in which they were cut and paste from their source and into this book struck me as a lazy way to integrate some history into the main story. Hunter makes the relevance of these articles clear later, but I still think I would have enjoyed it better had I gotten a look into what made the story of an old sea captain interesting to him in the first place.

But none of this is to say I didn't enjoy the book, just that its flaws are going to be more memorable than the standard HST fare writing to the Gonzo Diehard. If you haven't read a Thompson book before, dive right in and enjoy the warm water...which is actually a mix of LSD and Wild Goose liquor. And don't worry about the thing brushing against your leg since; it's probably just a marine iguana. Hunter's writing is bizarre beyond description, and is so visceral you'll know if you like it within a few pages. The first time reader will no doubt embrace the entire psychedelic experience with joy and then puzzlement as to why some bathroom floor piss soaked douche box only gave it three out of five stars on Amazon. I will maintain that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is probably a better starting place for anyone looking to try this writer out, I consider it the definitive HST book, but there is great fun, learning, and more than a couple audible laughs to be had here. Buy the ticket, take the ride...or at least flip through it in a Barnes and Noble. You cheap swine.