Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Hardcover)

by Hunter S. Thompson (Author) "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold..." (more)
Key Phrases: national district, drug conference, American Dream, Mister Duke, Psychiatrist's Club (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the ne plus ultra of Hunter S. Thompson and the whole gonzo clan he spawned. Written in the lurid afterglow of the 1960s, Fear and Loathing is a loosely connected series of mad dashes across the desert, trashed hotel rooms, and goofs on the brutish, naïve, or merely unhip, perpetrated by Thompson and his mammoth Samoan attorney. The pair start out high on a medicine cabinet's worth of elixirs, powders, and pills, and stay that way for 200 pages. They careen through an unsettling landscape of paranoia and alienation, but that doesn't mean the book isn't a riot. Here's a small taste: "By this time, the drink was beginning to cut the acid and my hallucinations were down to a tolerable level. The room service waiter had a vaguely reptilian cast to his features, but I was no longer seeing huge pterodactyls lumbering around the corridors in pools of fresh blood."

Though somewhat dated (it appeared serially in Rolling Stone throughout November 1971), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a book of real vitality and Rabelaisian wit. A document of the counterculture after it was well past ripe and deep into rot, the book is a wild ride, a paranoid ramble that is thoroughly exhilarating and worth the trip. No pun intended. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
A book about the world of drugs in Las Vegas. "The best book on the dope decade." - NYT Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394464354
• ISBN-13: 978-0394464350
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (434 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #131,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "only for those with true grit-and we are chock full of it", July 1, 2002

By	Roule Duke (the Green Inferno) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Paperback)

I have read and re-read my copy of this book so many times the pages are all dog eared and the spine is on the verge of coming apart. In short this book is an absolute masterpiece. I don't think that there is any other book that will completely hold you in it's grip from the first to the last line in the way that this book will.

This book and it's author have became cultural icons ever since it went to print in the early seventies. Plenty of other reviewers have gone into great detail about many of the notable qualities of this book: the hilarious dark humor of the two's drug induced antics and the razor sharp wit it is written with, the clarity in descriptions of the drug state, the spot on observations of the 'American way of life' as well as the counterculture of the '60s, the brutal honesty in which the author deals with negative and reckless acts commited by him and especially his attorny (which some find disturbing) and of course the shear genius in every page of this by all means flawless novel.

After reading this book too many times to keep count, although I still find it totally laugh out loud funny, I generally must say that Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is ultimately a sad novel. Sure it's a road trip to cover a story in Las Vegas on hallucinogens, but I feel that overall it is the cronicle of a 'failed seeker'. I mean the search for the American Dream is unsuccessfull and you get the feeling from this book that it will always be an unfruitfull search as the American dream doesn't exist. The passages on how the energy of the '60s dissappeared are particularly moving in this way.

I cannot recomend reading this book enough, it is funny, witty, paranoid, dreamy yet crystal clear and written impecably well.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And you thought YOUR trip to Vegas was rough and wild!, November 15, 2004

By	Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Paperback)

Written in 1971, `Fear and Loathing' still has a powerful impact on the mind even today. If you are easily offended by gratuitous drug usage and the craziness resulting from it, then put the book down and back away slowly. For those who may have perhaps saw the movie with Johnny Depp and did not know what to think of it, I highly recommend reading the book and then watching the movie again, its subtleties come out from the background provided in the book, and you will truly appreciate the performances afterwards.

`Fear' is absolutely hilarious, following the ramblings of a journalist and his attorney into Las Vegas in the early years. Through clouds of mescaline, acid, ether, amyl, tequila, rum, and pot, we see Las Vegas through the demented eyes of a person totally over the edge and bordering on drug induced psychosis.

The bar scene in Circus-Circus is worth the price of the book alone, and all of the vapid trippings of our dynamic duo are practically frightening in their intensity. Thompson has captured the mind of the delusional manic in `Fear', and while it is a journey not recommended for real life, in its book form it is highly entertaining and brutally funny.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas may be dated in its use of drugs and money, and the picture painted of a Las Vegas strip long gone to the commercialism of today's Vegas, but the amusing underlying story of human nature of the edge of reason is timeless. Definitely a worthwhile muse to entertain yourself with. Enjoy!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, May 5, 2008

By	Stephen Williams "Stephen Williams" (Hawthorne, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (Paperback)

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.

Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.

The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.

See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)

I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.