18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unflinching look at the dear, departed Prince of Gonzo, January 14, 2007
This review is from: The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me (Hardcover)
Artist Ralph Steadman worked with commando journalist Hunter Thompson for over 30 years, and this wonderful book details the high-wire act that working with "The Doktor" truly was. This book debunks Thompson's insecure bellowing that "Steadman can't write". Write he does, and he does it well. Steadman's account of his on-again, off-again, love/hate relationship with the most savage, visceral American writer of our time reads like the diary of a marriage -- which indeed it resembled. Thompson as a person was capable of treachery, petty jealousy, sloth, narsicism, depression, violence, and occasionally, sentimentality and great affection. It's clear that Thompson's writing career was boosted by Steadman's illustrations, and that on occasion Thompson resented it, wanting to be remembered as a serious writer in the style of Hemingway or Faulkner, not a drug-swilling, epithet-spewing cartoon character.
Through it all, Steadman serves as the perpetual straight man (although with a wicked touch of Peck's Bad Boy and a horror of American politics and excess), forgiving his friend's moods and abuse, but never forgetting. It's clear that they had some wonderful adventures and times together, and though Steadman's ambivalence towards his friend in later life is obvious, it remains the most honest portrait yet of the dear, departed Prince of Gonzo, and also of the man who describes himself as Thompson's "Sancho Panza." A must for Thompson and Steadman fans alike.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ralph's Take on Hunter, December 26, 2006
This review is from: The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me (Hardcover)
There are passages in this volume which will cause your heart to weep. Steadman is no slouch with the written word. His recounting of the Kentucky Derby episode had me LOL. When he does address the dark side of his departed friend, you feel as though there's no axe to grind, merely an attempt to set the record straight.
If you've been drawn to HST's work over the years, then this effort by Steadman should take its rightful place on the bookshelf next to Thompson's works. Part memoir, part elegy, it gives another insight into the "bad craziness" that made Hunter S. Thompson tick.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
About the father of "Gonzo Journalism", January 26, 2007
This review is from: The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me (Hardcover)
Few people knew Hunter S. Thompson as well as Ralph Steadman did. Over thirty-five years, they collaborated on articles for Rolling Stone (including the counterculture phenom, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and documenting the stories that shaped America from the 70s to the 90s, including events as diverse as The Kentucky Derby, Watergate and the Foreman/Ali fight. Their collaboration gave birth to "Gonzo Journalism*."
In this memoir, Steadman recounts a turbulent and wild working relationship and friendship with Thompson--both the fun and games as well as the paranoia and betrayals.
It's a wild ride. Steadman's casual prose style captures the voice of the chaos that whirled around Hunter Thompson. And he doesn't hold back--his prose, like his drawing style, is raw and vivid. There is, as would be expected, lots of bad behavior in this book.
Thompson was a guy who never expected to live beyond the age of 30--that he waited 67 years before killing himself with a shotgun was surprising, even to his closest friends. So he lived without a future, in a way, or at least without considering it: drugs, alcohol, guns, women--and his writing, which in many ways seemed to be as much a vice as the rest.
The book is strongest when using text from the actual letters, faxes and answering machine messages that punctuated Steadman and Thompson's relationship, and Steadman's drawings help to make Gonzo real, even to someone not at all familiar with his or Thompson's work.
Steadman himself admits he is a better artist than writer, but, in true Gonzo style, he makes up for that by immersing himself, and us, into the actual world. You have to be careful, though, if you are the type of person who wouldn't want to get lured into admiring Thompson and his dark lifestyle of wanton carousing.
As Steadman says toward the end of the book, "Gonzo is a strange kind of magic that appeals to the beast that lurks in the dark heart of most of us." That magic comes through in Steadman's book.
(* According to Wikipedia, "Gonzo Journalism" is a style of reporting that mixes fiction and factual journalism. This highly subjective style often includes the reporter via a first-person narrative.)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
