Customer Reviews

The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.)

It is rather fitting that as we end this "bummer" midterm election campaign of 2006 in the United States that one can read about the exploits of the deceased legendary "gonzo" journalist Dr. Hunter Thompson by his long-time, long suffering illustrator Ralph Steadman. As one who has taken a hand at commenting on the current political scene I can say one thing after reading Steadman's work- Hunter-call me. Call collect, channel yourself through Johnny Depp, anything but call. How else can we make sense of this ill-starred political year?

This political season is one of the worst I have ever experienced, it really needs Hunter's fine-tuned, if vicious, sense of the underbelly of bourgeois politics. Thompson loved to get down in the mud with the hare-brained and afflicted politicos of his acquaintance. He was the consummate pro and when the going got tough he was able to down there where the politicians live and still come out alive. And Ralph Steadman was with him at almost every turn. That he is alive to tell the tale tells as much about his ability to survive the "gonzo" experience as it does about the various antics, humiliations, roadblocks, lawsuits, and general mayhem that Thompson put the man through.

Not all of Steadman's illustrations have survived the test of time but some, especially of the unlamented Nixon period, will last and serve as a model as long as political illustrations have meaning as expressions of the political winds of the illustrator's times. Clearly this book is a labor of love by Steadman for a fallen kindred spirit. Ralph misses the man. Hell, I do too. Read on.

Steadman provides readers with a frank assessment of his times with Hunter S Thompson. The gods were kind to us mortals for throwing Hunter and Ralph together. The Gonzo books and articles, pairing Thompson's words and Steadman's illustrations, resulted in wholes much greater than the sum of the individual parts. This book is a very welcome, very well written and illustrated perspective on Gonzo - bruises and all. Thanks Ralph.

Author Ralph Steadman was a young Welsh artist on assignment when he went to the Kentucky Derby in 1970 on assignment and met co-journalist Hunter S. Thompson. THE JOKE'S OVER: BRUISED MEMORIES: GONZO, HUNTER S. THOMPSON, AND ME offers a survey of one of media's most classic duos, examining the evolution of their relationship over the decades and the journeys and encounters which began with that fateful meeting in 1970. Steadman's illustrations for each story pair with his tales, reprints of letter exchanges between the two offer insights on journalistic and personal experiences and issues, and any interested in Thompson or the two must have this.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I really find Ralph Steadman to be a very interesting person; an opinion which was shared, no doubt, by Hunter S. Thompson who provided him with a trove of faxes and letters over the course of their multi-decade friendship and professional association. The great allure of this work is that the author fills it with primary source materials which document the depression, anger, paranoia, and euphoria of the Gonzo Master, yet this is also a problem for the book. At times it is very choppy and feels more like a cut-and-paste job than a true narrative. I had to give it three stars though because it obviously illuminates Thompson's personality and it provides us with details that would be very difficult to find elsewhere. It's an important document despite its lack of flow.

Thompson's life is difficult to seperate from his gonzo essa, and is often viewed as fiction. Steadman's retelling of their turbulent friendship clears away a great deal of the confusion about this brilliant and difficult icon; twenty-five years of alternating conflict and cameraderie allows a more human and focused view of an explosive and unique man. In the end Thompson's mythical persona is enhanced rather than diminished by the humanizing and honest eye of Ralph Steadman, illustrating the reality of trying to mainttain a friendship with the perverse and explosive Thompson. He does Thompson the honor of addressing him honestly; sugar coating his memory would be an unforgivable offense in the Doctor's own books.

Not always a pretty picture but a realistic account of the love/hate relationship between the two artists. A must read.

Don't get me wrong, I am no author. In fact, I am no astronaut either. Some things should be left to the pros. 'Don't write, Ralph. You'll bring shame on your family.' A pro said that and he was right.

I bought this book hoping to gain some insight into the life of a great journalist, author and legend. What I got instead was a book written by a man desperate to remind us that, without him, there would be no journalist, author or legend. 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would be nothing without its illustrations.' Balderdash. Reading this book is kind of like going to a family reunion and watching the less coordinated, less handsome, younger brother of the captain of the football team try to catch one of his passes. We all know he has no chance, and we try to be kind as he repeatedly falls on his face. Children are entitled to kindness. Ralph isn't a child so, in this case, let's be honest. This book is poorly written. It is particularly poorly written from a grammatical standpoint (and yeah, the fact that he's Welsh is no excuse). There are times when it is nearly impossible to figure out what the hell he is talking about! Better writing and better editing would have helped a lot.

Of course this book wasn't all bad. In between patting himself on the back, or unnecessarily sounding off on his take on events like Watergate, there are some nuggets of worthwhile information in here. Too bad those nuggets aren't representative of the book as a whole.

So, in the end, do buy this book but buy it used.