Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. The narrator, freelance journalist Paul Kemp, irresistibly drawn to a sexy, mysterious woman, is soon thrust into a world where corruption and get-rich-quick schemes rule and anything (including murder) is permissible. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, this dazzling comedic romp provides a fictional excursion as riveting and outrageous as Thompson’s Fear and Loathing books.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Crackling, twisted, searing, paced to a deft prose rhythm . . . A shot of Gonzo with a rum chaser.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Enough booze to float a yacht and enough fear and loathing to sink it.” —New York Daily News
“A great and an unexpected joy . . . Reveals a young Hunter Thompson brimming with talent.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“At the core of this hard-drinking, hard-talking, hard-living man is a moralist, Puritan, even an innocent. The Rum Diary gives us this side of him without apology . . . with a kind of pride." —The Washington Post Book World
“Thompson flashes signs of the vitriol that would later be turned loose on society.” —USA Today
“Enough booze to float a yacht and enough fear and loathing to sink it.” —New York Daily News
“A great and an unexpected joy . . . Reveals a young Hunter Thompson brimming with talent.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“At the core of this hard-drinking, hard-talking, hard-living man is a moralist, Puritan, even an innocent. The Rum Diary gives us this side of him without apology . . . with a kind of pride." —The Washington Post Book World
“Thompson flashes signs of the vitriol that would later be turned loose on society.” —USA Today
About the Author
Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His books include Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, The Rum Diary, and Better than Sex. He died February 2005.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great novel,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Rum Diary: A Novel (Paperback)
Great novel. Can't wait for the movie. You can definitely tell there's a lot of Gonzo in.this book by the good doctor himself may he rest in peace
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the movie, again,
This review is from: The Rum Diary: A Novel (Paperback)
As with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the book is definitely better than the movie. I wanted to read the Rum Diary before the Johnny Depp vehicle came out, and I wasn't disappointed. This is Hunter S. Thompson's fictional stab at the story of a New York reporter working for the ramshackle San Juan Daily and drinking himself into all sorts of situations. This early work doesn't quite have the zest of his later gonzo journalism, as embodied in Fear and Loathing, but there is still immense pleasure to be had from its well-crafted sentences and unhurried plot of drunkenness and debauchery in the tropical purgatory of the newspaper world, otherwise known as Puerto Rico. The real pleasure of this novel is in the acerbic observations of Paul Kemp, the fictional freelance hero, who has a sharp eye for mysterious woman, zanily corrupt locals and incorrigible coworkers, such as the newspaperman called Moberg, who, after a heavy night of drinking, is only able to find his car by smell - it stinks so much that he can smell it blocks away. If you're hungry for more tales of debauched journalism then you might want to check out another novel called Suction by Tony McGowan. While not quite Hunter S. Thompson (and who is?) it does take you on an enjoyably sordid tour of the Sydney tabloid wars of the 1980s.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoayble island drunkfest read,
By PJY "pjsailor" (Cumming, Ga USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rum Diary: A Novel (Paperback)
Trying to describe this book is like trying to touch a wet oil painting without impact. It doesn't take much before it gets messy. I can tell you that the story is well told. I read it over a two day period. Any break in the day I read it. It was engaging and enjoyable. The book finds its rhythm early and takes us on a Caribbean misadventure of lust, double-crossing and just plain bad timing. The wanderlust of the islands is replaced by the seedy underpinnings of a boom town. While I enjoyed the book, it really didn't have a plot and the ending was a but abrupt. But then, that is the tale of the diary. This is a satisfying read I would recommend to anyone. I hope the upcoming movie does the book justice.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
