Customer Reviews

Screwjack

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Some reviewers were unjustifiably harsh in their comments in regards to Screwjack. While all are entitled to their own opinion, it would seem that those with a blast of negativity were searching for some pseudo-Fear and Loathing II. While HST did write extensively on over-indulgence, he shouldn't be labled only as the writer of an around-the-bend drug odyssey. Thompson is in fact a fine craftsman of language, which is prominatly displayed in Screwjack. Each story imbibes a surreal experience. More like twisted fairy tales than short stories. Screwjack itself is my personal favorite piece. It has a poetic flow and almost a sing-song rhythm. Reading Screwjack reminds me of strange dreams an blurry memories. Certainly something to check out.

I love this little book. People who measure their literature by the pound may complain about this one, but fans of Thompson will whip right through it. SCREWJACK was first published privately in 1991, and has been spawning rumors ever since. Only one of its essays, a 1969 account of Thompson's first mescaline trip written in real time, was previously published elsewhere. As well as being an incredible piece in that you can actually see him writing himself through the freakout and emerging on top, "Mescalito" perfectly crystallizes the life of a freelance writer (some of us, anyway): " ... [H]alf drunk full of pills and grass with deadlines past and people howling in New York ... the pressure piles up like a hang-fire lightning ball in the brain. Tired and wiggy from no sleep or at least not enough. Living on pills, phone calls unmade, people unseen, pages unwritten, money unmade, pressure piling up all around to make some kind of breakthrough and get moving again."

SCREWJACK also includes the tale of a psychotic friend who killed himself in front of the author after making a disastrous bet on a football game, and the title story, a demented love scene between Thompson's crazier alter-ego Raoul Duke and a huge black tomcat, reminiscent of some mad cross between Mikhail Bulgakov and Dennis Cooper.

(A version of this review was originally published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.)

As one of the legion of Thompson fans who've waited (patiently) for Screwjack, I must express my disappointment in the contents and the insane price of the book. The book is 59 pages long, and these are small pages, for a hardcover, with relatively large type. The text begins on page 11 with an incoherent 2-page introduction from HST addressed to "Maurice," whoever he is. The first half of the book is an amusing journal-ese account of an untimely mescaline trip, which appeared in its entirety in "Songs of the Doomed" (1990). Two very short tales follow, "Death of a Poet" and the title piece, "Screwjack." These fictional accounts meld sex and violence, avoiding the moralizing tendencies of Thompson's journalism. I won't spoil anyone's pleasure by describing them in further detail; suffice to say they're amusing and trivial. For Thompson completists only - and they (you) will probably not mind paying $15 for it. The asking price is an outrage nonetheless. By all rights the book should be a freebie for purchasers of Fear and Loathing in America, released the same day and far more substantial (that's an understatement...).

For those of you who wrote that the price of the book was outrageous should have looked and seen that the book is short. It is a collection of three SHORT stories.

Peronsally, I adored the book, all three stories, and was just happy that Screwjack was released.
The third story, and title of the book, was such an amusing story I even named my cat Mr. Screwjack. However, I can assure you his and I's relationship is a little less intense.

For fans of Hunter S. Thompson, this little book will be a welcome addition to the zoo. In it, Thompson proves his brilliance as a painter of prose. The book is a collection of three pieces, "Mescalito," "Death of a Poet," and the title work. Each piece builds to a higher crescendo of seething, unsettling insanity.

"Mescalito" is the journal of a mescaline drug experience in the winter of 1969. In reading it, you are grasped by Thompson and dragged along with him on the trip. The story is a page-turner. You feel his fear and loathing. He drags you with him down the dark alleys and up to the heights of the experience. I actually got a little thirsty as Thompson described his serious beer anxiety.

"Death of a Poet" takes the reader to the next extreme: unexplainable death.

And finally, the title piece, "Screwjack," is the story of a love affair so bizarre that it certainly fulfills what Hunter S. Thompson himself wanted it to. He says in the introduction to the collection that the order of the stories should, "build like Bolero to a faster & wilder climax that will drag the reader relentlessly up a hill, & then drop him off a cliff..." He achieves his goal in Screwjack.

Reading this book was a painful pleasure. Thompson is a master of prose. I wanted to keep turning the pages even as I was repulsed by the content. In the end I reflected that the whole sense of the collection was like experiencing a twenty minute dip into Pulp Fiction without having Quentin Tarantino tie it all together for me at the end. In the end, it didn't all come out in order. There was no symmetry or syncronicity. Although I liked the trip, it left me with a melancholy feeling of detachment and peculiar sadness. Perhaps this was because of Thompson's suicide earlier this year in Colorado. The death of Thompson made the book feel autobiographic. And perhaps it was.

I rode my motorcycle 20 miles in a light rain to eat breakfast in a cafe on the California coast with this small book stuffed into my worn leather jacket's inner pocket. I will never forget the look into Hunter S Thompson's psyche that this great little book provides for the reader. His words are especially powerful in "Mescalito" the author's first experience with Mesculine. His words as well as his train of thought become more and more garbled as he experiences the first of many wild rides that have become the wonderful although sometimes controversial subject matter for many of Thompson's writings.

This is a great taste of Hunter S Thompson, for someone discovering or re-discovering his writing.

This is a great quick read... you'll finish it in 25 minutes. It is a complete success at what it attempts. I read it last night at Borders and loved it (I'm a big Thompson fan). My girlfriend, who's unfamiliar was startled by it, and wondered what I saw in it.

The bottom line is that this is a very difficult book to write... read it and you'll understand. I'm a copywriter and I couldn't write this... check it out.

Mahalo! Gonzo fiends... when Hunter Thompson needs extra cash, he releases three pieces of literature rivaling only William S. Burroughs in pure maniacal insanity. The main composition of "Screwjack" consist of Thompson's Mescalito, Death of a Poet, and Screwjack, all of which constitute pieces written by Thompson while on massive amounts of mind altering "experiences."

Within the opus, no plots and themes to these three stream of consciousness prose; thus, it is pure Gonzo in its natural state. Thompson on assignment and drugs means only people who have prior experience with his other work, can have a total grasp on what Mr. Duke is trying to say.

Thompson's writing is demanding of the reader, and unequivocally grasps at any attention lying in wait. Lurking around the ominous corner is more tales, more stories, and Hunter Thompson inscrutably proves himself as a great writer. Thompson collects his own correspondence, and saves every letter he receives; thus, a communication at the beginning of the book.

Mescalito rages on in drug frenzy fashion from start to finish, along with Death of a Poet and Screwjack. These three pieces are very creative to say the least, and publishing only happened recently for this particular Raoul Duke outburst. The very essence of the first story is Thompson battling himself in a Los Angeles hotel room while trying to finish a story and on different strengths of alcohol and drugs.

Death of a Poet tells the tale of a man on his last straw with the surrounding environment around him, and the violent means to his finality. Raoul Duke runs across a hardcore gambler in his shack, on his last dime, and witnesses evil violence that one with only concrete sanity may even have a remote chance of describing.

Screwjack is a complete chaotic mess of love letter gone completely wrong where Mr. Duke experiences a kind of frustration only held to those who see past the seers. Thompson's ingenious diction and complete nonsense clash with violent fervor, and either grip the reader, or turn the reader loose, never to look upon Thompson's work again. The editor's note for this piece is not only is an insightful blurb for the reader, but to fully understand what Thompson wrote, the editors must explain in their own words Mr. Duke's fascination with drug induced insanity.

Only spend money on this Thompson collection if you have some loose lucre to throw around, and are looking for some madness.

A compilation of 3 great short stories of WEIRDNESS by Hunter S. Only takes about 30-45 minutes to read. I enjoyed them all very much.

Great collection of short stories. I really enjoy Thompson's narrative style. Awesome read.