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

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Steadman, who famously illustrated much of Hunter S. Thompson's work, wasn't along for the legendary ride to Las Vegas, but he was there at the birth of gonzo journalism in 1970, and he was there when Thompson's ashes were blasted out of a cannon in 2005. Here, alongside a generous selection of his drawings, he recounts their shambolic adventures together, from the Kentucky Derby to the Rumble in the Jungle to the Kona Coast. While Steadman's slashing, ink-spattered art seems the perfect embodiment of Thompson's booze- and drug-fueled prose, in temperament he was a foil, a Welshman who hated America, while Thompson, in his excess, was perhaps the quintessential American. Steadman genuinely admires his friend's writing but examines his character with clear-eyed honesty and corrects the record as he sees fit. Given the push-pull of their relationship, one wonders if Steadman--an author in his own right--will write his "own" memoir or if he'll be content to be on the record as the level-headed sidekick of the most mythologized journalist of all time. Funny and--unlike his subject--dry. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Enormously entertaining." --Boston Globe

"It is fairly amazing that these two could get away with having so much fun, on expense accounts no less, in the name of journalism." --New York Post --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1 edition (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151012822
• ISBN-13: 978-0151012824
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,856 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 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

By	M. Chapman "superedit" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ralph's Take on Hunter, December 26, 2006

By	William Rieger "wjrzagfan" (Sparks, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars IN THE TIME OF THE "GONZO" COLLABORATION, November 7, 2006

By	Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.