Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson (Paperback)

by Paul Perry (Author), Ralph Steadman (Illustrator) "Louisville, the cultural center of the Bluegrass State and home to the Kentucky Derby, is famed for its production of cheeseburgers, cigarettes, gin, half the..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Rolling Stone, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This unauthorized biography takes off only when Perry, a former editor of Running magazine, describes the wacky/scary experience of engaging legendary gonzo journalist Thompson to report on the Honolulu Marathon in 1980, and when Thompson's illustrator sidekick Ralph Steadman tells of Thompson's paranoid trip to cover a heavyweight title bout in Zaire. Otherwise, Perry ( On the Bus ) interweaves insights from Thompson's associates with excerpts from Thompson's writings to produce a straightforward portrait far less manic than its subject is purported to be. The author describes the young Hunter as a wild drinker and voracious reader like his mother, and a poor kid who was an outsider among the Louisville elite. He traces Thompson's career from military sportswriter to gonzo glory in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to his covering of the 1972 presidential campaign. Thompson acknowledged that only 75% of what he wrote was accurate. Nor does Perry ignore Thompson's prodigious use of drugs and alcohol, violence toward women, attempts at writing fiction and his bizarre race for sheriff of Aspen in 1970. By the 1970s, the author writes, Thompson became a prisoner of his image, and perhaps because of this Perry's account of Thompson's last decade is thin. Photos not seen by PW. 50,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Oh! That sleazy brain-damaged cretinous BASTARD! Don't ask me about him again. --Ralph Steadman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 2nd edition (March 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256052
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256052
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #258,551 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gonzo exposed, October 2, 2000

By	George Schaefer (Croydon, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson (Paperback)

I became a Hunter S Thompson fan early on. It was high school when I was in my more radical, experimental phase. Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a whirlwind event. I had never encountered anything like it before. It was a bit more than my teenage mind could handle. HST immediately shot up the ranks of my favorite authors. He was explosive and also more accessible than the beats. There was always a sense of awe whenever the name of Hunter Thompson was invoked. The blend of journalism with fiction was a unique blend. It also seemed at times to hit on the truth more accurately than a lot of serious journalism. But before I go off about HST, let me get back to the bio at hand. This is not an authorized biography but I feel that it does shed some light on Thompson. It would seem that perhaps Thompson is receiving a bit of his own medicine here. Perry does give us some information on Thompson's childhood. He also gets into the early years of Thompson's career before the legend of Gonzo was born. This does help explain the development of this hick from Kentucky into a world renown icon of gonzo journalism. I would grant that a more definitive bio of HST could be written. There are others that I have yet to read. I was happy to get the info this book offers. I should tide me over until I read those books. HST is a fascinating figure in 20th Century America. This book is one piece to help solve the puzzle.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a 2-way tie for last, April 23, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson (Paperback)

Like too many would-be Thompson fans, Perry is one of those waterheads who've helped wreck much of the Doctor's inisght and talent by praising the wrong tendencies. Yes, Thompson is a maverick. Yes, he has the guts to say things others would not dare breathe, and to do so with poetic incision. The fact he enjoys hoovering cocaine and sucking back Chivas Regal sno-cones may be intriguing. But the insight, the intelligence, the wit and the writing are why we read Thompson. Perry's "book" spends most of its worthless time working bad variations on the hackneyed theme of "that Hunter -- he's ka-ray-zee." Gee, really, Paul? If the book's inane superficiality weren't criminal enough, Perry compounds it by delivering his fake insights in jarring, scrambled syntax and a stinky combination of mangled metaphor and clumsy clichŽ. The final insult is a copy-editing job that leaves the wretched tome rife with glaring spelling, grammatical and factual errors. (They misspelled "Scottsdale AZ" in the "About The Author" note.) This book bites just as badly as E. Jean Carroll's execrable fiasco, but for different reasons. Avoid at all costs. Of the three bigraphies of Thompson printed in 1993, the only one worth reading is Peter Whitmer's. I know. I slogged through all three while reviewing them for The Globe & Mail, Canada's national newspaper.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Hunter Fans Only, June 18, 1999

By	Lukas Jackson (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson (Paperback)

If you're expecting the blazing intensity of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," it is definitely not here. Perry is not Thompson. His writing is just barely adequate. I would recommend this book only to those who, like myself, are fascinated by Hunter S. Thompson and want to know more about the man. This book is overly long and drags at points. Some of the funniest and most exciting stories are marred by a writing style that borders on the drab. But we do get insights into the real Hunter S. Thompson, even if these insights do mar the illusion of perfect madness that is presented in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."