Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream | 
| Author: Hunter S. Thompson
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  408 reviews
Sales Rank: 1297
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0679785892
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780679785897
ASIN: 0679785892
Publication Date: May 12, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Reviews
Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times Book Review, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its trunk, they stow "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls," which they manage to consume during their short tour. On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first-rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past, and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren
Product Description
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page.It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.
Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.Opens everywhere on May 22, 1998.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 403 more reviews...
 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas May 5, 2008
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.
Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.
The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.
See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)
I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.
Amazing April 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book changed my view of literature and journalism and reminded me how important individuality is. Hunter S. Thompson, is amongst the best literary minds of his genration. He is able to draw a reader in with detail and inventive use of the english language.
Oooh really good... April 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Had some issues with delivery (of no fault to Amazons) which were dealt with wonderfully.
Greatest postwar American novel March 18, 2008
A 60's style drug trip in the 70's. Only a decade a part in time, but an age apart in form. Lawlessness vs. law-and-order, by a true life breather. A final cry from the peace and love generation; a time when Americans weren't afraid. Don't be fooled by the movie adaptation: you're looking at one of the finest pieces of literature of our time.
Blitzed! March 10, 2008
That so many people have tried to justify, make sense of and interpret Thompson's pseudo-fiction in literal terms only indicates how many asinine, clueless people have read this magnificently absurd book. All that's required when reading HST's drug-addled interpretation of his misadventures with Acosta is to simply ingest, and to set your inhibitive sense of reality aside while doing so.
In his correspondence, literature and journalism, HST ably explains how he rode the crest, slope and break of the most exciting, disheveled period in the history of American culture. His written discourse is invaluable for obtaining a clear understanding of a muddled and dynamic era, where dysfunction of many varieties constituted the norm and both the freedom afforded by a permissive society and its' technological advances were exploited for enormous personal gain. In a time when America is descending into a sanitized quagmire of mediocrity and sedation, we could only hope for so much.
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