"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.

This was the first book by Thompson that I ever read, some 10 years ago, and it truly opened my eyes to an entirely new literary world of action and well, savagery. This is as odd, brutal, funny, strange, and well, savage, as other reviewers have pointed out. Mr Thompson has a brilliant way of writing that truly lets the reader feel the bad craziness that's going on in the story, or at least feel the adrenaline pumping. His descriptions and metaphors as indeed his language are spot on and incredibly well conceived (he did indeed have a vivid imagination). He always proclaimed later, that there was only one man who could've written "Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas", and I believe he is right.

I recommend reading the book in one go, take an afternoon with a good whiskey near by (only don't get so drunk you don't know the world around you) and read the book cover to cover. It's really a gratifying experience. You can leave out the drink, but the cover to cover in one go is a must. This way of reading really lets you feel the intensity of the story. And my oh my is it ever intense!

Highest possible recommendation. Get it now!

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.

This novel is a classic of American Literature in the same right as Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Catcher in the Rye, and countless others. True, it's not appreciated by everyone (as can be seen in the reviews below) but neither was and is Moby Dick. This is definitely a baroque classic too, and it was groundbreaking in its own time (which it may not be anymore, logically, but that's not all the book is about, far from that).

As some have said before me, it's indeed a great window open on an era now dead: the sad end of all the dreams of the 60's; and that is important to our own time because I am not sure we ever recovered from all those dead dreams. Even in my generation, I know a lot of people who still look back with major nostalgia even though they didn't even exist exist in the 60's. That was a very significant moment in time during the 20th century and it certainly set the setting for as far as today.

Some say there is no real plot to this book; much the same can be and was said about Moby Dick. I won't deny that, but I will point out that not all books are about "plots" and that there is ALWAYS a plot, no matter how minimal or nonsensical it gets. A trip to nowhere without any clear direction in search of the American Dream, what do you expect? A clear plot with obvious twists and the likes? Of course not.

That book is fun, disturbing, daring, and much deeper and serious than it may appear to the shallow reader. Definitely worth it, and definitely classic. Wandering around the still smoking embers of the Fallen Dream with Hunter S. Thompson is an experience you don't want to miss.

No one does it like Dr. HST, may he RIP.

The savage pursuit of the American Dream . . . aaaaaaah love it!

This is a generational classic far superior to Catcher in the Rye, On the Road, Less than Zero . . . you name it.

It will change your life, even if it's "too late."

Live the dream, HST style.