Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

by Hunter S. Thompson

204 pages

English language

Published Sept. 6, 1998

ISBN:: 978-0-679-78589-7
Goodreads:: 7745

(172 reviews)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a 1971 novel by Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. The book is a roman à clef, rooted in autobiographical incidents. The story follows its protagonist, Raoul Duke, and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they descend on Las Vegas to chase the American Dream through a drug-induced haze, all the while ruminating on the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement. The work is Thompson's most famous book, and is noted for its lurid descriptions of illegal drug use and its early retrospective on the culture of the 1960s. Its popularization of Thompson's highly subjective blend of fact and fiction has become known as gonzo journalism. The novel first appeared as a two-part series in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, and was published as a book in 1972. It was later adapted into …

16 editions

Jack Miller reviewed Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review of 'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was great fun. I'd read some of Thompson's short stories and loved his sort of frantic, unreliable, trippy style and this book is basically the epitome of that drug-skewed paranoia without being devoid of meaning and introspection.

That said, I didn't feel like the book added much over the 1998 Terry Gilliam movie based on it. The movie hits all of the major plot points, and frequently quotes the book verbatim in both dialogue and narration. There were a few minor things that didn't make it to the movie, including one that had me in stitches, but the movie ends a little tighter and ultimately was a worthy stand in for reading the book.

Anyway, this was a blast to read and hard to put down (I read it in a day, the 200 pages frequently broken up with chapter and part breaks and great Steadman illustrations) but …

B. Zelkovich reviewed Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review of 'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Thank god that's over. Absolutely nothing happens. It's just an endless stream of drug - induced paranoid delusions. There's little cohesion between chapters, and despite the voice and language being quite humorous, I was thoroughly bored. But, at least I can say I read it...

Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Journalist, Raoul Duke heads to Las Vegas with his attorney Dr Gonzo in order to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race. After experimenting with some recreational drugs, LSD, ether, cocaine, cannabis and alcohol, their assignment was quickly abandoned. What follows is a series of hallucinogenic trips that end in disaster from trashed hotel rooms, car wrecks and much more. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a roman à clef, with autobiographical elements in which Hunter S. Thompson writes a retrospective of the 1960s countercultural movement.

Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist, but he was best known for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. While working in Journalism he coined the term Gonzo journalism which is a writing style he adopted for his first person narratives. The style is a combination of fact and fiction that allows Thompson a more personal approach to his articles. Combining elements of sarcasm, humour, exaggeration and profanity it allowed a first person look into social criticism. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a result of Gonzo journalism and was originally published as a two part series in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971.

When thinking about the life of Hunter S. Thompson, I find it hard to imagine him as someone who critiques the 1960s counterculture. I think of him saying things like “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” Thompson has often stated that this novel was an exploration into the death of the American Dream but his views on counterculture are so fascinating. Drawing inspiration from his two favourite novels The Great Gatsby and On The Road, Thompson combines ideas of travelogue and the American Dream and goes on to show the reason why drug use was not the answer to social problems.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pretty confronting novel; the descriptions of drug-induced hazes and lurid hallucinogenic trips are very vivid and confronting. I am pretty sure I have read this book in the past but I had not marked it as read on Goodreads, LibraryThing or even the spreadsheet I keep. However going into the novel everything felt so familiar and I cannot tell if it was due to the movie adaptation or if I have actually read the book before.

The experience of reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is enhanced by the illustrations done by Ralph Steadman. My edition of the book stated in the introduction that Hunter S. Thompson requested the art to be done by Steadman because he believed this illustrator really understood the concept of Gonzo journalism. The novel is an interesting book and well worth exploring, and I was interested to see the satirical side and surprised at the way Thompson criticised his own lifestyle in this autobiographical novel.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2015/03/30/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-by-hunter-s-thompson/

The Gnome King reviewed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow. This book is bloody brilliant. It goes along at one hell of a pace. The book starts off hilariously funny, some of the things they get up to and how they stay under some kind of control makes for an awesome read.

It's not all fun and games though, the fear and the loathing soon start to creep into them, there is so much paranoia its hard to keep up. How they don't end up dead, especially with how violent the attorney is, amazed me.

The favourite part of the book for me though was the illustrations, I loved examining them and they really add to the experience of the read.

Hunter S. Thompson is one of my favourite authors.

Baltipink reviewed Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review of 'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I read this for my inebriation themed book club and I am already forgetting it, which doesn't say much for it. In case you are one of the five people on earth who hasn't seen the movie - Thompson goes to Vegas to cover an absurd motorcycle race through the desert while eating half blotters of acid, sniffing ether and making mildly interesting observations.

Now I am trying to figure out what we are actually going to converse about at the book club. We could talk about the absurdities of Vegas, where I was for a birthday party this weekend. But it is just too easy to chew up a place where people drop tens of thousands in one night while, according to the cab driver, 86% of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages.

I suppose we could talk about journalism and the illusion that anybody is "fair and balanced" or impartial, or why we should pretend to be. Or maybe we could talk about all the minor, and not so minor, abuses of women in the book? How about just testosterone fueled writing in general? Or what kind of world you have to grow up in to operate without the slightest consideration to how your behavior effects, or even terrorizes, other people?

Somebody sell me on this book. I don't want to just have a gripe session. Help me out.