I read this book in honor of Thompson’s death. While the narrative of a drug-fueled assault on Las Vegas by Thompson and his lawyer, although supposedly journalism, stretched my credulity at times to the point of nearly breaking, it was at all times vastly entertaining. It is amazing to me how one man can do all those drugs and function enough to leave the hotel room under his own power, let alone write such a clever accounting of it and the times in which he lived. This does deserve the label of “classic.”

I never did drugs. I was in a private Christian High School watching the metaphorical grass grow. I never even drank a beer.

I read this book in 1 day on a Saturday. I soared past all normalities. It was a ride of madness, not medication. Breaking through, not breaking down. Soaring into new, but old, skyways, not just “getting high”.

With no preconceptions, this book did not change my view of drugs or alcohol at all. I was straight-edge and thought they were all mind numbing escapisms from a dissatisfying world that needs to be explored and conquered by all, on a individual basis (especially the Hunter S. Thompsons of the world). But the era of this book is what came through. Where both paradigms met, most unnaturally (as evident by “all the hippies you see now days”), and yet with all the energy of a new Ten Commandments for a generation hungry for social progress more than a Moral or Power change of it’s peers.

There is a quote toward the end of this book about the death of the hippie era, which is one of the most beautiful literary phrases I’ve ever read. And that is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The documented DEATH OF THE 60s, the BIRTH of a new disillusionment in America’s youth, artists, and dreamers. Things were never meant to be so easy, complicated, or anything too serious really.

...or maybe that’s just the Peyote talking.

I always wondered what it would be like to consume a panoply of pharmacopoeia while washing it down with booze. Not exactly a “scared straight” adventure, but definitely a head scratcher. How he had enough brain cells left to write the Rolling Stone articles that became this book is far beyond my comprehension. Thompson and his attorney go to Vegas in 1971 ostensibly to write one article about a motorcycle race in the desert and another about a convention of District Attorneys discussing the serious problems of the drug culture. Whether those articles got written, I don’t know, but at least he wrote about the experience. This book contained illustrations drawn by Ralph Steadman and if the reader isn’t already having nightmares from Thompson’s prose the artwork will finish them off.

Someone has mentioned that there are no comments re. this book, but what can you really say? The book revolves around a semi-surreal world of drugs, booze and fraud on a totally immoral scale. Dr Gonzo & his attorney go on a massive bender and in doing so, expose the rotten core of American society.

I can see why it appeals to students and in particular, men of a certain age who enjoy their chemicals. However, there is something more here – a tired and relentless scraping of the barrel. Makes you feel heady and slightly nauseous just thinking about it.

Here is my question. Why have 146 people (not including me) consumed this, but no one has left a comment? Why is the most popular tag drugs? Has anyone actually read this?