Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

Love me some HST! He even mentions my home town of Novato on page 20! Man, I wish I had been at THAT party!!! He mentions Novato again on page 135 - remembering the good ol’ Sonomarin Adult Drive-In theater, a place I would strain my neck to the limit of human endurance just to get a glimpse of the screen every time our car passed by on the 101, when I was a young teen! He then mentions Ignacio, which is a subsection of Novato, on pages 200 and 201! How did I miss this guy?

The pieces in here span the time period from December 9, 1985 to November 22, 1988. So it chronicles the horrible reign of Ronald Reagan's second term, and the election of his lackey, George Bush. Disgusting, both of them, and show more their 'handlers'. Hunter points out that the Republican presidents - Nixon, Reagan, and Bush - all had major scandals - Watergate and the Iran/Contra Affair. He didn't know that Bush's son would have 9/11 and his illegal war on Iraq, and that Trump would try to destroy the USA in less than four years. 5 Republican presidents, 5 horrible, treason-filled presidencies. Ye gods.

Joe Biden in ‘88? Wow, I had no idea. And here he is, on the cusp of the Presidency in 2020. Hopefully...

“Some people are bent like Joe Theismann’s leg, but few of them work for the Redskins, and nobody takes them to a hospital when their bones erupt through their flesh.”

Writing like the above is why I enjoy HST so much! He’ll say anything, no matter how messed up or whacked out. One of my favorites in here is the Herschel Walker net! Hilarious! Ye gods!
My favorite thing about reading this book is remembering how criminal the Reagan administration was. History, especially on the right, seems to not remember this - at all. But, from '86 on, he was as crooked as Nixon and about half of Trump, and he and his handlers deserved to be in prison, as did Nixon and his cronies, and as does Trump and his chorus of evil. I'm so glad this book exists! It proves, to me, that I wasn't remembering it wrong! Thanks HST!

“In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.” show less

Hunter always makes me chuckle and with the Internet, I can quickly look up what person or literary reference he is making. This collection charts a lifeless Democratic Party -- Hunter even predicts its demise -- while an entitled and corrupt Republican front appalls Hunter the most with the Iran–Contra affair which saw Iran enriching Ollie-connected arms dealers and then killing 241 U.S. service members and 58 French military and civilian personnel in Beirut. 

As for the death of the Democratic Party, Hunter talks up the career-ending indiscretions of Gary Hart and recalls Ted Kennedy's involvement in the Chappaquiddick incident.

The whole Iran/contra investigation was a farce and a scam that benefitted nobody except Washington

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lawyers who charge $1,000 an hour for courtroom time. North's bill for legal fees will be a million dollars, which has already been covered by the private donations.

If this low-rent scandal is the best this generation can do, they deserve what they're getting and they are going to have to live with it. They deserve to be called A Generation of Swine.

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Although The Curse of Lono already started to fall into self-parody, it was still pretty funny. Family members gifted me this one and Songs of the Doomed, and they really aren't Thompson at his best; not nearly. Stick to the stuff published before this one, or his collections of writings that predate the 80's.

Been a long time since I read any HST and enjoyed this, I think it benefited from the short fornat of these paper columns, and interesting as always his views on political figures and corruption, he'd be laughing his head off with the current state of US government personnel and their appalling standards and immoral practices.

Some 1980s diatribes from Thompson, and he has plenty of material to work with in the Reagan era. He does cover non-political topics but it's barbed attacks on the conservative establishment that we've come to Generation of Swine for and Thompson is happy to oblige.

In "A Generation of Swine" Hunter S. Thompson turns his sharp and angry wit upon the 1980s, particularly the Regan administration,, through the rise of "Greed is Good" economics and the Iran-Contra scandal, up until the Iran-Iraq War.

It is, beyond a doubt, an excellent book. It's not as sharp as volume 1 of the Gonzo papers, but Volume 1 had some of his most famous stuff (that wasn't written explicitly for other books) in there - his article about racial tensions in California and his meeting with Oscar Acosta, covering the Kentucky Derby with Ralph Steadman, etc.

Nonetheless, this is excellent work from Hunter, and I whole heartedly recommend it.

The 1988 presidential race, and some lesser journalism. It is interesting to see what HST gets up to when there's not much going on.