The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time

Here is Mr. Thompson sounding more like a journalist than a drug crazed mourner of the American Dream (although a tip of the hat to Mr. Duke is never misdirected), but it is not without the biting wit and unforgiving prose that characterize his work. The anthology starts with "Fear and Loathing at the Kentucky Derby," now recognized as the first piece of Thompson's own 'Gonzo Journalism,' and goes on to include writings on Nixon, Hemingway, hippies and yes, shark hunting. An interesting tool for a journalism class that might want to explore how much a writer can include their own voice before we're no longer reading news.

What can one say about Hunter S. Thompson that hasn't already been said? He was a madman, a genius, and an excellent writer. Collected here are several of his greatest pieces, such as "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," which show his mastery of the written word and his search for an absolute truth in his writing which would be the birth of Gonzo. This same truth, unfortunately, also created the character of "Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, wild man of the ages" that would eventually burn out a great mind. Well, the steady influx of drugs didn't help there either...

This book, this massive tome, collects pieces from throughout Thompson's career. We see some of his first attempts at a writing career with his release from the Air Force show more and the notice he wrote to explain his unbridled joy to be free. There are his trips to South America, where he sees how his own country treats another and has several near-death experiences. On that front, there are also excerpts from his time with the Hell's Angels, which I know they didn't take too kindly once the pieces and the book were released. Then, of course, there are his undisputed classics of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. We see him rail against Nixon, cheer when the "snarling beast" is finally out of office, and champion a little-known peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter and the moment Carter blew Hunter and a room full of Southern lawyers away with one speech. The book closes with two pieces written on Muhammad Ali and his loss of the title to Leon Spinks.

The only real negative I can mention about this book is that the selected material isn't in any real chronological order. It starts with some of Thompson's more known Gonzo pieces, then about halfway through jumps much earlier in his writing career when he's still playing with his form. Still, an amazing collection from an amazing individual. Everyone should have a little Hunter Thompson in their lives. show less

Great first line:

“Well... yes, and here we go again.”

Indeed! Lots of good reads in this collection, both serious and Gonzo, though I am a bigger Gonzo fan than serious fan. Hell, the book starts with two scathing letters of reprimand from his Air Force days! And LOTS of different subjects covered within! Quite a bit about Nixon - Hunter's hatred of him, a little bit more about the '72 election, and a lot about Watergate and Tricky Dick's resignation. We get Hunter's first crazed meeting with Ralph Steadman and a trip to the Kentucky Derby! Jean-Claude Killy, Muhammad Ali, and the Super Bowl!
Great stuff about the Brown Buffalo in "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" and "The Banshee Screams For Buffalo Meat"! Quite a bit from South show more America. Jimmy Carter, Hemingway in Idaho, and Marlon Brando!
A note on the scene in S.F. from "Hashbury" - a term I've never scene before! Politics in/near Woody Creek! And excerpts from "Hells Angels" and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" including my favorite piece from the later - the piece about the 60's movement coming to an end:

"…We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

My favorite piece of new-for-me in here came from the book's title, "The Great Shark Hunt"! Very Gonzo and Thompson and insane! Sport fishing in Mexico probably was never the same after that excursion! Just horribly wonderful! I think the bottom of the book's cover says it all:

"Strange Tales from a Strange Time, America's Quintessential Outlaw Journalist"

Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Balls. show less

A compendium of what made Thompson great...namely a keen journalistic eye for the craziness of our times. Yes he did drugs, yes he drinks copious amounts of alcohol, yes he probably should have been locked up, but then we would have missed football chats with Richard Nixon, stories about biker gangs, horse racing, and the like. You have probably read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or seen that terrible movie, but what made Thompson great was not the outlaw "gonzo" persona, although that didn't hurt, but it was his ability to combine reality with a fiction that seemed to be almost believable which was never on better display than all the pieces within this anthology. As the Ventures should have said "Run, Don't Walk" to pick this bastard show more up at your local used bookshop. show less

i read this book in high school. often, and over and over. and i thought, "this is what i want to be when i grow up." not the myth, or the "lookit me!" or the intermittent macho. but, oh, the writing. the writing.

Filled with stories about politics and sports, I really should not have liked this book. (I am not a fan of either sports or politics.) Somehow it was still interesting to me, though. Maybe it's the stream of consciousness style of writing or the absurd drug induced mania often described. Anyway, I will likely seek out the next couple if books in the series.

The major pieces in this anthology deal with Watergate, South America and Jimmy Carter. IMHO, the Us will eventually understand that Jimmy Carter was a wise president, and not a failure. His attempt to hold back on Great Power politics in favour of a more nuanced approach will be seen as the right idea. Bush battering the world has larely failed, and the USA is hard put to get anyone else to back their foreign policies has been taken advantage of by such shrewd operators as Putin.
Watergate is adequately described here rather more coolly here than in the Fireside Watergate book.
The ongoing tragedy of south America was a great awakening for Thompson,and really played a big part in his vision of the USA when he returned to it. so the show more book well repays the time spent in its reading. show less