Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson

This book is a kind of Hunter Thompson "reader." It contains abridged selections from the years of his association with Rolling Stone. At its best, it presents a "highlight package" assembled by Jann Wenner, containing pieces from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson's 1972 campaign coverage, Watergate, Fear and Loathing in Elko, correspondence between Wenner and Thompson, and other fragments.

As a Thompson fan, of course I always enjoy reading his work. This book, though, by no means substitutes for reading the full length works and full sequences of pieces it is drawn from. If what you're in the mood for is in fact a retrospective cruise through work you're already familiar with, it's enjoyable. If instead you want to read the real show more Thompson, either for the first time or as a revisiting, then you're better off going to the originals. I do think it's a shame when publishers substitute abridged versions of already relatively short works, encouraging readers to satisfy themselves with less than the real thing. And the real thing is available in individual works.

It's hard not to give a higher rating to anything written by Hunter Thompson, but the fault here is not his, but the very conception of the book. show less

Phil Gigante's Thompson is spot on, that's what really brought this volume to life.

A collection of Thompson's writings at Rolling Stone. It doesn't get much better than this.

ebook version