Better Than Sex

Better Than Sex (The Gonzo Papers #4)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73  ·  rating details  ·  2,907 ratings  ·  96 reviews

"Hunter S. Thompson is to drug-addled, stream-of-consciousness, psycho-political black humor what Forrest Gump is to idiot savants."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer Since his 1972 trailblazing opus, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Hunter S. Thompson has reported the election story in his truly inimitable, just-short-of-libel style. In Better than Sex, Thompson hits the

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Paperback, 288 pages
Published December 9th 2000 by Transworld Pub (first published 1994)
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Ellen
Jun 30, 2010 Ellen rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: People insanely in love with every word Thompson wrote whether it makes sense or not.
Shelves: nonfiction
description

Hunter S. Thompson's brain on drugs circa 1966 - 1980s

description

Hunter S. Thompson's brain on drugs - 1990s - 2005

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that Hunter S. Thompson's reputation won't hold up. In fairness, I did go back and read sections of Hell's Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and will acknowledge that he could often write well. Whether he ever wrote well enough to merit the adulation he's been given is questionable.

However, I was stymied by the number of reviewers who gav...more
Kevin Rubin
This is Hunter Thompson's coverage of the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign and elections, with some flashbacks to his own 1970 campaign for Sheriff of Aspen County in Colorado.

As usual, he jumps right in as a participant as well as a reporter, so nothing he writes is even remotely unbiased, an lots of probably fictionalized incidents. In this case, he brings a group of Rolling Stone editors to Little Rock to meet with Bill Clinton and from there on refers to Clinton's campaign as "we" including...more
Mark Young
"No wonder the poor bastards from Generation X have lost their sense of humor about politics. Some things are not funny to the doomed..."

Though he tried desperately to avoid it, Hunter S. Thompson in this book again casts himself into the pit of despair that is modern politics. It is "Fear and Loathing" all over again, but this time on the Campaign Trail '92. He was lured in partly by his hatred of Bush and the hope that he could be beaten, and partly because of his addiction to politics; the q...more
Missy
The Basics

A non-fiction (well mostly) account of the 1992 presidential election. With emphasis on Thompson’s perspective.

My Thoughts

I’m not a politically-minded person. I know no one likes to hear that, and I don’t like saying it, but I’ve never really understood having an obsession with politics. Even Thompson, in this book, bemoans the fact that it’s an addiction he’d like to kick. Really it’s because it’s depressing, and I think Thompson got to the root of another reason why politics doesn’t...more
Dustin Gaughran
It was probably a mistake to read this immediately after 'Campaign Trail. '72'. My expectations were set considerably high, considering how great 'Campaign Trail' was. Although 'Better than Sex' has it's moments (especially the end on Richard Nixon), by and large the majority of the book felt forced. Half assed, even. There are parts worth remembering, sure. But it's mostly a collection of letters he sent to various people involved in the Clinton campaign. Some of them are funny. Some aren't. To...more
David
Some say that the high obtained from a successful political campaign is “better than sex,” but not Hunter S. Thompson. He was certainly a political campaign junkie, but even Thompson couldn’t place politics above carnal pleasure. And he would know a thing or two about politics, having ran for Sheriff (on the “Freak Power” vote - losing by a slim margin) in Pitkin County, Colorado and closely following and reporting on the 1972 Presidential Campaign.

I have almost completed reading the Thompson ca...more
D.M.
Hunter Thompson was one of a kind. I can scarcely recall a time of my life when he was not a presence in it. His suicide was something I felt as though he were someone I'd known, and his absence is something that will last.
I don't know how I missed this book when it originally came out, and just picked it up at a charity shop for 3 quid. I have to say, that's about what it was worth.
This was all about him and his slight connection to the Bill Clinton presidential campaign. It clearly attempts to...more
Bobby
This is the only writing from Hunter that didn't get 5 stars from me. (And that incluses Screwjack.) Aside from being disjointed, it is completely unneccessary.

The publishing company, or Playboy or whoever it was that commisioned him to write it were trying to catch lightning in a bottle. His Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, is considered by many to be the most honest telling of what it is like to be on the inside of a political campaign.

There is nothing in "Better Than Sex" (abou...more
Benjamin Sobieck
There are two kinds of Hunter S. Thompson fans: Those who get Gonzo tattoos over spring break and those who read his political stuff, like this book.

It's the former who embrace the drug-addled mythology of the man. The latter can appreciate the brilliant writer and social commentator the world lost to suicide in 2005.

Although I was just a young lad in '92, I still find his letters and essays fascinating. He knew how the real political process worked better than anyone else.

Those who want Gonzo...more
Enty Quadrophenia
A contentious Presidential race, a population weary of years of Republican domination that have left the country in the grip of a recession, the rise of a previously obscure Democrat who goes from the underdog to the poll leader and eventually to the presidency . . . and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” leading the pop charts. No, this isn’t 2008, but 1992, the year that the senior George Bush was ousted by a saxophone-playing governor from Arkansas, and the year that Hunter S. Thompso...more
Will
It has been too long, too dry, too boring, back to Gonzo...

Aptly sub-labeled "Confessions of a Political Junkie," Hunter delves into the political hysteria of the 1992 presidential race. He dives into the realms of personality and character beyond the generic banter of other reporters and news agencies.

His appeal is unsurpassed, whether you agree with him or not, you're consumed by his writing. Reality and fantasy mesh into his reality and shape his perceptions of this political world.

The most i...more
Barbara
oh my god..this is hysterical and picks up with the Clinton campaign in 92
A. Gamble
There are no words fond enough to describe Thompson's writing. I blazed through this book, and I think anyone else would, too.

HST makes a great point about outgoing political parties leaving their problems for the next president. I wonder if he would have thought that Bush Jr. left his problems for Obama like Bush Sr. did for Clinton. I also wish he would have stayed alive long enough to see Obama elected. There will never be another political junkie like Thompson, and journalism is less vital f...more
Sarah
Gosh, do I miss HST. He would have loved this politidal season.

This book, written in 1994, details (sort of) the 1992 presidential campaign, but really it serves as a larger meditation on campaign junkiedom and the looming political black hole on the horizon for the new millennium. He was so ahead of his time about so many things, but especially the ruthlessness and singular desire to win shared by Bill and Hill. If I would have read this when it came out, I probably would have dismissed a lot...more
Josh
For a books following the 1992 presidential race, this one is surprisingly righteous. Or maybe not so surprisingly so. I thought that maybe because the politics were so closely removed from the present, that it would suffer for it, but it didn't, partially because THE SAME PEOPLE ARE STILL HANGING AROUND WASHINGTON (there's a pretty f-ing brilliant pic of George II in there, sticking his tongue out at the camera), and partially because Hunter S. Thompson is hilarious - and I think always had tim...more
Graham Oliver
Thompson is over-published, which is part of the problem with this book. A lot of it I had already read or heard through his magazine pieces, his documentary, or his letter collection.

There is good stuff in here, but it's not his best collection, and you can see the same stuff in other sources.
Suzy Walker
The disjointed writing of HST is offset by the realness of the situations. As I was only twelve during the bush/clinton election it was interesting to see what attitudes to politics were like then and what predictions for the future of american politics were being made.
George Leach
Hunter's view on the 1992 Presidental election dominates this book but rather than his usual task of hitting the campaign trial, he does most of this from his home, albeit with access to some people you and me would never get within 100 yards of, probably to keep out of Mr. Bill's Neighbourhood and avoid the death of fun. Usual vicious, hillarious and accurate politial insight. It's worth purchasing for the last chapter on the death of his arch-nemesis Richard Nixon alone which features the comp...more
Philip
Hunter S. Thompson is the single most important political writer in my lifetime. His perspective is just as explosively wild as modern capitalistic Republican logic.

I knew I was a politcal junkie before I read this title. This book sealed the deal.
Rachel
Read this in three days. It was good and pleasant and an easy read. Funny and entertaining, nothing too heavy. A nice light read after slogging through (and enjoying, but it was still a slog) the Glass Bead Game for three months.
Adam
I don't think you can really "get" this book unless you were there. Looking at all these events, post hoc, through Doc Thompson's eyes is like reliving these events again, interpreting them in a whole new way.
Alan Keelan
It wasn't what I expected. HST's style is enjoyable and gaining perspective on the '92 election was enlightening. I assume I know what happened in the '90s, but really I didn't get my head out of the sand until 2000. James Carville is crazy

I skimmed the end, onto FALILV.
Karen
Thompson always entertains me with his books, and this one is no exception. A take on the 1993 campaign trail that I had not yet heard. As usual, I actually got a few history lessons along the way.
Bill Bleuel
While not among his best (Thompson has this annoying habit of teasing with a theme he will "get back to later" and NEVER does), this is still good enough to throw foaming-at-the-mouth authoritarian zealots into apoplectic seizures (which, I'm positive, the mere mention of whom will get me banned for life from the feeds of certain Nazi-sympathizing pederast apologists). Campaign '92 was not particularly interesting and even the good doctor can't make it so, but his obituary of Richard Nixon is a...more
Jeff
A book full of notes and faxes to the Democratic Party??? And they published this? What, did he really need the money enough to subject the reader to this moronic, drug-addled mess?
Tattered Cover Book Store
Dec 10, 2008 Tattered Cover Book Store added it  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Tattered Cover by: Dave E
Shelves: staff-recommends
Guest starring James Carville, Ted Turner and Richard Nixon as the
Devil, the story of the "92 (Clinton v. Bush) campaign, complete with
actual faxes.
Joshua
Bill's Clinton's strange seizures, President Bush setting things on fire during a debate and then howling like a wolf in triumph, a death sentence for Dr. Thompson for mistaken identity. Gonzo journalism, pure and simple Bubba.
Michelle
This book has its ups and downs, slow moments and unforgettable ones. Fortunately, the gems are worth slogging through the less gripping parts.
Lydia Gurevich
Second favorite Hunter S. Thompson book. I'm a huge politics nerd, so I pretty much worship this book about the 1992 American presidential election.
Harish Venkatesan
this is a hilarious read (especially in retrospect), illuminating when considering HST's reflections on a young bill and hillary clinton
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Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie (Paperback)
Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie (Gonzo Papers, #4)
Better Than Sex (Gonzo Papers, #4)
Better Than Sex (ebook)
Better Than Sex (Hardcover)

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Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, famous for his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become the central figures of their stories. He is also known for his promotion and use of psychedelics and other mind-altering substanc...more
More about Hunter S. Thompson...
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The Rum Diary Hell's Angels Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time

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