Few American lives are stranger, more action-packed, or wilder than that of Hunter S. Thompson. Born a rebel in read full description
reviews
May 09, 2009
Kelly
rated it: 
I give everything I like 5 stars. And 1 if it sucks. It would be zero but then you might just think I forgot to rate how bad it sucks. And anything by and about Hunter S. Thompson is usually something I'm going to dig. I based my review, not on the writing like usual, because this is a chronological book based on interviews from people in his life, (minus his 2nd wife, Anita Thompson, who refused to have her words published, which makes me wonder why because she was in the latest, and best t
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Aug 04, 2008
J.P.
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Nov 25, 2007
Interzone
rated it: 
This book has stolen, or borrowed several memories from another book dealing on HST.
Also it should be noted that the introduction by Johnny Depp was not written for this book, but rather was used in an article several years ago for Rolling Stone, he had no say in its publication for the text at hand.
Keep in mind that Jann Wenner was on terrible terms with HST during his final days. Anita Thompson (HST's widow) also refused to have any of her words used in the publ More...
Also it should be noted that the introduction by Johnny Depp was not written for this book, but rather was used in an article several years ago for Rolling Stone, he had no say in its publication for the text at hand.
Keep in mind that Jann Wenner was on terrible terms with HST during his final days. Anita Thompson (HST's widow) also refused to have any of her words used in the publ More...
Nov 14, 2007
Ken
rated it: 
A comprehensive look at the career of Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson. The oral narration has everything ..from Hunter's Kentucky Derby and Rhode Island yacht racing essays to Fear and Loating in Las Vegas to his eventual demise due to drug and alchohol addiction.
As a long-time journalist, I became enamored with Thompson in the early 1980s, reading Shark Hunt and the Fear and Loathing books. I drifted away from him as I got older; the drug usage he bragged of was no longer cool and More...
As a long-time journalist, I became enamored with Thompson in the early 1980s, reading Shark Hunt and the Fear and Loathing books. I drifted away from him as I got older; the drug usage he bragged of was no longer cool and More...
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Nov 28, 2011
Ruth
rated it: 
This book was a pain in my neck. I was hoping we were done with the privileged white guy, and his drunken ways. But Hunter T. makes your standard inadequate male look like a hero.
What a crazy asshole. I don’t care how brilliant he was. I do intend to read his books, it is the least I can do for such a shameful, wasteful life.
When Amy Winehouse died, Tony Bennet said she sinned against her talent. That is true of H.T., if you want to concede he was that much of a genius-- More...
What a crazy asshole. I don’t care how brilliant he was. I do intend to read his books, it is the least I can do for such a shameful, wasteful life.
When Amy Winehouse died, Tony Bennet said she sinned against her talent. That is true of H.T., if you want to concede he was that much of a genius-- More...
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Jan 27, 2011
Greg
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I almost, but not quite, wish I hadn't read this book. You can see from my other reviews that I'm a huge fan of HST's writings, and by the very nature of his gonzo style one gets the sense that one knows him from his work alone. Not so. Or not completely so, of course. This book (which as an oral biography is basically just a collection of quotes from the people who knew HST the best talking about him) reveals HST as a horribly abusive narcissist who lacked the self-discipline to become a truly
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Feb 16, 2011
Aaron
rated it:
The richly unpredictable and brilliant life of this man will hold a special place in my heart. He is my favorite critic of modern America and he killed himself with surgical precision.
"I shit on the chest of Fun."
"Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real More...
"I shit on the chest of Fun."
"Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real More...
Oct 30, 2011
Mary
rated it:
I'm fond of the "oral biography" format, and I'm a fan of some of Thompson's work (and full disclosure: I used to be ga-ga over his stuff in my youth). I was a little worried that Wenner would make the book sort of self-serving and maybe it is a little, but I thought overall this was very well done.
Not surprisingly, Thompson spends a lot of time being appalling to people. And I didn't realize how little productive time there was in his life. The drugs and alcohol really did More...
Not surprisingly, Thompson spends a lot of time being appalling to people. And I didn't realize how little productive time there was in his life. The drugs and alcohol really did More...
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Apr 12, 2010
Steve
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I have liked oral biographies ever since I read the George Plimpton/Jean Stein volume "Edie," and for dealing with the outsized legacy of Hunter S. Thompson, I think it was a great choice. In the end this book made me no less intrigued by Thompson the writer, even as I came to understand how blowing it on big stories really did seem to be something essential to his writerly DNA. But what really stayed with me is all the unsavory details of just how beastly HST was to the women in his l
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Feb 10, 2009
Ckbiffster
rated it:
Got this one for Christmas. What a life this guy had! Although he certainly had a lot of fun, I can't say I would want to have lived like he did. For all his talk of personal freedom, he really was a slave to his substances and bizarre complusions. And there's no sugar-coating the fact that he treated most everyone close to him like shit(most especially the women in his life). Like William Burroughs, i consider Hunter to be one of those American-eccentric characters whose life was far more inter
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Apr 27, 2008
Raegan
rated it: 
A collection of anecdotes about one of the most unique americans to have ever stomped on the Terra.
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Mar 30, 2008
Bmilioto
rated it:
amazing book! author's not too bad, either.
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Apr 30, 2009
Heather
rated it:
What I learned from the people who were around him, was that it doesn't seem like he had a great plan to provoke, or to start the discussion with his words, he just sincerely was a narcissist in the worst form. I couldn't sit through more than 20 pages at a time when I would just scoff and have to shut the book. Whether hes beating his wife or swindling his friends out of money. It changes the work for me, and honestly, I was better off with the fantasy of 'Hunter S Thompson'. The stories and ar
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Sep 08, 2010
Mark
rated it:
Corey Seymour and Jann Wenner's oral biography of Hunter Thompson is a balanced, interesting look behind the curtain, as it were, of one the more interesting literary figures of the 20th century.
The book gets down-and-dirty on Thompson’s life, from his early days in Louisville to his days as a young writer in New York, South America and San Fransisco to his final days in Woody Creek. It sheds light not just on how he wrote his most famous books, but on how everybody else reacted to More...
The book gets down-and-dirty on Thompson’s life, from his early days in Louisville to his days as a young writer in New York, South America and San Fransisco to his final days in Woody Creek. It sheds light not just on how he wrote his most famous books, but on how everybody else reacted to More...
Jan 17, 2009
Andrew
rated it:
Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone, and Corey Seymour, an editor at Rolling Stone who worked with Hunter Thompson in the 1990s, put together this oral biography by interviewing 100 different people about their experiences with the gonzo journalist.
It is organized by stages of his life, so it comes off well as a biography of his adult years, though William McKeen's biography is much more complete on his youth and early working years (including the Air Force) than "Gonzo" More...
It is organized by stages of his life, so it comes off well as a biography of his adult years, though William McKeen's biography is much more complete on his youth and early working years (including the Air Force) than "Gonzo" More...
Feb 11, 2009
Austin
rated it:
If going into this book you knew anything about Hunter S. Thompson, then the revelation I had early on in the text is maybe underwhelming: Hunter S. Thompson was nuts.
This guy lived a life with hardly any rules. I had a somewhat skewed mental judgment of what Thompson's writing style was like previous to this (and not because it reprints a ton of his work - it only reprints three or four pieces), and seeing and hearing of his life gave me a more accurate picture of his work, alongsid More...
This guy lived a life with hardly any rules. I had a somewhat skewed mental judgment of what Thompson's writing style was like previous to this (and not because it reprints a ton of his work - it only reprints three or four pieces), and seeing and hearing of his life gave me a more accurate picture of his work, alongsid More...
Jun 20, 2009
Nicholas
rated it:
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Sep 21, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it:
There's a scene in Desert Solitaire (I think) where Edward Abbey describes two vultures circling the sky above him and he talks about the privilege of having your bones picked clean by them.
By the time I finished reading Gonzo, I felt something like that except the privilege of publicly picking the corpse clean did not result in leaving it with any dignity. I didn't need to know anything about the particulars of Thompson's bodily functions or the point of entry/exit of the bullet. More...
By the time I finished reading Gonzo, I felt something like that except the privilege of publicly picking the corpse clean did not result in leaving it with any dignity. I didn't need to know anything about the particulars of Thompson's bodily functions or the point of entry/exit of the bullet. More...
Sep 30, 2008
Lori
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Jan 09, 2009
Jon
rated it:
This book wasn’t an easy read. It was disjointed and as you might expect from a book made up of quotes from different people, kept contradicting itself and confusing stories.
That being said, I think it was an important book to release about Hunter S. Thompson. You still have the numerous accounts that place him into a godlike status, retelling famous tales of his drug-filled exploits. But more importantly, you also get a feel for what he was really like and there were many glimpse More...
That being said, I think it was an important book to release about Hunter S. Thompson. You still have the numerous accounts that place him into a godlike status, retelling famous tales of his drug-filled exploits. But more importantly, you also get a feel for what he was really like and there were many glimpse More...
Jul 17, 2008
C.
rated it:
An oral history-style biography of the author Hunter S. Thompson. The narrative is assembled as a series of quotes by people close to Thompson. I like this style a lot because the variety of voices gives the story freshness and authenticity. Unfortunately, it was not put to terrific use in "Gonzo." Jann Wenner, founder of "Rolling Stone" magazine, and Thompson's editor during the prime of his career (the late '60s and early '70s), is the main compiler of this story, and also
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Jun 23, 2008
James
rated it:
“But don’t forget – The Scum Also Rises.” – Hunter S. Thompson
There are enough texts examining and illuminating the myth of that great social and literary pyrotechnic Hunter S. Thompson, but an oral biography from the people who were closest to him seemed like a worthwhile read.
Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson is a complete biography through Thompson’s zany life that manages to reveal a few intriguing tidbits about the man behind the legend. Hunter’s first wife, Sand More...
There are enough texts examining and illuminating the myth of that great social and literary pyrotechnic Hunter S. Thompson, but an oral biography from the people who were closest to him seemed like a worthwhile read.
Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson is a complete biography through Thompson’s zany life that manages to reveal a few intriguing tidbits about the man behind the legend. Hunter’s first wife, Sand More...
Jun 14, 2008
Simon
rated it:
I discovered the works of Hunter S. Thompson my freshman year in college. Although I can’t remember, exactly, how I stumbled across Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I do recall marveling in the zaniness of it. I subsequently went out and purchased all of Thompson’s books. It’s not so much Thompson’s writing, but more the personality and attitude that comes across on the page that I enjoy. That said, I had been waiting to read the new book Gonzo, an oral history of Thompson’s life, since its publi
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Apr 16, 2008
Brian
rated it:
As political strategist James Carville says in the book, "Hunter S. Thompson lives the life we would all like to have lived."
Not sure if the drug binges and alcoholism was what he had in mind, or not. But underneath that statement, there is truth. HST lived a life that was totally his! Even to the end he went out on his own at a time of his choosing. He did what he wanted, when he wanted and with who he wanted to do it with.
This biography was unique in the sense that More...
Not sure if the drug binges and alcoholism was what he had in mind, or not. But underneath that statement, there is truth. HST lived a life that was totally his! Even to the end he went out on his own at a time of his choosing. He did what he wanted, when he wanted and with who he wanted to do it with.
This biography was unique in the sense that More...
Feb 23, 2008
Mike
rated it:
I expected to like this more, having a) a longstanding, deep appreciation of Thompson's outsized yet fine-grained vision of America and b) found the Pythons' oral history a treasurehouse of strange details, deep background, and constant surprising pleasures.
This, alas, was more a compendium of bad behavior. Now, that's not surprising, but Thompson's own best work was far better at crafting such extravagant irresponsibility, and always coupled the game to beautiful insights. I was More...
This, alas, was more a compendium of bad behavior. Now, that's not surprising, but Thompson's own best work was far better at crafting such extravagant irresponsibility, and always coupled the game to beautiful insights. I was More...
Feb 04, 2008
Valerie
rated it:
I sat down and read this in an afternoon and the flow was really nice. It was a compilation of memories and biographical details from the people closest to Hunter S. Thompson... his many business partners, friends, his son, girlfriends, family members, etc. There was a lot I didn't know about his life, and I especially enjoyed the building up to his career - all of the accounts of his earlier years and what made him the person he became. Everyone in his life attested to the fact that he was a fu
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Jul 27, 2008
Jess
rated it:
This is the only biography that I've read that actually made me understand what it was like to be a part of its subject's life. The people that were close to the monstrous personality that was the Good Doctor were an array of all types: writers, artists, politicians, celebrities, authority figures, and just regular folk, but they all had something interesting to bring to the table and they all appreciated how special he was. They both loved him and understood the sacrifices of emotion, time, sta
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Jan 06, 2008
Cathy
rated it:
This book made me think of people with that extra spark. People that believe in themselves so fully that others are magically drawn into their sphere. I can think of only a handful of people I have known that have this power. I admire it - though I see the downside of it, where it can be hard for people like this to empathize with others because they are so centered in their own world. But people in HST's life so wanted to be a part of his world that he could treat them horribly and they'd b
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Oct 11, 2010
Dan
rated it:
This Oral Biography of Hunter S Thompson is an excellent history of the Man and The legend and how the two were at odds with each other.
Hunter was a horrible drug addict and drunk. But he was a great man, a great author and a person capable of evil and good. This biography shows it all. When Hunter was being a miserable puke and when he was at his greatest as an author and a friend. It told it all, the good and the bad (and in this way it reminded meof the book Speaker for the Dead More...
Hunter was a horrible drug addict and drunk. But he was a great man, a great author and a person capable of evil and good. This biography shows it all. When Hunter was being a miserable puke and when he was at his greatest as an author and a friend. It told it all, the good and the bad (and in this way it reminded meof the book Speaker for the Dead More...
Jan 17, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
What can we say about him? The best way would be to read this book through some of the people that met with him, played with him, drank with him and argued with him. This "biography" is well constructed, a different approach compared to a conventional lifestory, statements from all walks of life to let us know who really was this character called Hunter S Thompson. Should I say that he was true to himself?
I only paid $10.00 for a new hardcover copy. I couldn't go wrong at t More...
I only paid $10.00 for a new hardcover copy. I couldn't go wrong at t More...
