Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

by Hunter S. Thompson

Book Overview

50th Anniversary Edition - With an introduction by Caity Weaver, acclaimed New York Times journalist This cult classic of gonzo journalism is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679785892
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Buy the ticket, take the ride! -Thompson circa ‘71-

Next to Jack Kerouac Hunter S Thompson parentheses Raul Duke. Is my favorite author. There’s a few others that I really really like but these to stand out to me in ways that I cannot articulate. Johnny Depp and Bill Murray both did well in regards to being a Hunter Thompson. Bill Murray and Where The Buffalo Roam and Johnny Depp in the movie of the books namesake. The world knew Hunter Thompson was special. With his book of the bio pic of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Any of his books will be phenomenal on your shelf. This is the most iconic. Next to Fear and Loathing on The Campaign Trail ‘72.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

One of my favorite books! "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" comes to my mind when I think about this book. A great introduction to gonzo journalism and HST.

Definitely Interesting

Definitely an interesting rollercoaster of a book. Would likely read again.

Incredible book

Favorite movie, one of my favorite books.

And you thought YOUR trip to Vegas was rough and wild!

Written in 1971, `Fear and Loathing' still has a powerful impact on the mind even today. If you are easily offended by gratuitous drug usage and the craziness resulting from it, then put the book down and back away slowly. For those who may have perhaps saw the movie with Johnny Depp and did not know what to think of it, I highly recommend reading the book and then watching the movie again, its subtleties come out from the background provided in the book, and you will truly appreciate the performances afterwards. `Fear' is absolutely hilarious, following the ramblings of a journalist and his attorney into Las Vegas in the early years. Through clouds of mescaline, acid, ether, amyl, tequila, rum, and pot, we see Las Vegas through the demented eyes of a person totally over the edge and bordering on drug induced psychosis. The bar scene in Circus-Circus is worth the price of the book alone, and all of the vapid trippings of our dynamic duo are practically frightening in their intensity. Thompson has captured the mind of the delusional manic in `Fear', and while it is a journey not recommended for real life, in its book form it is highly entertaining and brutally funny. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas may be dated in its use of drugs and money, and the picture painted of a Las Vegas strip long gone to the commercialism of today's Vegas, but the amusing underlying story of human nature of the edge of reason is timeless. Definitely a worthwhile muse to entertain yourself with. Enjoy!

Rah Rah

The previous reviewer is what one may call a "gotard." He feels that fear and loathing is only about drugs. He is simple minded, and can't see what is really occuring in one of the finest American novels of the later half of the 20th century. Fear and loathing in las vegas is about the search for the long lost American Dream. It is story about two men set out to find the American Dream, and they use drugs and excess as means for getting there.

"only for those with true grit-and we are chock full of it"

I have read and re-read my copy of this book so many times the pages are all dog eared and the spine is on the verge of coming apart. In short this book is an absolute masterpiece. I don't think that there is any other book that will completely hold you in it's grip from the first to the last line in the way that this book will.This book and it's author have became cultural icons ever since it went to print in the early seventies. Plenty of other reviewers have gone into great detail about many of the notable qualities of this book: the hilarious dark humor of the two's drug induced antics and the razor sharp wit it is written with, the clarity in descriptions of the drug state, the spot on observations of the 'American way of life' as well as the counterculture of the '60s, the brutal honesty in which the author deals with negative and reckless acts commited by him and especially his attorny (which some find disturbing) and of course the shear genius in every page of this by all means flawless novel.After reading this book too many times to keep count, although I still find it totally laugh out loud funny, I generally must say that Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is ultimately a sad novel. Sure it's a road trip to cover a story in Las Vegas on hallucinogens, but I feel that overall it is the cronicle of a 'failed seeker'. I mean the search for the American Dream is unsuccessfull and you get the feeling from this book that it will always be an unfruitfull search as the American dream doesn't exist. The passages on how the energy of the '60s dissappeared are particularly moving in this way.I cannot recomend reading this book enough, it is funny, witty, paranoid, dreamy yet crystal clear and written impecably well."Buy the ticket, take the ride"

The Best American Comedy of the 20th Century?

This hilarious satire is fast paced, very entertaining even after multiple readings, and a hysterically funny yet scathing portrayal of American society and the city of Las Vegas in the early 1970s.Thomson admired the previous generation of American writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald and the polished craft of his writing style reflects this. In 200 pages there isn't a single bad sentence, or a miscued punchline. Vast amounts of hard (sober) work (and talent) must have gone into perfecting a deceptively conversational, light style.For "serious" readers, this book can also be read as a coda to the late 1960s social revolution. By the early 1970s, its apparent to Thompson that the dream is dead, a pre-Watergate Richard Nixon is in the White House, and the silent majority are satisfied and complacent.My title for this review is quite deliberate - this is the best American comedy of the 20th Century, and it will be read and enjoyed 100 years hence.

More truer now than it was originally!

I personally live just outside of Las Vegas, and just about everything the good doctor wrote about is still true (especially Circus Circus). I can only imagine what he'd think of the quasi-Disneyland attractions that are there now.The drug content was to be expected at that era. The world was still in a white picket fence mode and "creative chemistry" was seen as a tool to escape from it (or at least, take a different view).The stream-of-consciousness writing style is a wonder to behold. You can practically feel your mind bob-sledding through the ether-induced haze, coming to a landing on both feet. As for weither or not it was real, get over it. Just wallow in the genius of the work; how it dissects the "American Dream" and how we were so rudely woken from it.And if you've seen the film, READ THE FREAKIN' BOOK AS WELL! You will discover a favorite quote or two that you'll find yourself using over and over again. I laughed so hard reading it the first time, my face hurt!It's a classic document of the tail end of the "flower power" generation, and the beginning of the narcisism of the 1970's. Classic American literature with sheer outright BALLS that's so dearly lacking in today's pop culture.I am certain that when Dr. Thompson reaches his final reward, he will have a never-ending orgy held in his honor, just for writing this book.