BUY HERE: amzn.to/2yj0sEu Support the Show: / booksarebetterthanfood Audiobook featuring Harry Dean Stanton and Jim Jarmusch: • Video Beginning of the Terry Gilliam Film adaptation: • Somewhere Around Barst...
The strongest section in the novel for me is when Thompson reminisces on the lost hope of the 60s, the hippie movement that at its core was about freedom and love and acceptance. The drugs and the excess were linked in a certain way with personal enjoyment and hedonism, but also the desire for everyone to have a good time. This was a counter-narrative to the traditional Puritanical roots of the United States in which you must suffer the job market, the long hours of potentially meaningless work because that is what life is: suffering. The joy and reckless abandon of the hippie movement has since died away, and the section where Thompson ruminates on its passing is one of the most tragic passages in modern literature. A high watermark never to be reached again....
If only he'd known he was wrong he might not have killed himself. Unfortunately he never got big into the Internet or he would've realized the wave never broke, the drugs just wore off and everyone developed a tolerance. The wave kept building.
@@newusernamehere4772 That wasn't the reason he offed himself, not depression but more on the physical side. He had a bad hip that hurt so bad, where his surgery did nothing to relieve it and with the addition of decades of being a user, he was physically a wreck in his older age.
Your channel has inspired me to begin reading more literary fiction. Because of you, I have bought and read books by Yukio Mishima, Clarice Lispector, Hermann Hesse, and Bataille. I plan to become a patron the moment I get paid again. Stay safe in the midst of this pandemic!
This is my favorite....FAVORITE book. I can pick it up at any time, on any page, and still be endlessly entertained after years of re-reads. Thanks for the review, Cliff!
Sir, I hope dearly that you are in health and that you continue to create incredible content. You have introduced me to so much literature that is now important to me and taught me very subtly the importance of reading such novels. They are the epitome of the human experience in many ways and you should be profoundly commended in your efforts. You have my attention until I die, thank you.
I recall buying this book many years ago when I was living and working in Edinburgh. I sat in Princess Street Gardens below the castle and vowed to read it in one sitting. What a ride!
Got this notification and audibly exclaimed “Fuck yes.” Thanks for the consistently great uploads Cliff! Been a longtime subscriber and your videos have been a constant source of delight and great recommendations. Stay safe and keep reading!
I watched the movie about a hundred times, one of my favorites! Now im ready for the book, thanks to you for the great review. Keep up your awesome work and stay healthy in these weird times. Greetings from germany ;)
Brilliant review. I've been thinking more about the book lately and it's treatment of the American Dream. Seems to me that it's both a reaction to Thompson's favorite book, The Great Gatsby's, similar theme--as well as a twisted version of a buddy novel a la Don Quixote. One of the best books you'll ever read.
"This is the least boring book of all time". I have to agree. It's so tight. Every syllable has its practical function, like rivets holding the whole thing together but yet managing to be poetic, profound and full of weight.
Loved the review! A Clockwork Orange is another really fun thing to read. The experience itself, as I remember, was beautiful and oh so funny. Quite horrorshow.
Burroughs said something like Clockwork went about as far as could be gone in English, it reads as good as an orange tastes and not a Walmart orange but a shriveled juice-condensed organic one from the tropics
I remember when I first read clockwork orange I was not intending to read it, I was caught up in two or three other books and I was really having to push myself to get through them. I was going to decide whether or not to keep it because I was moving and was giving away excess books. I was just going to read three pages. Clockwork orange sucked me in like a great tide. I realized that I was actually deeply enjoying this book unlike the others which were chores. I plowed through it and never laughed so much in a book before except for Moby Dick, yes clockwork orange is not even close to boring for a single page
Thanks, Cliff. One of favorite all time books. I read and reviewed a couple Thompson biographies on my channel last year (one by his son, Juan) and they were both pretty great, albeit Juan's, altho loving and heartfelt,was mighty saddening. You'd enjoy them, I bet. Slaìnte, mate!
Your channel is a gem in the truest sense: rare and magnificent. By the way, if you’ve never read his book “Hell’s Angels” I would truly recommend it, Hunter was a genius in all that he wrote but Hell’s Angels is my personal favourite.
Thanks for the review. My husband has just finished this and didn’t like it. So we had a chat about it and watched your review together. Now, I want to read it as it sounds interesting!
Of my picks to for the three best opening lines in all of literature Thompson has one (the opening line this book: "we were somewhere around Barstow.." ) and Kafka has the other two: "Someone must have been spreading lies about Joseph K because one day without having done anything wrong he was arrested" and "Gregor Samsa woke one day from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a giant insect"....throws you straight into the story and sets up the premise in a single sentence.
You were in the slipstream. One of my favorite passages was when he was pushing 100 PSI into one the tires of the Cadillac and the terrified station attendant asked him why - Hunter.." It makes the car corner easier.. [ HA! ] But it's his moments of lucidity that nailed me when you recited Hunter viewing the 'High Crest ' - the dream of the sixties, it broke my heart ( again ), Thomas Pynchon also reflected this. Stay safe, friend, by the way Molly Millions sends her love ❤
I loved this book, in fall 2018 I’d just come out of high school and was completely burnt out by the prior English exams, I love to read but had no desire to at the same time, then around October November when perusing movies I stumbled across this book and writer, I read it in like 2 days (the only book I can remember which I legit couldn’t put down) and it rekindled my love of reading.
In Brazil, this book's title translates as something like 'Fear and Delirium in Las Vegas' (Medo e Delírio em Las Vegas). I just bought it for the lols.
Interesting that Joan Didion also wrote out Hemingway. Starting on a trail of Hemingway and Borges leads to Thompson and Didion. Cliff you really present these so well and inspire reading in a more literary way. I am inspired to read more and more.
One of the very best mental images created from reading a few paragraphs came from this book/author. The Horizon line wave... It is one of the most thought provoking and beautifully written lines. Such a simple, beautiful image from such an otherwise corrupt and decadent (but excellent) body of writing. That was the essence of Thompson, and why I adore him. Great review. "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." Anyone who has ever written anything, and who has also used some type of drug... Understands this moment. No one ever said it better. Not even Burroughs. For me, that moment happened coming out of the Holland Tunnel, also in a red convertible driving out of New Jersey, into Manhattan high as fuck, in the late 80's. Epic. At the time as a group of kids partying and being reckless in the city, we were completely unaware that the driver of the car read this book and was a Thompson fan. As soon as I read this passage for the first time myself, I immediately remembered that moment, and also understood why we were there, in that particular car, high, and doing what we were doing. LOL
I need to write an essay about this book for my college English course. While I was entertained, I fear I do not understand this masterpiece because I was too busy asking the main characters, "why the hell would you do that?" So, now I'm consulting the internet. Nice review, you're engaging even though I don't understand the source material.
@D Sargent Goforth Yea also its strangely comparative to the political situation today, one could say the Sanders situation is similar to the Mcgovern situation in Fear and loathing on the campaign trail.
If you liked the movie, I recommend Where The Buffalo Roam. Bill Murray portrays Hunter while Peter Boyle plays the attorney. Legitimately funny and serious at times. Good movie.
Very quickly became my favorite book after reading it the first time. It's so outrageously entertaining, funny, and engaging that I read it a second time a few months later, then a third time that very same month. You ought to check the 50th anniversary release by The Folio Society. That's a gem of an edition.
Great review. Read this book a while back, think I'll have to read it again now. Am I the only one who waves and says "ciao" when Cliff does? No? Just me?
I just started reading this today and literally laughed so hard, like hysterically. Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that have that same affect?
I just finished the book not too long ago and I agree with your points. I'm finishing up the rum dairy now. Maybe I'll read the curse of lono next. Then I don't know from there for him.
@Mr. White yeah that was the first one I started with. It felt a little long in parts for me. But it kept my attention all the way threw. I just hope I can get into his other stuff. I love his style. But some of the stuff he covers I'm afraid might not make much sense or be as interesting today.
I spent most of high school with a copy of this hiding in my textbooks. I'm pretty much positive I've read this book more times than any book. But it's been a few years I should reread it
Ha! I still remember the first time i read this. Because i was only about 14 and it was probably the first 'subversive' piece of literature i ever read. The school librarian reccomended it to me. Bizzarely, it was in the school library!
Have got my coffeee haha, I love the prose it literally feels like the writing is like taking drugs and doing it with the characters and I have taken shrooms before and the way the text is written is literally like that
Hey, Cliff. One suggestion: You GOTTA read “Hurrican Season” by Fernanda Melchor. She’s a mexican writer nominated for the 2020 booker prize. We’ve had the spanish version for a couple of years and I’ve just saw that the book got its english edition.
Great review. Definitely better than food. A toast, no, wait, a DRINK therefore. Funnily enough, I too was wearing a black bandana, with white skulls and paisleys, but not to pretend or prevent. It was merely to keep the dust out of my body while I'm cleaning up.
Please read Laurus by Eugene Voldolazkhin. It's medieval spiritual epic about a Russian healer traveling through Europe all the way to Jerusalem during the Plague of the 15th century. Dark, beautiful, tragic, yet a hopeful read about redemption and rebirth. Something I think many could benefit from reading during this uncertain time.
Hey! I love your videos! 🤗I have a book recommendation for you:Ivo Andric-Brigde on the river Drina.(pretty sure that's the translation)Ivo is the only nobel prize winner from Balkans,the story about Bosnia described in the novel is very tragic,seen through the eyes of many generations,as it's told in the span of four centuries.The bridge in the novel has huge significance-it's a place where everybody gathers regardless of who they are-because Bosnia has always been,and is now,a place where different cultures meet,and the outcome of it isn't very pretty.The builder of the bridge is actually a Turkish emperor who used to live in Bosnia,but has been taken away as a child (Turkey has been a huge enemy of Serbian people,taking away many children so they could turn them against their own people).I say Serbian because the kid was Serbian(Actually,everyone in Bosnia is techinically a Serb,but religion is the issue,the ones who choose to become Muslims are officialy Bosnians,and it's the remaining Serbs who stuck to their faith who suffered),and Turks particularly loathed them,and had no mercy for them (we have a very sad history here😞)...it's a novel about myths surrounding the bridge,it's history which is all about war caused by differences,and then building the new,coming of future generations... Hope anyone has time on their hands to read this,but yeah,great book,you should check it out!
@@manjastar6250 Pozdrav iz Crne Gore! ;) Mislim da sam izvela u najkracim crtama bitne podatke iz knjige,ukoliko imas neko drugacije shvatanje iznesi ga
Anyone who hasn’t seen Bill Murray and Peter Boyle, portraying Thompson and Gonzo, in “Where the Buffalo Roam,” which is is an allusion to lawyer Oscar Acosta’s(Gonzo) book Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, I highly recommend it. It’s a very different look into the atmosphere the Fear and Loathing...adaptation has. It’s very 70s-80s style, yet one could easily see any of the actors in either film. It is has parts adapted from both “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Fear and Loathing” at the “Super Bowl: No Rest for the Wretched,” yet seems like Murray is just living as Thompson. Murray prepared in a similar way as Depp did, by hanging out having a blast with Hunter in Colorado.
Man, I know you've tried with Pynchon, but everything about your reviews makes me think you'd just absolutely love his stuff, especially talking bout truth and the American Dream in this one. Inherent Vice as the hangover from the 60s, the wake of a nation strung out and searching for the dream we lost, and Bleeding Edge as the hangover from the dot com boom, a parallel, in a way, to the freedom of the 60s and the consolidating of the state with tech. Gravity's Rainbow as the prophetic guidebook to the powers, spiritual and materialistic, that have governed life in America since the end of the war. Idk. Love your stuff tho!
I can attest that I did have fun with Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas as a book. Also, as for the quandary of what kind of a person reads in a casino. Uh... Hi. I've actually done this. Which, in my defense, I'm not much of a gambler to begin with. Nothing against people who do gamble. It just isn't for me. IDK, it was just something to do whist waiting for my relative to play hard after working hard. As for a book recomendation. May I suggest Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley? It's esentially an essay Huxley wrote about drugs while tripping balls on mesciline. It fits a similar theme of drug use.
I just finished the compliation book screwjack. I am so utterly confused because its hard to find any information on it. And i had never heard of hunter thompson before today, when i bought screwjack at barnes and noble. I am confused and disturbed but i have a sense of morbid curiosity and i kind of want to read fear and loathing now. But if you say thompson was inspired by hemingway and faulkner, i have 2 of theirs on my shelf and maybe i should read them first. The chaos, violence and drugs are so out of my realm but i thought screwjack was an entertaining read. Dont really get the point of it though. I just finished slouching towards bethlehem too. Some of it, like in screwjack, was kind of going over my head. Maybe because Im new to reading.
I can strongly recommend the two criminally underrated books of Hunter's friend and attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta. The good doctor wrote the introduction, the books are titled "The Revolt of the Cockroach People" and "The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo". Great books.
Point of order: It IS a fictionalized account, the book generally understood to actually be a novel. Thompson wrote it the way he did, and said it was journalism because 1) he had a history of blending fiction with fact and 2) out of frustration from the failure of his first two novels, Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary, Thompson less of a journalist than a novelist who turned to journalism to make a living, until it was all anyone wanted from him.
Hold the fuck on, Harry Dean Stanton and Jarmusch narrating fear and loathing? Who even thought of that? Never before have I heard of something that I so desperately needed and had no idea existed.
I watched the film for the first time being High as Fu*k and it was a very fun but trippy experience. The effects and the weird way they acted just made you more lost and paronoid and I really felt like I was one of theme; lost, paranoid and high as hell in Las Vegas. The bad part is that you dont really understand what is happening. However i became very interested in the movie and later on i decided to read the book and I really enjoyed it, but it takes some time to understand the real meaning of the story. It is a book and movie that i really recomend.
If you want to stick to "non-fiction" read Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels, while at the same time reading Thomas Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. For fiction try Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy.
Fear and loathing is great but IMO the perfect Hunter book is his coverage of Nixon and Mcgovern run in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 . its fucking brilliant and as a bonus, the latest edition has an introduction by Matt Taibbi , the guy from the same magazine as Hunter who covered the corporate fraud and malfeasance that led to the 2008 crash , and also wrote a very well written but heartwrenching book about the Eric Garner case in staten island , NY .
The least boring book of all time is a perfect description of this book. You can't go three sentences without reading a profound insight or hilarious assessment or reaction or amazingly poetic turn of phrase. I go back and try to figure out how one mind crafted each sentence, paragraph, and the book in its entirety and I cannot fathom it. It's a perfectly written novel. Every word choice, every sentence structure. Inscrutable and unimprovable. Only two books I can think of to compare it to are Catcher in the Rye and American Psycho. And that basically only because of the humor. It's like those two books to me but more concise, completely fearless distilled down to their original street form of pure unadulterated magic On the Road is similar in the speed it seems to plow by at but I feel it lacks the manic energy of Fear and Loathing. The first time I read Loathing, I felt like it was being read to me, narrated by a madman who was whispering it in my ear. Good luck in not having the voice of Hunter S Thompson become the voice of your inner monologue when your reading it. Something else its writing reminds me of is the dialogue in a Tarantino movie. Which is amazing, but there's something, something I cant point to or identify about Tarantino's dialogue, not quite real about it. Impressionist perhaps. Thompson narration feels like that often to me. But with him, I buy that he would make a kinda zany but mesmerizing sentence up on the fly. But it somehow feels like it exists on its own plane, beyond ours.
Real or not, it could have happened. Hunter Thompson was kind of an avant garde journalist who wrote this counter culture cult book and became famous with. It's a crazy and funny story of a trip to Las Vegas. The main character and his lawyer decide to go to LV with their car rear side full of drugs more than luggage. Of course, they are almost all time on the brink of getting caught and stoned during the whole trip and staying on. Such a nuts adventure goes increasingly funny and witty and the result is an easy reading that catches the reader from the very beginning. I can't help recommending it since I enjoyed it as so many pals of mine who read it too. The tension about them being caught up or not is perfectly kept during the whole novel. A movie was done about it, but did not watch it. 🤗🆗👍😂
