Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson
by Corey Seymour, Jann S. Wenner
List Price:
Our Price: $6.99
You Save: $9.00 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.26 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Corey Seymour, Jann S. WennerIntroduction: Johnny Depp
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-20
ISBN: 0316005282
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson
Book Review: Mourning the Loss of the Last Great Hippie
Summary: 5 Stars
I received this book as a B-Day present, and took my time reading it. As it does deserve careful attention.
In the last few years, I have been doing some searching to find evidence of the great American Experience in an existentialist way. This book more than satisfied the questions that call into question whether we as Americans are living the lives of delusion, that all of this...the economics, status as international monster, the excess and addictions really make us out to be anything other than a poor caricature of the nation we are meant to be.
So here is our anti-hero, our protagonist. What made the man stir? Was there a core to this being at all? I read the first review here, a re-publishing of the Anita Thompson note to Jann Wenner. It was a convincing enough gesture...who but his last partner could really assess the significance of the man, and does this book in fact do justice to the man. I thought, that this book must then be another idolotrous homage to a person who amused more than changed the world in which he lived. It was a difficult bias to overcome, and admittedly, it made me cynical as well.
Over the course of the reading however, I realized that Jann Wenner did Hunter a great service and give him a great credibility by exposing his limitations as a person, and that the choice of format for the book as a running documentary through chronological time, chronicled by dozens of admirers, friends, acquintances et al. This approch in fact, brought greater perspective to the character of Hunter S. Thompson. whom I now believe was one of the last hippes to actually impart something meaningful.
Let's consder the subtext here of the book. We see the evolution of Hunter in all its awkward unravelings starting from his youth. In many ways, Hunter was like the Holden Caufield of his day, only he knew how to have fun. What was that worth anyway, you may ask. When you have grown accustomed to the antics that made up his stage persona, you realize that it has taken dozens of people, hundreds of pages just to talk about this guy. Whatever your thoughts or impressions, that in itself is an achievement. But in terms of significance, we again realize that Hunter revived and gave noteriety to the fact that writing itself can be an artform. More important than the facts themselves, (as typically the measure of a journalist), Hunter managed to weave a fictional, hyperbolic and comical interpretation of reality in order to lift and polish the essential, more intuitive meaning of the matter at hand, whatever that happened to be.
So what if this man stopped growing at the age of 17. For every decade that he lived, he aged one-year. And perhaps as the anti-hero of the story he wrote through a variety of books, essay's and columns, he struggled to keep his sense of adolescent entitlements. He started off as a narcissitic teenager, graduated on to being the motley renegade, serious student of local politics, party-crashing celebrity and icon, and then, as he had to graduate and face the world where he could no longer run amuck....took his own life upon realizing that the game was up. In an epic warrior story, he send himself away when he can no longer carry on the great fight.
Most artists do little but dimension a problem. Some drawn to the absurdity, others enjoy the ranting that gives them release. Hunter, sought to impart of philosophy for the underdog. "Don't take any guff from these swine." For him, I gather it was about the righteous struggle and he didn't mind enjoying himself along the way.
We see then, that Hunter did in fact carry forth the great works of authors that inspired him including Hemingway, Conrad, Fitzgerald, Wolfe and others. His method, albeit grotesque and shocking were humanistic pieces in that, at the heart of it all was coping with the fear and loathing. Hunter understood that journalism had exposed the hypocrisy of Nixon and the corruption in the establishment. He never forgave the people who inherited the torch of the idealistic tradition that is American by origin. This infidelity caused him great concern and he was patriotic to the end.
The book does a phenomenal job of sharing Hunter from those who loved and tolerated him. It shows us that in fact our country had spawned great talent in the way of the early 20th century authors, some American had further developed the art of writing, a powerful force for implementing change at the fundamental level. That Hunter was an American, complex by nature as a teenager in denial of the responsibilities ahead, had in spirit at least inspired others to recognize that it isn't necessarily what your doing as much as it is about how you go about doing it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and think that the contributers did a great service of bringing out the Hunter that meant something to them, rather than limit the mans significance to that of a pimple on the a$$ of the American Dream.
Summary of Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson
Hailed everywhere as a brilliant biography, GONZO is a startling portrait of Hunter S. Thompson, the genius who spent a lifetime channeling his energy and insight into such landmark works as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas--and revolutionized the art of writing. In their own words, an incredible array of stars--Sonny Barger, Jack Nicholson, Ralph Steadman, Jimmy Buffett, Anjelica Huston, Marilyn Manson, Jimmy Carter, and many more--bring into vivid focus Thompson's creative frenzies, love affairs, drug use, and, ultimately, his tragic suicide. As Thompson was fond of saying, "Buy the ticket, take the ride.""Gonzo...is no hagiography, and it is in its unflinching look at this singular character in American letters as fearless-if not more so-as anything Thompson ever dared write....The most comprehensive picture of Thompson so far, and...likely the best we'll ever get." --Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman
"A fond and exhilarating look back at the wild man of American journalism, put together by a couple of guys who were pretty close to him." --
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Authors Books
Bloomsbury Recalledby Quentin Bell
Columbia University Press; Published: 1997-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.40
Price in other shops:
William Tyndale: A Biographyby David Daniell
Yale University Press; Published: 1994-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.92
Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish Americaby Kathleen Ann Myers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)by Ernst Jünger
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Lifeby C.S. Lewis
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1995-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.86
Price in other shops:
Roughing It (The Penguin American Library)by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 1981-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops:
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)by Bill Bryson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madman CDby Simon Winchester
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Alexander Hamilton: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.93
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72by Hunter S. Thompson
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2006-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.86
Price in other shops:
Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. ThompsonDa Capo Press; Published: 2009-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.24
Price in other shops:
Better Than Sex (Gonzo Papers)by Hunter S. Thompson
Ballantine Books; Published: 1995-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.10
Price in other shops:
Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Centuryby Hunter S. Thompson
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2003-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.24
Price in other shops:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dreamby Hunter S. Thompson
Vintage; Published: 1998-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.40
Price in other shops:
The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1)by Hunter S. Thompson
Ballantine Books; Published: 1998-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.73
Price in other shops:
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. ThompsonMagnolia Films; Release date: 2008-11-18; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Timeby Hunter S. Thompson
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2003-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
The Rum Diary: A Novelby Hunter S. Thompson
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops:
Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Sagaby Hunter S. Thompson
Ballantine Books; Published: 1996-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: