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Jump to navigationJump to searchAncient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson by Anita Thompson (Editor) (view source)
Revision as of 08:18, 7 August 2020
, 08:18, 7 August 2020no edit summary
|reviewer= Chris Bradshaw
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= As this collection of interviews show, the good Doctor Hunter S.Thompson was just as much of a firebrand, stirrer and critic extraordinaire in front of a microphone as he was in print.
|rating=4.5
|buy= Yes
It is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompson's seminal work ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'' first graced the shelves. His gonzo style, putting himself at the centre of the story, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing as the event he is describing. If that's the case then what is to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself then? The answer is plenty.
Anita Thompson, the wife of the good Doctor, has brought together a collection of interviews (both in print and in transcripts from TV and radio interviews) stretching from the early Hells Angels days of his journalistic career in the late sixties up to just before his death in 2005.
Going head to head with Thompson must have been an exhilarating yet somewhat frightening prospect for the people who interviewed him. On the one hand , there was Thompson the stirrer extraordinaire. Provocative, iconoclastic and the author of many a caustic quote aimed at those who really deserved it. On the other hand , there was Thompson the intimidating, aggressive, mean drunk. The interviewer could get the big prize but there was a potential minefield to be crossed in order to reach it.
That sense of danger is there throughout the interviews. Whether it's his early, hateful obsession with Richard Nixon, his juvenile delinquency, his own political career on a ''Freak Power'' manifesto, or his love of sports and guns, he could never be accused of not having an opinion and expressing that opinion forcefully.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
I f this book appeals then you might appreciate the further food for thought in [[The American Future: A History by Simon Schama]]. You might also enjoy [[Young Skins by Colin Barrett]].
{{amazontext|amazon=0330510711}}
