Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A fiftieth-anniversary edition of the cult classic of gonzo journalism, hailed as “the best book on the dope decade” (The New York Times Book Review), featuring Ralph Steadman’s original drawings and an introduction by Caity Weaver
The inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro
“A scorching epochal sensation!”—Tom Wolfe
First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever experienced. The writer’s account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and “check it out,” the book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of the 1960s, one of the defining works of our time and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Few have let their freak flag fly higher than Hunter S. Thompson did with this classic slice of early-’70s counterculture. In 1971, the famously unhinged Thompson and his sidekick Oscar Zeta Acosta made a couple of drug-fueled road trips to Las Vegas, which Thompson detailed in a series of Rolling Stone stories that were adapted into this game-changing novel. The somewhat fictionalized account follows Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo as they embark on epic marathons of esoteric drug abuse that distort their entire world into a fun house of outrageous ideas and absurd hallucinations. Even through all the chemical haze, Thompson’s storytelling instincts shine through in prose that’s both hilariously funny and mind-bending. Fear and Loathing is a unique read from a strange and singular author.
Customer Reviews
Loved it...
This was the final book in my high school junior year english lit. course. It was thought provoking, honest, and put me off drugs for life!
What a ride!!!
U feel just as twisted as them on this "trip"!!
My Favorite Book
Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’ is a drug-fueled odyssey through the neon-lit American Dream.
To me, Thompson’s work perfectly encapsulates the new wave of journalism, and a new kind of American. He was an unprecedented character, covering unprecedented times. Thompson perfectly captures a moment in time, when the American spirit was changing. He emphasizes the incredible hope and disappointment of his generation, the wars they were forced to fight, and always seemed to lose. The book is both entertaining and important. I wish it was assigned reading in schools, although I understand why it’s not. F&L is not for the feint of heart. But, if you read it with the right kind of eyes, you can still see the high watermark it’s left in literature.