Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson

by: Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour

Published by: Back Bay Books

Reviewed by Linda Lee

Hunter Thompson (HST) was born and raised hell in Louisville, Kentucky. His incorrigible ways led him to the military via a criminal judge’s orders. Many of his childhood and college friends made a living by the written word and, after fulfilling his enlistment agreement, Thompson joined them. Only, his way was different.

It seems that Thompson looked at the world through a kaleidoscope, stopping occasionally to pull his eye away and see a reality he didn’t know how to change. The need for change he put into words in a way only he knew. Drugs were a part of his life from an early age–and whether he did them because life was crazy, or he made life crazy by taking them–is open to opinion. Either way, drug use influenced, and impeded, his writing.

Friends, editors, movie stars, a small-town sheriff, wives, a son, assistants and cocktail waitresses all had stories to tell. Some make you thankful you didn’t have to deal with the troubled and troublesome man. Others illuminate his intelligence and sense of humor. The writer, who could be both fearless and fearsome, was vocal when greed and politics stood in the way of world order as he saw it.

The list of celebrities he encountered and befriended is long and varied: Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Jimmy Buffet, Sean Penn, Ed Bradley, and George McGovern, just to name a few, and all have stories of HST. While the drugs may have fueled his stream-of-consciousness writing, it also interfered with his relationships. A fair-minded man at heart, Thompson could be abusive and a serious irritation when his mood of the hour didn’t match the task of the day.

Contributors to the book have many impressions of the writer. So many opinions that it is evident Thompson was a complex man who influenced, affected and stimulated all who encountered him. Gonzo, The Life of Hunter S. Thompson reads like a published wake, recorded so no one forgets the bigger-than-life, flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants outrageous man. The story is definitely worth the price of the ticket.

Armchair Interviews agrees.