Fez_Monkey's Full Review: Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing: On the Cam...
I first read F&L '72 back when I broke my political cherry in 1984. It was my first presidential election, and an older, wiser and weirder friend passed a well worn copy of this book to me in early October. I finished it in a little over three days, and since then I pick it up at least during every presidential election year as reverently as a christian picks up the bible, because, in a sense it is the bible of the American political system.
Going into the specifics of this book would take far too long, and is really almost besides the point (although the revelation of Muskie's Ibogaine addiction remains priceless). This is much more than the sum of its parts. It is a creature, as ravenous as pirannha and as mean as a cornered wolverine. Dr. Thompson provides an astounding insight into the process of choosing a presidential candidate through first hand accounts and a razor sharp intuition. In doing so, he confirms our basest fears that the men whom we hold in such high regard are little more than weak-kneed toads, willing to sell themselves like a $2 hooker for a vote. Even worse, that the political power structure is such that cheap misanthropes who should be used for target practice, are the ones who ultimately influence our decisions.
As Dr. Thompson himself has written many times "politics is a dirty business," and F&L '72 throws you face first into the slime, deceit, hypocricy, lies, and treachery of political dealing. No one else has the stones to expose politics and politicians for what they are, and like the un-dead dwellers of a subterranean world, those scum go screaming for cover when the light hits them.
HST has written several other political books since F&L '72, but none are nearly as comprehensive and all-encompassing. Open the book and enter the den of vipers known as politics ... but remember to wear rubber boots to keep the sh*t off your shoes.
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