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Books : Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)In association with Amazon.comRating:  - One of the greatest writers of all timeI fear many young readers don't read Hunter because their sole perception of him stems from the Fear and Loathing movie. Perhaps it makes them overlook him, falsely believing they could only take something away from his genius if they themselves were acid freaks or outlaw motorcyclists. What they don't understand is story development is only part of the delicious masterpieces Hunter serves up. He could make a sentence, one short, lonely sentence brilliant. He could read the inner workings of his non-fictional subjects' minds, both good and bad, as though he held some secret intercom to their brain. Regardless of the story, whether it was some drug binging adventure in Vegas or hot presidential campaign, Hunter's details lacked in nothing. If he wrote it, the reader can close their eyes and be in that distant place in that distant time. I wasn't yet born in the 60s and 70s, but I can see that the residue from that era still heavily molds our society and our government. To move forward, it is important to understand our past. And, Hunter's work serve as an ambassador or a time machine for us to go back and reconcile and comprehend such an unbelievable time. So, read the book. Read all his books. Rating: - Hells Angels: a hard to find modern classic.A very high quality production run, hard-bound with illustrated dust jacket etc. of a very hard to find modern classic. Read Thompson as he was before he became a cartoon character like caricature. Succinct and insightful with the acerbic wit front and centre where it belongs. A cracking good read ! Excellent value too in this Modern Libraries edition. Why pay all-kinds of stoopid money on E-bay for a dog-eared paperback when you can have this for little more than the price of lunch for one alone. Rating:  - Top NotchIn depth report of the infamous motorcycle gang by the only person with enough gall and wit to pull it off; Hunter S. Thompson. Excellent correspondence of what the Hell's Angels stood for in their prime. If you enjoy learning about the brutality humans are capable of then this is a book for you. Rating: - Gripping portrait of the counter-countercultureHell's Angels begins: "California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur... The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline..." With a start like that how could you help but be hooked? This is Hunter before Gonzo. Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels is a fantastically written profile of the outlaw motorcycle club from their postwar origins to their explosion on the public conscious in '64-'65. It begins with the Angels gaining nation-wide attention via a fumbled rape trial and follows the surreal path that led to their interactions and then clashes with Ken Kesey and the counter-culture movement. Hunter takes an odd stance here. He seems to oscillate between respecting their rebelliousness and really looking down on them as worthless losers. This sort of Yin-Yang of the Hell's Angels follows through the book. They are both repellent and attractive and Hunter does a very good job of sussing out why this is in writing that is compelling and often brilliant. Liberally sprinkled with quotes of contemporary articles, song lyrics and scraps of poetry that fit into the text without distracting. Hell's Angels is a gritty, classic slice of reportage that manages to entertain in the way good fiction entertains with a gripping narrative and larger-than-life characters. Rating: - Dated though insight into Thompson's style.It is really astounding how many definitions of "Gonzo Journalism" there is floating around out there...What really is Gonzo Journalism? According to many sources, Gonzo Journalism is a "hands on approach."; what the journalist is writing about 'becomes' his subject matter. Compared to Method Acting, this is NOT acting but BEING the subject matter making the representation "real". (Thompson, in his mind, stoned and alcohol affected, became one of them. (Angels)) But after reading the text again, there is that "objectivism", a couragous journalist, (who loved: writing, drugs, guns, whisky, politics and rock and roll) writing about a topical situation in America at the time - he was in his element. Timing is everyrthing. One particular scene in the book is a bit frightening, (this one is a minor one.) The Angel's, in the 100's are headed for a small town of a population of twenty-thousand - 12 cops and one Chief... "Consider the alternatives available to a chief of police in a remote town of twenty thousand?...the motorcycle outlaws are due to converge on him in a matter of hours...nothing in his experience has prepared him to face an army of half -human hoodlums, a modern day James Gang...infamous thugs who would just as soon stomp on a cop as they would on a toad, and once they get out of hand, the only way to handle them is with brute force." (P.113) What does the chief do, but hope for the best...contain them and eventually move them on...well easier said than done. There is something Romantic about Thompson: a 30's style journalist, cigarette in mouth, punching out the stories on an old Remington between swigs of Irish whisky. After reading his collection of political stories from various publications from Rolling Stone to the New York Times, one gets the feeling that he was, paradoxically, on the pulse of the Present but writing from another Time. This in-your-face style of journalism has an aura of honesty...something we have not read in quite sometime. The "Hunter" was from a generation that now is gone. In terms of "historical-realistic" texts, Hell's Angels, is a Thompson Classic & the beginning of Gonzo Journalism. |
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