Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
I wanted to be a Dr myself, but I didn't have the patience, 27 April 2004
Hunter S. Thompson isn't a despicable man. He's not wicked, depraved oreven immoral. Quite how anyone could glean that he was after readingKingdom of Fear is utterly beyond me. In fact, you'd have to bebreathtakingly ignorant and misguided not to finish this book withoutholding Thompson in very high regard indeed.
You might not agree withhis unreserved castigation of The Bush family. You'll probably frown atThompson's casual references to illegal drugs. You've every right todisapprove of his fondness for firearms. He is, by his own admission, anOutlaw, but you will surely still finish this book extolling hisimpeccable virtues as a vicious, ferocious protector of Justice, Honestyand Human Rights - three qualities being rapidly eroded in modernsociety.
The key to the appeal of this book, and of Thompson as anauthor and journalist, is the quality of his writing; sharp and caustic,often rambling but always articulate and soulfully expressive. Sure - itcomes at you fast and you might not pick it all up. But don't worry - juststrap yourself in and prepare to be sucked in to a weird, hallucinogenicworld where nothing, nothing is the least bit normal.
Sweet ValleyHigh, I know you're going to enjoy it, friend. Trust me.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Perfect prose, 1 Mar 2005
I was in the biography department of a bookshop thinking that I didn't really need to read another life of Jane Austen when a display of Hunter S. Thompson's paperbacks caught my eye. It's a tenuous link but a friend of mine was an extra in the film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", so I picked up a copy of KoF and was blown away. Right at the beginning where Thompson describes a childhood meeting with the CIA and again at the end when he's involved in a car crash, the author writes what I can only describes as perfect prose, "All these things have happened and probably they will happen again. I have learned a few tricks along the way, a few random skills and simple avoidance techniques - but mainly it has been luck, I think, and a keen attention to karma, along with my natural girlish charm." I have no interest in drugs, fast cars or pimps yet, as with all great writers, it hardly matters what they take as subject matter since they have you in the palm of their hands. Thompson not only tells you about his mad life, he takes you there. This is a classic of non-fiction writing, gonzo journalism at its peak.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Large Dose of (almost) Classic HST, with Mescal on the side, 12 Jun 2003
Hmmm, where to start with this? Those seasoned HST readers among us will know better than to expect anything on a par with F&L in Las Vegas or any of his earlier efforts, so the question remains: How badly does this measure up against those classic works? And the answer is: Taken on its own merits it's a good book, BUT... obviously it can't compare to Hells Angels & F&L.
Thompson's last 'proper' book, was 1994's "Better than Sex", which frankly wasn't. His letters collections have made for interesting reading, and this latest follows along the same route. However, be warned that A Lot of the stuff in here is basically rehashed retellings of HST 'adventures' that you've probably read elsewhere, though everything in it is better than his dashed off sports columns for ESPN.
Buy this book, in spite of its faults you won't regret it. Proof that the fun still hasn't quite stopped in Owl Farm. Selah...
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