Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘savage journey to the heart of the American dream’, introduced the world to Gonzo journalism, and the book has been a cult classic ever since. Now it’s being made into a major film starring Johnny Depp (Ed Wood, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? etc.) and directed by Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits) of Monty Python fame. A cult classic of its own in the making.

Equipped with a veritable arsenal of heinous chemicals, Thompson and his comrade-in-arms Ralph Steadman confront casino operators, bartenders, police officers and assorted members of the Silent Majority with a hallucinatory humour and nightmare terror never before seen on the printed page.

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Product details

Paperback : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780006551362
ISBN-13 : 978-0006551362
Publisher : Flamingo; Film tie-in edition (7 Sept. 1998)
Language: : English
ASIN : 000655136X

Best Sellers Rank: 1,583,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 5,464 in Film & Television Tie-In
- 112,131 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 125,076 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

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2,035 ratings

Product description

Amazon Review

Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times Book Review, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. (US anti-drugs organisation) founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its boot, they hide "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicoloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser [and] a pint of raw ether" which they manage to consume during their short tour.

On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first- rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren

Review

‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a scorching epochal sensation. There are only two adjectives authors care about any more -
“brilliant”
and
“outrageous”
- and Hunter Thompson has a freehold on both of them’
Tom Wolfe

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5 star		77%
4 star		13%
3 star		5%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Mr Crispy

Legendary book - read before you watch the film

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2019

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Whilst the film starring Jonny Depp is brilliant, I highly recommend that you read the book first. It is the leading light of the famous gonzo style of journalism and that emerged in the 60s/70s and Hunter S Thompson's unique content and thirst for chemical-induced experiences is a hell of a ride.

If you have found my review to be of use, please click the ‘helpful?’ button below – thanks!

7 people found this helpful

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Tommy

Hated it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2019

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Very overrated, very boring
I do NOT loathe 'Hunter S', found ''The Rum Diary'' to be good, and am exploring his work - however as one who grew up listening about how great he was, this is a massive comedown
When you get to a certain age and watch the film again (as opposed to watching it in your youth) you realise that is also absolute rubbish

6 people found this helpful

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Mr. D. James

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2016

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Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing is basically a rant against the Establishment. It has its roots in journalism and is the prime example of what Thompson dubbed ‘Gonzo’ or cartoon journalism. Here one finds the truth of one man’s search for the American Dream, but the book is more an attempt to expose the corruption at the heart of American society. The author does this through huge black banner headlines from the daily press, Steadman’s grotesque caricatures of angry, fat, snarling human beasts and a writing style that is deliberately non-literary.

It is a book that will mainly appeal to the adolescent and the disaffected. Thompson and his ‘attorney’ are on the road to Las Vegas, the drug capital of a drug-infested United States, driving a super-charged rented Red Shark, crammed with Class A drugs. Both are stoned from the start and remain that way throughout. Vegas is a pleasure city, where everything goes bang, but especially girls and guns. It’s the mid-Sixties and the enemy are the police, who are everywhere, threatening, intimidating and brutal under a veneer of care - but infinitely bribable. The search for The Dream is never-ending and pointless.

Where Henry Miller explored not only Europe but philosophy and literature, Thompson remains on American soil, a cynical joker, celebrating not sex but crime at the heart of a society, from which he himself, benefits and in which he glories. ‘In a world of thieves’, he tells us, ‘the only final sin is stupidity.’

6 people found this helpful

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roger Manifold

Anodyne torture

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 July 2020

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Never seen the movie but it must be better than this, I begrudge giving it 1 star status.
I'm aware of Hunter S Thompson's style was a break through at the time but so was Jack Kerouac who actually delivered something readable.
No flow, no purpose and very little humour apart from 1 chapter towards the end, it's also factually incorrect, living of a citrus diet whilst consuming vast amounts of drugs does not recharge the soul, it pretty rapidly brings about vomiting.
I can easily read a book in 2 or 3 days, while this living hell took me months as I'm not easily defeated, I kept going back and forcing myself to the end.
This gets my award for the most anodyne piece of literature I have ever had the misfortune to encounter

One person found this helpful

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Thomas A Rider

Possibly the greatest book ever written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 April 2019

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This is the twisted, surreal, hilarious, dark, and possibly even true account of a trip that Hunter S. Thompson may or may not have taken to Las Vegas while on a variety of illegal and ill-advised substances. I honestly enjoyed this book more than any other I can name at present. Buy it.

4 people found this helpful

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Melancholie

Essentially the drug addled ravings of a junkie as he ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 April 2018

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Essentially the drug addled ravings of a junkie as he and a friend he refers to as his attorney rampage around Las Vegas causing mayhem and damage and leaving unpaid bills at various hotels in their wake. I got the distinct impression that the novel would make a lot more sense if you were also drug addled when reading it.

4 people found this helpful

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Sundance

its a classic, I first read this when I ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2018

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its a classic, I first read this when I was very young . now I have just bought it again..
and I hope to pass the message on to those who ( actually give a shit) cause I don't anymore .. seize the moment seize the day..

4 people found this helpful

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Jake Hallam

A wild ride

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2019

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The film winds up being a pretty accurate depiction of the picture the book paints.
Hunter definitely tries to find and dig up the filth and grime located in the souls of the average American, by becoming that scum.
The blend of fact and fiction really winds up with one hell of a book.

2 people found this helpful

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Paperback – 7 Sept. 1998

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