Synopses & Reviews
Hunter S. Thompson, “smart hillbilly,” boy
of the South, born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, son of an insurance
salesman and a stay-at-home mom, public school-educated, jailed at
seventeen on a bogus petty robbery charge, member of the U.S. Air Force
(Airmen Second Class), copy boy for Time, writer for The National Observer, et
cetera. From the outset he was the Wild Man of American journalism with
a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense
of justice and intrigue, from biker gangs and 1960s counterculture to
presidential campaigns and psychedelic drugs. He lived larger than life
and pulled it up around him in a mad effort to make it as electric,
anger-ridden, and drug-fueled as possible.
Now Juan Thompson
tells the story of his father and of their getting to know each other
during their forty-one fraught years together. He writes of the many
dark times, of how far they ricocheted away from each other, and of how
they found their way back before it was too late.
He writes of
growing up in an old farmhouse in a narrow mountain valley outside of
Aspen — Woody Creek, Colorado, a ranching community with Hereford cattle
and clover fields... of the presence of guns in the house, the boxes
of ammo on the kitchen shelves behind the glass doors of the country
cabinets, where others might have placed china and knickknacks... of
climbing on the back of Hunter’s Bultaco Matador trail motorcycle as a
young boy, and father and son roaring up the dirt road, trailing a cloud
of dust... of being taken to bars in town as a small boy, Hunter
holding court while Juan crawled around under the bar stools, picking up
change and taking his found loot to Carl’s Pharmacy to buy Archie comic
books... of going with his parents as a baby to a Ken Kesey/Hells
Angels party with dozens of people wandering around the forest in
various stages of undress, stoned on pot, tripping on LSD...
He writes of his growing fear of his father; of the arguments between
his parents reaching frightening levels; and of his finally fighting
back, trying to protect his mother as the state troopers are called in
to separate father and son. And of the inevitable — of mother and son
driving west in their Datsun to make a new home, a new life, away from
Hunter; of Juan’s first taste of what “normal” could feel like...
We see Juan going to Concord Academy, a stranger in a strange land,
coming from a school that was a log cabin in the middle of hay fields,
Juan without manners or socialization... going on to college at
Tufts; spending a crucial week with his father; Hunter asking for Juan’s
opinion of his writing; and he writes of their dirt biking on a hilltop
overlooking Woody Creek Valley, acting as if all the horrible things
that had happened between them had never taken place, and of being
there, together, side by side...
And finally, movingly, he
writes of their long, slow pull toward reconciliation... of Juan’s
marriage and the birth of his own son; of watching Hunter love his
grandson and Juan’s coming to understand how Hunter loved him; of Hunter’s growing illness, and Juan’s becoming both son and father to his father...
Review
“Turbulent but exciting . . . Shows clearly the occasional horrors of
living with a substance-abusing celebrity but is also suffused with
filial love and regret.” Kirkus
Review
“A calm book about a wild man . . . A careful yet harrowing account of
an offbeat childhood, and of a father-and-son relationship that grew
very dark before it began to admit hints of light . . . The author
evokes his life in the shadow of his looming father as if he were
telling a sinister fairy tale.” Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Review
“A journey of love and forgiveness . . . a portrait of Hunter as a human
being, funny and fearful pages filled with drunk, smoky evenings,
famous friends and admirers, extensive travels and financial
uncertainty.” Alex Norcia, Salon
About the Author
Juan F. Thompson was born in 1964 outside of San Francisco,
California, and grew up in Woody Creek, Colorado. He graduated from
Tufts University and lives in Denver, Colorado, where he performs
computer magic in the healthcare IT industry. He lives with his wife,
Jennifer, and his son, Will.
Juan F. Thompson on PowellsBooks.Blog
Writing my memoir about my father and me,
Stories I Tell Myself, was a long, hard journey. I thought I'd knock it out in a year, but I profoundly underestimated just how hard it is to write a book, and...
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