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Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 10, 2009

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The Rum Diary

by Hunter S Thompson

The Rum Diary Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Begun in 1959 by a then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp in the spirit of Thompson's bestselling Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels.

Review:

SalonA remarkably full and mature first novel...a languid and lovingly executed book that reveals its emotional depths slowly.

Review:

New York Daily NewsEnough booze to float a yacht and enough fear and loathing to sink it.

Review:

The Philadelphia InquirerA great and an unexpected joy...reveals a young Hunter Thompson brimming with talent.

Review:

Salon

A remarkably full and mature first novel...a languid and lovingly executed book that reveals its emotional depths slowly.

Review:

Jimmy BuffettThe Run Diary shows a side of human nature that is ugly and wrong. But it is a world that Hunter Thompson knows in the nerves of his neck. This is a brilliant tribal study and a bone in the throat of all decent people.

Review:

William KennedyPulitzer Prize-winning author of IronweedThe tools Hunter S. Thompson would use in the years ahead-bizarre wit, mockery without end, redundant excess, supreme self-confidence, the narrative of the wounded meritorious ego, and the idiopathic anger of the righteous outlaw — were all there in his precocious imagination in San Juan. There, too were the beginnings of his future as a masterful prose stylist.

Review:

San Francisco ChronicleCrackling, twisted, searing, paced to a deft prose rhythm...a shot of Gonzo with a rum chaser.
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About the Author

Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His books include Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, The Curse of Lono, Songs of the Doomed, Better Than Sex, and The Proud Highway. He is a regular contributor to Rolling Stone and other national and international publications.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
ballard.katy, October 21, 2007 (view all comments by ballard.katy)
Thompson’s words lure the mind in and make it easy to find yourself in his place. He lives carefree and observes life with a stern shoulder in disbelief of the so called “doomed generation” he speaks so frequently of. He generates the mind with his talk of life as he travels a rather vast area of the world in pursuit of the “American Dream” he holds dear to him. Hunter was a very unique individual. Before his death at his most favorable retreat in Woody Creek, he had wanted his remains to be catapulted out of a huge Gonzo fist (a fist with two thumbs) cannon n which they were. He lived a very colorful and rebellious life and in many ways, changed the way I think of life.

Hunter S. Thompson, the original Gonzo Journalist.
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lukas, August 27, 2007 (view all comments by lukas)
Thompson's sole novel, long thought lost, is a semi-autobiographical, epsiodic, drink soaked tale of journalist working in 1950's Puerto Rico. The protagonist plunges into bad behavior, heavy drinking, sex, and, only occasionally, work. As with Thompson's non-fiction, the prose is both slightly crazed and lucid, full of acute observations. There's also a melancholy strain that gives it, despite the debauchery, an almost soulful quality.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780684856476
Author:
Thompson, Hunter S.
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Author:
Thompson, Hunter S.
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Puerto rico
Subject:
Adventure stories
Subject:
Journalists
Subject:
San Juan
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
San Juan (P.R.)
Copyright:
1999
Edition Description:
B102
Series Volume:
96-015
Publication Date:
November 1999
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
224
Dimensions:
8.42x5.57x.56 in. .47 lbs.
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