5 comments about The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967.

1. Although I enjoy much of Thompson's work and think of him as a necessary part of our country, I can't help but feel he only let us behind a curtain he carefully crafted for us to see.



2. As a big fan of Mr Thompson for many years, I became very excited when I heard about this volume. And I was not disapointed when I read it. It is as good as any book he himself has ever written. Although not about any subject in particular, the book tells the story of Hunter S Thompson more interestingly than any biography I've ever read anywhere else. It is also far better than his autobiography "Kingdom of Fear".
   
   It obviously covers a lot of ground, but it never gets boring. Mr Thompsons letters, although not written in the same gonzo style of his books, are still very entertaining and very eloquent. They are obviously more candid, but also a lot less burdened by the "image" of Hunter S Thompson than his post-Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail publications (this is especially true for the second volume of letters, "Fear and Loathing in America"). In his letters, he writes as Hunter Thompson the man, not HST the Legend.
   
   You don't have to be a fan of Hunter S Thompson to enjoy this collection of his correspondings from between 1955 and 1967, but you will love it even more if you've read some of his other works. Then again, people wanting to buy this book are most likely to have read his other works as well.
   
   Higest possible recommendation.



3. This book, more than anything, collapses under its own weight. I genuinely enjoyed the read, but in retrospect there were too many times when I skipped to the end to see how much longer the book would go. With exhaustive editing it would be a formidable volume, but certain personal and business letters do no benefit to the collection as a whole.
   
   It almost functions as an autobiography... almost. I have a much better understanding of the late Mr. Thompson now, and admire his unhinged style of correspondence, but could have gotten the same point from less letters covering the same period of time. Like any good punk rock band, the shorter the song the better.
   
   The highest points are his moments of prophecy, which I will not ruin for those who plan to read this book. Hunter's ability to identify patterns and apply them to the political arena is astounding, and his observations on such are the best parts of the book.
   
   This is a good read for a patient reader who is rabid about the godfather of gonzo.



4. i loved this book. i'm pretty new to HST's books having 1st been introduced to his writing thru a friend who gave me a copy of Fear and loathing in las vegas. i didn't know he'd written other works but found that vegas book really funny. i bought a copy of it yrs later. the proud highway is a really interesting look into hunter's life on a daily basis. the "debt letter" on page 114 is hysterical! a great piece of writing. i've framed a copy of it and hung it above my pc. i love reading it.



5. This book is the first stop on my discovery of Hunter S. Thompson. While being a fan of many of those he had inspired and befriended throughout his years, I randomly picked this as a starting point, and I'm glad I did. While a good chunk of his bibliography is already on order, I believe this glimpse into the man of a cock and [mostly] broke individual from his childhood up until just after his first real break at the money provides a foundation upon which the rest of his catalog can be interpreted with a little more detail and insight then just going in it blind.
   
   It is a giant volume to read no doubt, clocking in at about 660 pages worth of letters, and even more to come. Invaluable to anyone that is intrigued and a fan of HST, and ripe to be torn by those that feel the fear and the wrath of his contempt.

5 comments about A Drinking Life: A Memoir.

1. Oh, the places Hamill will take you in this gritty, unflinchingly honest look at a fascinating interior life. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, complete with cockroaches, Pete slowly acquires an understanding of what it means to be an Irish-American.
   Around age 8, his father, Billy, walked him to Gallagher's, the corner saloon, where young Pete got his first introduction to the camaraderie of the neighborhood bar. There he witnessed his father's serenading of the crowd, after loosening himself up with booze.
   It was an initiation that would influence Pete for many years to come. Throughout the book, Hamill notes the persistent, persuasive messages that our society gives, that drinking is an essential social lubricant.
   Be it a wedding, a funeral, the beginning of a job, or ending of one, joining the Navy, going on leave or vacation, on and on, drinking was invited, expected, nearly demanded.
   The book provides great insights into the times. Hamill writes, "We lived to the rhythms of the war (WWII). Before the War, During the War, After the War."
   Hamill's forays into the world of art are enlightening. While taking a drawing class, he becomes enamored of a nude model, and they become involved. His loves, travels, thoughts on religion and family kept me entranced, as well as his inevitable slide into an alcohol-induced moral deterioration.
   The surprising aspect here, was Hamill's moment of clarity, when he realized he had a choice, that he could disrupt the cycle of the "Irish-curse". We cheer for him as he strives to make a sober life for himself. An interesting life, told by a great writer.



2. A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill is a reflection on his drinking past. Without sentimentality Hamill tells a hard story. He portrays a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. He chronicles his impoverished childhood, his tough coming of age, his difficult search for meaning, his newspaper career, and his regrets about the way he treated his first wife and children. As the title implies his memories are tied together by recollections of alcohol, and a drinking culture that both fascinated and repelled him. The bar was a place of refuge where Hamill could be a man. It was a place to celebrate, to commiserate, to identify with others, to escape loneliness. It was the only place he bonded with his father.
   
   But the bar and the alcohol that fueled it had an evil side. It stifled human consciousness; it dulled pain, boredom, and joy. It allowed unconsciousness in the midst of living. During the 1960's at the peak of his newspaper career he realized drink was making his hands shake when he typed, and his mind so soft he couldn't spell easy words. He quit. Drinking memories ended. Hamill's love for the writing life was more important than his love for booze.
   
   His memoir is not a cautionary tale against using alcohol, nor is it a self-serving whine against the way he was brought up. He writes like the reporter he is. Honest sentences, specificity, and recalled emotion inform his text. He presents clear snapshots of his 1940's childhood in Brooklyn. He lets the reader draw conclusions, or judgments. He presents the characters who walked across his mother's kitchen floor--his Irish father, mostly drunk, and his siblings. He gives us his friends. He moves into the 1950's with raw adolescent energy--lots of sex, lots of booze. Drinking so overpowers the narrative, that at times I felt exhausted just by reading of his drinking binges.
   
   Hamill's talent, in this memoir and in other work, is a passionate love for real life. He spreads humanity on a broad canvas without moralizing. He paints violence, gentleness, loneliness, and companionship. Real life is hard to look at. Hamill gives it to the reader like he gives it to himself. Without bitterness, with humility, with forgiveness, and with compassion.



3. In my quest for chronicles that detail the often entwined aspects of drink and journalism, I was delighted to discover Pete Hamill's candid tale, robust and surly - an account that carries the reader through his lushly-detailed memoirs that began in blue-collared Brooklyn. As the son of struggling Irish immigrants, Hamill grew up during the Depression with the enduring beliefs of the working-class neighborhood in which he lived -street-fights, low pay, loyalty to the neighborhood, and machismo drinking. His tale is rich with the nostalgia of days long past - marbles and stickball, Milton Caniff, Captain America, and the city Athletic League. He details his own lack of connectedness with an alcoholic father he longed to love and vowed not to imitate, only to fall prey to the same lure of the bottle.
   
   Hamill recounts his loss-of-innocence submission to wine at eleven, along with the internalization of the street-tough attitude that shapes his life in the ensuing years. His talent for graphics and natural ability in academics often leads him to the edge of success, only to fall victim to his own self-destruction. Dreams of becoming a cartoonist are interrupted by the reality of a Navy Yard job, yet resurrected again through art lessons from Burne Hogarth, then dulled by a desire to imitate stoic drinkers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The romantic association of absinthe and literature appeals to Hamill, a seduction that eventually draws him to a career in journalism. He details the rocks and bumps along the way - through newspaper strikes and Mexican jail. His obvious wanderlust takes him from Barcelona to Dublin, Rome to San Juan to Washington D.C., while trying to sustain a turbulent marriage, peppered with an infinite immersion into parties and booze, and eventual divorce.
   
   In 1966, Hamill meets Shirley McLaine at a party in Rome, and he details, very briefly, the eventual celebrity life he shared with her, but shies away from giving us a paparazzi view of truly personal details. Although he denies it, he is perhaps too immersed in drink to recall the nitty gritty. In his final look inward, he describes a New Year's Eve party and his feeling "as if I were shooting the scene with a camera from across the bar...I noticed that my hand was trembling and wondered if that was in the camera shot," - his own personal play that has lasted a lifetime, one written with a bad script that he rewrites at that very moment. Kudos for him.
   
   This is not a book that shows you how to quit drinking; rather, it is a searing, vivid account of one man's recognition of his own problem with alcohol. Despite years of succumbing to the liquor that constantly dragged him into the depths of the gutter, he emerged with a brilliant tale to tell.



4. Pete Hamill"s deeply introspective memoir of his coming of age during the late 40's and 50's in working class Brooklyn is a brutally honest account of how alcohol gets integrated into certain rights of passage as people , especially men navigate the transition to adulthood.
   
   His story could be anyone's, except that Hamill writes in a gripping personal style that infuses each episode in his young life with a sense of urgency. The struggle to reconcile with a distant father never deteriorates into a sense of victimhood. I admired the fact that Hamill is able to describe his youthful feelings of anger toward his father without wallowing in them and always with a sense of someone seeking to understand and forgive.
   
   This is a great book on several levels. Hamill captures a sense of the old neighborhoods of New York that have vanished and the strong influence that a sense of place had on young people of his generation when the world was quite a bit smaller.



5. I picked this book up out of desperation for something, anything to read...and I must admit that the title clinched the deal. "A Drinking Life" - I couldn't resist. Drama, angst, highs, lows...it's all right there in the title.
   
   What I wasn't expecting was a book that depicts a time, place and way of life that has always fascinated me. One of the reasons I love "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the vivid and at the same time, faded sepia description of a New York, and an America that I never knew. I've been to New York twice, have seen touristy parts and not so touristy parts, have been at turns delighted and appalled by its residents...and of course, in that short period of time, barely scratched the surface of this city that almost defies description. Because, of course, there are so many facets to it. New York depends on the area, the time, the circumstances. One person's New York may be a polar opposite of the next person's.
   
   Pete Hamill, in the first half of his memoir, describes the New York of Brooklyn from 1939 to 1950. In this New York, he and his Irish Catholic family struggle to better their situation. They live hand to mouth, in sometimes squalid apartments - too small for a family that keeps growing. And yet - when Hamill spends pages describing the more positive aspects of his childhood - I feel a yearning to be there. To see the far quieter and yet more greatly populated streets. I hope to hear the sounds of stickball, and radios playing jazz and swing into a summer night. I want to feel the safety and connection of a neighborhood that knows each and every member...one that shares the joy of the end of a war that they together shared the dread of.
   
   He describes D day in a New York that had been blacked out for months fearing air raids. "...without warning, the entire skyline of New York erupted into glorious light: dazzling, glittering, throbbing in triumph. And the crowds on the rooftops roared. They were roaring on roofs all over Brooklyn, on streets, on bridges, the whole city roaring for light. There it was, gigantic and brilliant, the way they said it used to be: the skyline of New York. Back again. On D day, at the command of Mayor LaGuardia. And it wasn't just the skyline. Over on the left was the Statue of Liberty, glowing green from dozens of light beams, a bright red torch held high over her head. The skyline and the statue: in all those years of the war, in all those years of my life, I had never seen either of them at night. I stood there in the roar, transfixed."
   
   He also describes his love of books, and words, and comics and the magic that happens when one is drawn into the new world of a story. When you discover a world, an existence, a universe previously unknown.
   
   "But when we lived on Thirteenth Street, the content of the comics was driving deep into me. They filled me with secret and lurid narratives, a notion of the hero, a sense of the existence of evil. They showed me the uses of the mask, insisting that heroism was possible only when you fashioned an elaborate disguise. Most important was the lesson of the magic potion. The comics taught me, and millions of other kids, that even the weakest human being could take a drink and be magically transformed into someone smarter, bigger, braver. All you needed was the right drink."
   
   And there it is, of course. The underlying thread of the book...drinking. From the earliest age, alcohol is everywhere in Hamill's life. In his neighborhood, in his home, even in his history - drinking is an accompaniment to all events, large and small.
   
   When he reads Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the passage that stands out is one where Jekyll drinks the potion and is transformed in a hideous way..."I read that passage and thought of my father." Hamill is deeply influenced by his father...hating what drinking does to him at the same time he is learning that drinking is what men do.
   
   As the book continues, some of the detail of Hamill's life is lost, certainly because (as he is first to point out) much of it was lost to him as well due to alcohol, but I also got the sense that this part of the book was rushed. It almost felt like Hamill was looking at how much had written about his early life and realizing that he'd better move things along if was ever to finish.
   
   Still - there are passages like these that sucked me right back in. "In the summer of 1950, all of us from the Neighborhood hung out in a place on Coney Island called the Oceantide. Built on the boardwalk at Bay 22, it was a block long complex with a swimming pool, lockers, a long packed bar, and a small fenced-off area where the young men danced with the young women to a bubbling Wurlitzer jukebox. Down the block was a shop called Mary's, which sold the most fabulous hero sandwiches in New York, great thick concoctions of ham and cheese and tomatoes laced with mustard or mayonnaise, along with cases of ice cold sodas."
   
   My mouth waters just thinking about it...I want to be there!
   
   Finally, towards the end, Hamill comes to the realization that he's spent his whole life trying to either be exactly like or nothing like all of the influences in his life. Nothing like his father, and yet just like his father. Exactly like the comic book artists and heroes. Exactly like and nothing like his friends from the Neighborhood. Not only his life, but his writing is an imitation or rejection of that of others.
   
   Which is summed up in the mantra he uses to quit drinking. "I will live my life, I will not perform it." There is much time and experience and emotions that he has lost - but in the end, he is able to find the strength to cut the losses.
   
   "And I loved my life, with all its hurts and injuries and failures, and the things I now saw clearly, and the things I only remembered through the golden blur of drink."

5 comments about Paris to the Moon.

1. This book has been enlightening in at least one respect - I thought one had to be an upper-class English twit to be this pretentious. Gopnik, of course, is not the former, but he is most certainly the latter.
   
   To be fair, occasionally Gopnik does present a humorous nugget or a unique insight into Parisian life (though not French life; he is only a Parisophile, not a Francophile.) It's the other 95% of the book's self-indulgent prattle that is so annoying. I swear that if Gopnik thought that too many readers understood the massive amounts of French in the book, he would switch to Latin or Greek. He is not merely a name dropper, he's a word dropper.
   
   While it starts out well enough, no more than 1/2 way through the book the reader is reduced to skimming page after page of discussions about food, reports of haute couture fashion shows, and an endless series of boring reflections on his young son. Toward the end of the book Gopnik even mentions taking his 4-year old on a trip back to New York in order for the boy to be interviewed for admission to a good pre-school! What a turkey this Gopnik character is. How is he ever going to explain all this pomposity to the boy when he grows up?



2. I picked up this book for insights on the less-touristy aspects of Paris, prior to a trip my family is taking. It's a very enjoyable book, and the author's descriptions definitely have raised my anticipation level for our visit, as well as given me ideas about places for kids. Plus (as many other reviewers noted), it's a funny and charming book. As the husband of a former chef, I enjoyed his discursions about cooking, too.
   
   My one complaint comes from the occasional pretentiousness and preciousness of the author's lifestyle. How many of us could move to Paris for five years during the prime of our working lives? And how many of us could take a month's vacation to the US in the summer, or fly our kids back for two days of interviews for kindergarten? Kindergarten?
   
   The author comes from a very small slice of our society, and he both downplays this and celebrates it at different times. And I don't like it. For example, his literary allusions -- whether French, English or American -- go over my head. I'm a well-read person, but I feel as if the author is trying to show that he has a greater range than his readers. To shift from Baudelaire to the New York Knicks within a few paragraphs is trying to have it both ways -- the intellectual and the common man.



3. An interesting collection of essays about family life in Paris. Gopnik's erudite, interesting descriptions of the City of Light will delight Francophiles, although his writing is fairly pretentious and pedantic at times. Nevertheless, this book is still a worthwhile read.



4. PARIS TO THE MOON is a collection of essays by a NEW YORKER writer. Gopnik and his wife moved to Paris in 1995. When a young teen, he visited Paris in 1773. After the couple's child was born in 1994 they endeavored to fulfill Adam's desire to live in Paris while their son was still portable. The romance of Paris became the author's subject for his NEW YORKER pieces. There was no big story in France. There was a lot of peace amd prosperity in the world and a lot animosity directed toward the United States. When Adam Gopnik thinks of Paris he thinks of his wife Martha and his son Luke.
   
   French politicians engage in ostentatious displays of detachment. The Parisian government has a clutch of domaine prive apartments. In reality, most apartments in Paris are not available to rent in a market sense. It seems that one of the politicians lodged his entire family in various domaine prive apartments. French life in general is chock full of entitlements. North African immigrants, though, have no entree. The French elites have now decided that the cure for hidden deals is transparency. Gopnik describes a strike. France is a centralized country and anything that mainly affects Paris is a national event. French people deal with an event by pretending it isn't happening. (Picasso and Sartre pretended the Germans didn't occupy Paris.)
   
   The writer's son Luke enjoys the Luxembourg Gardens, even in November. Trying to join an American-style gym, the author discovers that the rhetoric, the cult of sport is absent in France. Talking about the bureaucracy takes the place of talking about sport. In France there is no retirement anxiety. People don't link the notion of stopping to work with stopping to live as people do in the U.S. It is believed that what France needs is its own Bill Gates. It has a philosopher, Habermas, who contends that the basis for the state is the human love of arguing.
   
   The French have been obsessed with Vichy for more than twenty-five years. Thus, they did not finally confront their past during Papon's trial in Bordeaux. Explanation turns first on romanticism, next on ideological rigor, and finally on the futility of explanation. In 1997 there was an incident at the Eiffel Tower. The French draw their identity from their jobs, the Americans from what they buy. Adam Gobnik decides that couture is romantic cartoon. Yves St. Laurent is still the favorite in 1997 of the Socialists in the government. He uses opera arias to show his clothes. The new Bibliotheque Nationale, a Mitterand grand project, is, according to Gopnik, in the totalitarian Luxe style. Other transformations of cultural sites have been undertaken at the Louvre and the Bastille Opera. Jazz, loved by the French, and Impressionism, loved by the Americans, confirm the simple physical basis of powerful emotion.
   
   Alice Waters is in Paris at some point during the writer's stay. He offers to cook dinner for her and is nervous. Her ends up cooking lamb for seven hours where four would have been appropriate. It seems that the purpose of the visit of Alice Waters to Paris is to determine the feasibility of opening a restaurant at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre. She has reconciled utopian politics with aristocratic cooking. The crucial unit of French social life is the cohort. Members of the cohort inhabit neutral places such as parks and cafes.
   
   The couple's daughter Olivia is born in Paris. Since Paris is beautiful, but France is not a life, the family returns to America. The book is both amusing and instructive.



5. This is a book for francophiles. It might be a good resource on French culture and attitudes if you will be spending an extended time traveling or working in France. But if you are looking for good literature, skip it.
   
   Should have known by just opening the cover - the first SENTENCE in the book has 9 (count 'em - NINE) commas in it. The prose is self-centered, self-conscious, and self-congratulatory.
   
   You are regaled by sentences like this one: "The lucidity of Parisian empiricism was bought at the price of the grandiosity of Parisian abstraction, and you couldn't have one without the other".
   
   Gopnik is the sort of author who thinks when he breaks a fingernail, it's significant and we need to know. You get an entire chapter devoted to a bedtime story he made up for his son, end to end.
   
   The author needs to get over himself, and the editor needs to go back to flipping burgers. Spend your valuable leisure hours reading something else!

5 comments about Sports Illustrated: Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly.

1. When my husband's Sports Illustrated comes, I open it up to the last page and read what Rick Reilly has to say. I really like his column and the fact that he went onto the Oprah Show to try to defend his gender...I know, I know, it is a losing battle if you saw the episode, you know what I mean. The column is usually is the only thing I read in the magazine. So when my husband mentioned Rick had this new book out I had to get it for him...if for nothing else to see him actually reading a book instead of Sporting News or Sports Illustrated.



2. I have read Rick Reilly on and off in SI for years. I am not a regular subscriber, so my readings of his work have not been consistent. I was getting ready to take a trip and wanted something that would be fun to read. I saw the 5 star reviews (on Amazon) of Rick's book but I was somewhat skeptical about getting it. As a University of Tennessee alumni and fan I had been upset when he had written an article slamming Pat Summit (legendary UT women's basketball coach) about "running up the score" on one of the Lady Vols opponents. Despite all this I decided to take a chance. I needed a good read on my vacation, and I knew he was a good writer, and I needed have a laugh or two while flying, or more often than not,sitting in the airport during another delay.
   This book is far more than I expected. This book is very funny, but many of his articles are very touching, and he exposes the best and the worst in the people involved in sports. Sports are the venue, but it is his insight into the people that make the stories so compelling.
   As a big fan of the late Jim Murray's writing, I never believed there would ever be another sports writer that good, but I think Rick is getting to that level. A great read, a must read, for any sports fan, period! Every bit a 5 star rating and more.



3. I read a few chapters each night.
   
   One night I had tears on my pillow from laughter.
   
   The next night I had tears on my pillow from the inspirational story.
   
   It's likely that many of my friends will get this book for Christmas or their birthday. Just a great book!



4. As a recent Journalism grad this book was amazing. I would love to get into the sports writing field (although I have a feeling I'll never reach Reilly status). This was a great set of stories and life experiences. Very humorous and very touching.



5. I feel a sports columnist's job is to evoke emotion in the reader. Make him/her laugh, cry, get angry, just don't bore them. Riley does that better than anyone. He's an amazingly gifted writer and I loved nearly every bit of this book. I'd already read most of these columns being a subscriber to Sports Illustrated, but they were definitely worth a re-read.
   
   He's great at tugging the heartstrings: The story on the cross country runner with cerebral palsey, the Middlebury fan who is confined to a wheelchair because of CP, the father who nominates his son -- killed in a motorcycle accident -- for Faces in the Crowd. All tear jerkers.
   
   He makes me laugh throughout the book, and get angry with all those arrogant/self-entitled athletes such as the steroid users.
   
   He's not just a sportswriter, he's a great writer. I can't recommend this book enough.
   
   * I wish Riley would've stayed with Sports Illustrated. I've heard he's dabbling in TV or ESPN, somewhere. Bad move. I've seen his TV commercials, he's not good on TV. He's a superstar in print, he should stay there. Nevertheless, this is one heckuva book.

5 comments about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Other American Stories (Modern Library).

1. This is one of the great books. This Modern Library hardcover edition is beautifully made - good paper, clear font.



2. I went into this novel thinking about all of the other publicly spoken peer reviews I have heard. Of course the drug crazed part sounded hilarious, but also after my very brief prior knowledge to Thompson's writing, i knew it would have some redeeming literate values. Picking up strong from the start, the novel made me laugh in disbelief at some of the experiences the reporter and his lawyer went through. Some of them even made me question reality.I am not a psychadelic enthusiast so I cannot judge if it is actually possible to hallucinate to the point of actually seeing huge lizards devouring humans.
   
   This piece works in very strange ways, almost putting you in the journalist's position. It made me feel very "strange" to say the least. Overall, this novel is a fine choice whether you are looking for anything from a bathroom read all the way up to an analysis. A warning though is to not be too closed-minded when reading this novel. Expand your thought train and think about what the 2 are going through, whether you approve or you don't. My best comparison would be to read this tale as you would listen to Dark Side of the Moon.
   
   Pick this visionary piece up and enjoy it for yourself.
   there are so many things in this book that you can stretch out and mold in your mind to better suit your imagination. It was a great read.



3. For the uninitiated (do you exist?), Hunter S. Thompson was a man famous for drugs, brilliance, and hard-living -- and in roughly that order. This story is 'journalism' in that it actually happened(!!), sorta... Thompson would embellish profusely, but in life he was fully capable of Fear and Loathing's boozy, head-on, wildly narcotic journalism.
   
   This is Thompson's masterwork. Within the vague framework of "Gonzo" journalism, he packs in surges of cultural subversion and hallucinatory absurdity-as-humanity. Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a singular experience, a rarity in contemporary lit. You will be shocked and amused. You will both yearn for mind drugs and fear them. You will, at times, feel as if peering into the soul of humanity. And you will laugh, always. Don't miss out.
   
   Also, a secret: This is a *tremendous* book to read aloud.



4. Up there with Bukowski as "must read but be prepared", I've been avoiding Fear and Loathing for a while for no particular reason. I'm glad I finally broke down and read it, it's really a great book!



5. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson
   
   Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.
   
   Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.
   
   The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.
   
   See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)
   
   I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.

5 comments about In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing.

1. What would it be like to have one's brain blown open and body sheared by an IED to the point where everything shifts physically, mentally and emotionally? How does one and one's family deal with the aftermath with all the possible implications of possible infection, complications, recovery and/or death? In An Instant is that story, described by Bob as a reworking of the brain, "...like seeing the top of a mountain from a path, but without the ability to find the way up...by taking one step at a time, little by little, I realize I can still get there..."
   
   Lee and Bob's story is starkly told from two perspectives not only of voice but also interweaving the past with the present. Their story begins with the devastating event that so dramatically changed their lives, the explosion of that IED on an Iraqi road where Bob was working as an embedded journalist/anchor for ABC News. Lee is a respected public relations executive and freelance editor whose career has evolved with the multiple changes of Bob's career from high-paid lawyer to executive anchor man for a top notch news service.
   
   Bob and Lee do a superb job of carrying the reader through history as Bob's teaching law stint in China allows him to enter the world of journalism as a "fixer" during the Tiananmen Square crisis and numerous other smaller and larger historical, pivotal events including 911, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and more. They are skilled writers who know how to convey the excitement, peril and significance of these events.
   
   At the same time, In An Instant is the story of the "Landstuhl survivors," a group of family members trying to deal with the multiple demands of a challenging career and now of a devastating crisis enough to break the toughest spirits. Their story is told with honesty, intelligence and a specificity that renders the reader humbled and highly respectful of this daunting experience that has reshaped not only the Woodruff family but continues to affect numerous other families of soldiers and journalists serving in Iraq.
   
   The best nonfiction work this reviewer has read in a very long time!
   
   Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on March 5, 2008



2. As a longstanding fan of Bob Woodruff, I felt such sadness for him and his family when he was injured. I followed his progress as much as possible through the general media. Thank you to both Lee and Bob for sharing their stories and more importantly their feelings. As a nurse having cared for patients with brain injuries, I am delighted to see him doing so well and his family adjusting to the "new normal." Please continue your work with research and families struggling through the same ordeal. It is much appreciated!



3. This book tells the serious story of the tragedy and triumph shared by Bob Woodruff and his wife, children, friends and co-workers when he was devastatingly injured while reporting in Iraq. The trauma of his head injury is explained in a very detailed manner, and his subsequent recovery is followed mainly from his wife's point of view, describing the horrors they all went through. The ability to deal with all of this makes this book a very moving and uplifting tale of how Bob and also our brave soldiers are coping with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and why it is important for all of us to become aware and understand this signature war injury of Iraq and Afghanistan.
   
   The poignant and matter of fact telling of the process to recovery is sprinkled with humor and makes a great read for those interested in learning how to move through this difficult situation.



4. This story recounts the miraculous survival of news anchor Bob Woodruff. More importantly, it exposes the fear, frustration, and fatigue that Woodruff's family experienced as they guided him through months of trauma.



5. This is a memoir written by Bob and Lee Woodruff. The passages are divided between Bob and Lee, each giving their recollection of the way certain events unfolded. I found Bob's accounts to be gripping and interesting, maybe because he is the one who received the traumatic injury. I found Lee's writing akin to reading a bad soap opera script. It was almost unreadable at times. I understand that she is facing hardships with her husband in a coma, but it nothing like what your typical family has to face under the same circumstances. At one point, this Colgate educated woman wonders how she is going to pay the bills with her husband in a coma? When I read this, I got the feeling that she didn't know how to pay the bills, i.e. write out a check and mail it. I don't think money is an issue for this Westchester County, NY family. It was passages like that which detract from the book. I found Bob's account of his therapy and what he had to go through to get back to himself very interesting but too brief. In the after forward, Bob mentions he is working on a documentary about his journey and the journey GIs have to make in recovering from traumatic brain injuries. I don't know if this has come out yet, but it would be an interesting show.

5 comments about Breathing the Fire.

1. I could not put this book down. Anyone who wants to understand what it means when they hear or read about bombs going off killing or wounding civilians or soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan should read this book. Even weeks after reading this book, I am not able to get it out of my mind.
   
   Also. the reader gains insight into what reporting from a war zone really means.



2. I would not have read this book had my husband not seen an interview on TV and bought it for me. What a loss that would have been. Kimberly puts you in Iraq, in the hospitals and therapy plus shares exactly what it was like for her both mentally and emotionally. I am definitely passing this book along to friends.



3. We all know war is not pretty and people get injured and killed. This book really brings home the reality of how those catastrophic injuries affect the lives of the injured. It also shows the incredible courage of Kimberly and her family as she recovers from her injuries and made me think we are not doing enough for our injured vets.



4. I started reading this book and could not put it down. It is an inspiring work. Ms. Dozier has given the reader an honest appraisal of her experience to heal herself and heal the many others broken by the ravages of this war. Her story is told in a bipartisan manner, not at all political and should be read by all soldiers and all who care about our soldiers.



5. Remarkably unflinching - Kimberly Dozier's narrative voice in "Breathing the Fire" describes her road to recovery after being seriously injured on Memorial Day 2006 by a horrific car bombing in Iraq which killed four others, including the CBS cameraman and soundman she worked alongside. In meticulous detail, Dozier dissects the details of the bombing and day-to-day decisions around her medical care and rehabilitation, and punctuates them with her observations and feelings, allowing a rare peek into the mind of someone who has survived an extremely traumatic experience. Even after she learns how to walk again and returns to the newsroom - the author learns that there is no textbook for adjusting to a "new normal" and how to respond to people as they react to seeing a walking miracle. The book sheds light on the experiences of many struggling to recover from the wounds of war. You also learn what drew her to journalism and led her to be a foreign correspondent in a war zone. Readers are introduced to a wealth of supportive people who played pivotal roles in her recovery - from Iowa National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Jeremy Coke who tied the tourniquet on her leg after the bombing that saved her life, to her friends at CBS, innumberable medical and rehab personnel, her parents, and her boyfriend, Pete. Destined to become one of the critical memoirs chronicling the Iraq War.

5 comments about Mark Twain: A Life.

1. This thorough and well-written biography of a gifted indivudual leaves one with the feeling of having known Mark Twain, Samuel Clemmens, personally. The book offers two additional values: One is getting a glinpse of what life was like during the late 19th century. The other is what it meant to experience the Civil War from a state so far removed from the action that the war seemed to be going on in another country.



2. Powers gives us a terrific chronology, densely packed information, charming and insightful prose, plenty of great Twain quotes and anecdotes, empathy for the tragedies of Twain's life and twitting of his oddities when called for. I found it quite remarkable that the book could be so factual and also so readable. There's an excellent index, solid background references, and many laugh-out-loud moments. Adding to the pleasaure of this reading experience are some delightful and - new to me - photographs. Strongly recommend this outstanding biography.



3. This biography is a well written, comprehensive account of Twain's life. What is missing is a coherent, compelling life story or insightful interpretation of Twain's creative process.



4. I was disappointed by this biography of one of the most interesting and popular figures in American history and letters. Unlike so many of the other reviewers I found this biography to be excruciatingly long and boring. It takes quite an effort by a writer to make as fascinating a person as Mark Twain dull, but the author succeeds. The writer kept throwing in his personal asides in an effort to be clever, but instead was merely annoying. The writing style is awkward and stilted and it takes a real effort to push through to the end. The author seems to be trying to direct attention to himself as much as the subject. This style makes the 722 pages seem twice as long.



5. I've read several biographies of Twain over the years, none more beautifully written than this book. It reads like a cultural history of the US during Twain's lifetime. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of Twain's work.

5 comments about Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story.

1. An awesome book, was SOOO much fun. You really love the author by the end of it and he really makes you feel like you are apart of the whole thing. His randomness is awsome and the only problem that I had with the book was the comment he made about Shannon Hoon.



2. This is by far my favorite book by Klosterman. It was the second book I read by him, but he was definitely more relatable than in "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." I would definitely recommend it as a first read to anyone who wants to get into his works.



3. 
   I flipped through the book in the bookstore and thought, "oh, this sounds kind of cool" when I got to the part about cocaine people and pot people, because it was funny and ironic and pathetic and he knew it. Some of the book was really interesting; specifically, I liked when he talked to strangers. His boring romances are boring. Why are you wasting my time? I finished the book hoping he'd say something worth reading. The only thing I'm going to remember--of any worth, anyway--was his description of intelligence as "knowing what to do without being told," which was actually quoting Nixon about Kissinger. Nice.
   
   I just wish he were a little smarter. Then it could have been a good book. Until then, stick with Spin, Mr. Klosterman.



4. Overall, I guess you could say I kind of enjoyed it...
   
   However, I was really suprised to see how he wrote endlessly about himself. This book is completely lacking an insightful, charming, and inspiring voice - like I thought it would have. There were very few "laugh out loud" moments and I just found that I couldn't wait to finish reading it. This book didn't have any realism; any soul. I felt like he was just talking out of his butt, so I found him hard to fathom, hard to grasp, and hard to relate to. Whether this is 85% of a real story or not, he didn't give enough analysis or honesty for me to believe any of it.



5. JUST SHUT UP AND BUY IT. I've read this and a Decade of Dangerous and they are both highly entertaining and very addicting if you are into music, obsessive habits and cosmic ideas. If you do not have a sense of humor, do not buy this book. If laughing out loud in quiet public settings is not your forte, then maybe you should pass on this one. I've bought many copies for that special kind of friend and the ones I haven't met yet. -amen

5 comments about The Curse of Lono.

1. This books is probably the least well-known of HST's books. But it was a very pleasant surprise upon reading it. It is classic Thompson, self-destructive, paranoid, and hilarious. If you take his word for it, you might never visit Hawaii yourself!



2. The Curse of Lono is classic Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman's illustrations bring the twisted story to life in this beautiful coffee table book. A must have for any diehard fan of Gonzo!



3. WHile I was aware that this book was illustrated, I was not aware of the fact that it is huge! I thought it would be an illustrated, regular novel-size book. Instead it's about A3 size, and very heavy.. The pictures are great and all but if I had been aware of the size of this book I probably wouldn't have purchased it.



4. excellent book. i was completely new to his writing beefore reading this gem. crazy bleep* guy! his work seems to be more of a writers' journaling than serious novel-stuff. a travel-blog; if you will.. i haven't gotten into many of his other works yet plan to, eventually. even a holy-roller could come out freshpresssed and standing tall after one of his tales. good stuff, though. very good stuff. if you were one of those, 'say no to drugs' individuals then a lot of this might come off as tumultuous and confusing and weird and odd and, basically, not ur cup of tea.. take care and rest that crazy mans' soul. cheers.



5. The last great Thompson work that I have read which I hadn't bought because it's a bit expensive, but worth it in my opinion.
   
   Fear and Loathing, the Rum Diaries and Curse of lono... no more good Thompson to read.