Ugh.
Generally, I look for a book to have one of two things to make it "good". They are
- Character Development (or)
- A Plot
Willard and His Bowling Trophies really didn't have much of either. Fortunately it was a short book, and I read it in an afternoon. It's more of a longish short story than anything else. And, even though it's on the list, and I'm supposed to write a review about it, I'm going to have to say that I really don't have much to say about this book. That's how bad it was. The story went nowhere. The characters went nowhere. There was no "aha" moment that drew it all together. It sort of just was... sort of like this post.
Wretched. Absolutely wretched. The word wretched doesn't even describe it.
Moral of the Story: Good things don't always come in small packages.
Just as a note - I am a few posts behind. I have been liking the books I've been reading recently, so look for some good reviews in the next couple of weeks. :-)
January 14, 2007
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Really, the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is the very first book that you should read when you start reading all of the counter culture books. Electric Kool Aid sets the "scene" for the LSD fueled west coast lifestyle that brought us many novels from the 1001 list. Anyway, I read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream" before I read Electric Kool Aid.
So, Hunter S. Thompson, Dr. Gonzo, goes to Las Vegas with his lawyer, a big Samoan man. They spend their time there ( I can't even quantify how much time because the novel is so disjointed) doing every sort of drug imaginable:
"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole multi colored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. "
Ok. So from an academic perspective, it probably made the list because you can draw certain parallels between the bingeing on drugs to the bingeing on consumer products, which is the ultimate American Dream... acquire as much as you possibly can.
However, that does not by any stretch of the imagination make this a book that anyone should ever read.
Here's what I think happened. I think that Hunter S Thompson thought that it would be funny to go on a bender and write about it. He could perform so called "research" for his book by taking massive quantities of drugs and sell it to a publisher who would publish it, etc etc. Anyway, somewhere along the line, someone was stupid enough to believe that this book was worthy of being a piece of literature and the myth was perpetuated by a series of other individuals (why, I have no clue), until Fear and Loathing ended up being made into a hit movie in 1999 and making it onto the 1001 List. And really - isn't that what the American Dream is really all about? Pulling off the ultimate prank? or, is it a broke down circus that Hunter finds outside of Vegas? I guess we'll never know. Or is it deep within your heart that is ready to explode because you've put every sort of upper and downer imaginable into your mouth and nose?
The book ends with a very definitive sentence which pretty much sums up the whole scene "But it made no different. I was just another fucked up-cleric with a bad heart. Shit, they'll love me down at the Brown Palace. I took another hit off the amyl, and by the time I got to the bar, my heart was full of joy. I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger... A Man on the Move, just sick enough to be totally confident."
Moral of the Story: JUST SAY NO
So, Hunter S. Thompson, Dr. Gonzo, goes to Las Vegas with his lawyer, a big Samoan man. They spend their time there ( I can't even quantify how much time because the novel is so disjointed) doing every sort of drug imaginable:
"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole multi colored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. "
Ok. So from an academic perspective, it probably made the list because you can draw certain parallels between the bingeing on drugs to the bingeing on consumer products, which is the ultimate American Dream... acquire as much as you possibly can.
However, that does not by any stretch of the imagination make this a book that anyone should ever read.
Here's what I think happened. I think that Hunter S Thompson thought that it would be funny to go on a bender and write about it. He could perform so called "research" for his book by taking massive quantities of drugs and sell it to a publisher who would publish it, etc etc. Anyway, somewhere along the line, someone was stupid enough to believe that this book was worthy of being a piece of literature and the myth was perpetuated by a series of other individuals (why, I have no clue), until Fear and Loathing ended up being made into a hit movie in 1999 and making it onto the 1001 List. And really - isn't that what the American Dream is really all about? Pulling off the ultimate prank? or, is it a broke down circus that Hunter finds outside of Vegas? I guess we'll never know. Or is it deep within your heart that is ready to explode because you've put every sort of upper and downer imaginable into your mouth and nose?
The book ends with a very definitive sentence which pretty much sums up the whole scene "But it made no different. I was just another fucked up-cleric with a bad heart. Shit, they'll love me down at the Brown Palace. I took another hit off the amyl, and by the time I got to the bar, my heart was full of joy. I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger... A Man on the Move, just sick enough to be totally confident."
Moral of the Story: JUST SAY NO
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