Hunter S. Thompson: An Insider's View of Deranged, Depraved, Drugged Out Brilliance tells the wild, expected stories of the two on LSD at Jimmy Buffet’s place and doing cocaine with Jack Nicholson, but Cowan doesn’t shy away from how Hunter’s lifestyle took its toll. Thompson said he started doing speed when he served in the Air Force and the base dentist’s daughter hooked him up. He candidly understated, “Nothing was ever quite the same after that.”
Cowan writes “for Hunter there was no shame in what he was doing,” but maybe there should have been. Thompson railed against the Uncle Duke caricature from “Doonesbury,” but he contributed to the persona as well. Cowan explains it was easier to give people what they wanted, to play the role of Hunter the Gonzo Journalist, especially when there was easy money to be made in doing so for the at times cash-strapped Thompson, rather than putting in the hard work to top himself as a writer, which was going to tough considering how successful he had been. He hid within the lifestyle of addiction and his tolerance allowed him to succeed at that. Thompson did continue to write columns and books, and even though there were occasional flashes of brilliance, like his piece right after 9/11, he couldn’t sustain the great literary heights he had achieved in the late '60s/early ‘70s.
Cowan presents the highs and lows of Thompson as a political figure. There’s a funny passage dealing with Thompson fighting with High Times over an interview he tried to block where he was quoted saying he did cocaine in the Oval Office with members of President Carter’s staff. Slightly more than a decade, Bill Dixon, who ran Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential campaign, came to Owl Farm seeking counsel after Hart got caught with Donna Rice, only to find Thompson completely obliterated and unable to communicate.
Article comments
1 - tink
Just put this on my must read list.
Thanks!
2 - El Bicho
glad I could help persuade you