Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 This book,a sip of something and your imagination is all you need. June 28, 2008
Stephen A. Mc Donagh (London.England)
This is such a wicked read,from the start to finish I could not put it down.
Situations where you could see yourself and react the same way pulls you in within the first chapter.
You read this before your holiday and gaurenteed you will be out to find yourself your own rum diaries.
Welcome to Puerto Rico "where men sweat 24 hours a day" June 16, 2008
B. Kelly (UK)
A sweaty paranoid yet pretty laid back year in Hunter S. Thompson's life has produced this rum-soaked, beautifully written work of literature that I can't recommend highly enough.
Gonzo July 9, 2007
T. J. Cox (Leamington Spa, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hunter makes you feel in this short novel that you are the protagonist, and that it is you who is experiencing the craziness of Carribbean nights and parties, the rum, the fear, the uncertainty, the laissez-faire article writing, the beautiful girl. It is an adventure, and one worth having. If you are looking for escapism, this is it. If you are looking for quality writing, this is it. If you're looking for a good story, this is it.
Get One, It Is Your Round December 21, 2006
Crazy Cat (Yorkshire, UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Written before Hunter became the notorious drug-addled Gonzo, when he was, well, knocking back the booze instead, 'The Rum Diary' could actually be his finest work. Chronicling a journalist's days on a doomed newspaper, the action zips through the tough streets and bars of 'boomtown' San Juan, Puerto Rico. If Paul Kemp, the narrator, can't save his job he's definitely got an eye on winning the girl - but is everything working against him? The prose is remarkable for its economy and uncompromising, lucid vision; sleazy but somehow romantic characters are but flesh before us; while the spectacular depiction of an anarchic carnival will churn the reader's innards with its candid,lovelorn recklessness.
Ok, 'Hell's Angels' might just surpass it but it is a very close race indeed.
 Thompsonıs first book January 1, 2006
Depressaholic (London, UK)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
'TRD' was written in 1959 (though not published until the 1990s) and tells the story of Hunter Thompson's time working for a newspaper in Puerto Rico. Thompson (under the guise of Jack Kemp), joins a small staff of hard-drinking US expats misbehaving on the Carribean island, and finds himself doing much more boozing and partying than actual journalism. 'TRD' follows his chaotic lifestyle, as well as that of his colleagues, as the newspaper falls apart and their veneer of civilisation crumbles.
'TRD' is a fascinating book, especially for Thompson fans. Although the voice is distinctively his, it was written before he had his hopes raised and dashed by the social revolution of the sixties. Consequently the 'American Dream' was yet to be extinguished and the Thompson of 'TRD' is still very much in search of it. However, his disillusionment with his home country is clear. Initially the Puerto Ricans are portrayed unfavourably but, as the book progresses, we see that it is the American journalists who are dangerously unstable, typified by the violent Yeamon and his volatile girlfriend, as well as the more refined but no less odious Zimburger. 'TRD' is a kind of 'Heart of Darkness', as the image of the civilised American disintegrates into an orgy of drinking and violence..
I enjoyed 'TRD' a lot. It is brutal proto-Thompson. Perhaps it is a more likeable, even heroic, Thompson than his later books, but it is still easily identifiable as the cynical and weary journalist. It is less funny than his later works, but well written and enthralling. This is where Thompson's journey into the heart of American darkness began, and should be widely read for that alone.
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