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Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972)
A haze of drugs permeates Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing, which very loosely recounts trips that Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta embarked on while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. Thompson was to write captions for a photo essay on a motorcycle and dune buggy race near Las Vegas. The piece turned into something much more, and Sports Illustrated refused to publish it. Rolling Stone picked it up in 1971. The novel freely mixes fact and fiction, in a style referred to as "gonzo journalism." The book met with mixed reviews, but it has become recognized as a classic, albeit a very nontraditional one. Thompson himself called it "a failed experiment," which was based on William Faulkner's idea that "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism." |