The Great Shark Hunt

Hunter S. Thompson compiles a collection of some of his published and not previously published reports on a variety of subjects from his untimely exit from the Air force to sports and politics.

Upon having the book brandished at me I had no idea who Hunter S. Thompson was. The book was given to me by a chum some while ago, all but a brief dip enlightened me on Hunter S. Thompson being the man who wrote the well known Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. Though, as you will soon see, this is by no means the end to his talents.

His style was christened Gonzo, when he wrote an article regarding the Louisville Kentucky Derby "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved". The focus of the story isn’t indeed on the actual race but the sort of people who attend these events. Published back in 1970 the piece is beautifully unspoiled by political correctness, and while you may wince occasionally at the abrupt use of words we now consider to be racist, the story is laugh out loud funny. I guffawed all the louder as I managed to make a woman move down the train carriage to get away from my chuckling. Tutting and scolding me under her breathe every step of the way.

The term Gonzo journalism, and its referred to often in the book but never defined and not being something I’d ever heard of, was coined by Bill Cardoso in a letter written to Thompson, “"I don't know what the f*** you're doing, but you've changed everything. It's totally gonzo" In gonzo journalism, there are no set rules. The objective of the writer is not particularly to focus on key events but to make an effort to translate activities in such a manner that make you feel a part of them, a character in the events. It makes more sense if you read the book!

By and large the collection of the stories focus on events and subjects that he has had some personal involvement in. Thompson is unafraid to
broach controversial subjects such as drugs, politics, sex, violence and sports. They are all very popular themes through out his reports.
The book is on the whole extremely funny, the humour in this book is dry, sadistic, subversive and sarcastic, but personally at times I found it a bit much. It’s a book that really needs your full concentration, not something you can dip into every now and then, many of the stories are long and convoluted and due to the nature can be difficult to follow. There is a great deal of attention payed to politics, including the 1968 Nixon 1972 McGovern election campaigns. The book includes interviews and stories about the people and events, press room incidents and long hours spent in hotel rooms with “enough speed to alter 6 superbowls”. Thompson maintains an obvious disdain for politicians, and an almost maniacal hatred for Richard Nixon.
Despite this he manages to speak warmly of Nixon when he recants a flight where he was sat next to him. That isn’t to say this wasn’t funny, its just a great deal of American politics has slipped me by, my interest in it wasn’t always strong enough to keep me reading avidly.

Throughout it all, and considering the copious quantities of narcotics he claims to imbibe, Thompson remains a particularly observant man, with a great ability to notice the obvious and turn it into the sublime. His cars are a great example, in probably his best known book “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” he paints a picture of his fire apple red convertible as “The Great Red Shark” he never describes the vehicle, but taking into consideration the era we can easily picture it! ! This kind of observatory writing is skill in its most simple form, yet so under-utilised by the average modern-day author.

A large and highly amusing excerpt from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas can be found in the book, this in itself for me made the whole thing worth
while. Combine this with his fantastic rhetoric of San Francisco where the beatniks ruled, and from East LA with a great deal of coverage on race riots it becomes clear the Thompson errs on the side of the underdog. Despite his use of derogatory words it is obvious that the man is neither racist nor prejudice. An extremely useful quality in a journalist!

The stories display an exciting honest, incredible observation and a shocking sense of humour. Add to this Thompsons extraordinary good use of the English language, his work is wordy and clever, way above a pulp novel, but clear enough you could almost be there. All without loosing touch with the reader.

On numerous occasions I found myself remarking on how good the quality of writing is, and added consideration goes to Thompsons ability to write humour and include irony and sarcasm, something many current American comedians fail to do. There are many droll extracts in the book, abstract and darkly entertaining. I’d love to include some here. But Thompson doesn’t reel off one-liners; much of his humour is cunningly placed over passages, and it very difficult to extract small snippets.

On the whole this isn’t something you’d want to let your kids read, it really is quite extreme and occasionally sordid. On the other hand the copy of the book I have, in its paperback form, is some six hundred pages of extremely small and close print. This does make some of the reading heavy going for an adult let alone a minor.

If in doubt and you haven’t already check out the movie “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” then do so. Directed by Terry Gilliam the movie is extremely faithful to the writings, combine a great performance by Johnny Depp and some wonderful artistry (during Thompsons acid addled encounters) the film is fantastic. For me the narration over the movie helped me picture much of the rest of this book, tone and inflection and so on. I don
217;t know whether that was artistic licence or not, but it didn’t do any harm!

This is truly a ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ book. You may be offended by the nature and gratuitous language that is steady throughout, but if you are and you can endeavour to see your way past this, you will appreciate the dexterity and pure skill of the writing throughout.

I’ll leave you with one extract from Las Vegas:

"We had two bags of Grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicoloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.... also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls... but the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge..." --- HST '71