Hell's Angels (Penguin Modern Classics)

Not as over the top or as wildly entertaining as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but still very well written and highly entertaining. You don't get bland prose from the Doctor, and does it get any better than phrases such as "young blondes with lobotomy eyes"? This book is about 40 years old, and the reader certainly gets a feel for the 1960s, but I wouldn't at all call it, or Fear and Loathing, dated. The book is anecdotally driven, there are a lot of highly amusing stories with the bikers, and the bikers don't come across to me as completely unlikeable. If you like Fear and Loathing, you'll probably like this book too, although it's not as wacky and wild. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

Superb (3/3 people found this helpful)

HST gives a real insight into the biker culture which really took off in the 1960s, and which eventually spilled over to a degree into the UK. It is an intriguing look behind an often closed and misunderstood brotherhood, and HST does not pull his punches. He neither deifies or demonises the people he meets and parties with, he just tells it like it is, and the result is a compelling and very enlightening view of the the Angels.
I would recommend this to anyone who has preconceived ideas about the bikers and their lifestyle, good or bad, as I am sure that it will open your eyes to a sometimes uncomfortable set of truths.

Origins of Gonzo (3/3 people found this helpful)

I have read most published HST and this is where it all started. This is closer to traditonal reporting than most of the later books but none the worse for it. Hunter is of course the star of the book (as always)but faced with the raw outlaw behaviour of the Angels he appears as the relative straight guy, (which is pretty remarkable if you know Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). The focus of the book is actually one weekend that HST spent with the Angels and most of the remainder is entertaining analysis of the hysterical "Square" reaction in the press to other events that he did not witness. Throw in an LSD party with Ken Kesey and Allan Ginsberg just before Kesey skipped off to South America and i think you get the picture.

Excellent. (5/7 people found this helpful)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - the 'Gonzo' style of journalism, the underlying political references and the overall honesty make this a highly readable book. The time spent with the 'Angels and the trust that develops (on both sides) as a result of this, gives you a unique insight into both the Author's and the Subject's way of life. Interesting to see the 'Press / Authority as Antagonist' angle too.

H.S. Thompson. (5/11 people found this helpful)

it was some bad crazziness, but Hunter.s. Thompson Hell's Angels happens to be one of the finest books i believe i have read. Although it does not have the harsh, riped and savage dissection of human morals that Fear and Loathing in las Vegas has and is, Thompson provides a fine exapmple of his own genre of Gonzo. the unique perseptive of American culture and the realities of a drug fueled and boozed up segment of a society to which they where an affront provided moments of great enterttianment. (The drug diet of one angel and his subsiquent consomption had me crippled.) Any way i believe it neccessary for any one who loves Thompson, or even Hemmingway or Burgess to read Hell's Angels and every other Thompson publication.

Hell's Angels (Penguin Modern Classics)

Hunter S. Thompson

Reader Reviews:

not as good as Fear but still very good (0/0 people found this helpful)

Superb (3/3 people found this helpful)

Origins of Gonzo (3/3 people found this helpful)

Excellent. (5/7 people found this helpful)

H.S. Thompson. (5/11 people found this helpful)

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