My first night in Saigon. I was sitting in a restaurant when a blind lady selling counterfeit books approached my table. Despite her glazed eyeballs (and her inability to find my eyes with her own) I was captivated by her bright personality and attractive face, and so I decided to actually have a look at her selection of illegally printed books rather than shoo her off like I did everyone else. She mostly had garbage travel books and lonely planet guides, but I did spot The Rum Diary (1961) in the corner of my eye, and being a fan of Hunter S. Thompson fan I realised this was a great opportunity to read his first novel, which was written in 1961 but not published until 1998 – a late bloomer if there ever was one. I also bought some weed off the woman before parting ways! I read this book everywhere. I read it in my shoe box hotel room (I use the word room lightly), I read it in the sun, I read it on the bus, I read it on the toilet, I read it on the beach and I read it while drinking rum… lots of rum. The word ‘rum’ gets thrown around so much you become fixated on it, and before you know it you’re ordering three or four with every meal. The Rum Diary is a very easy and enjoyable read. It’s a bit slower than Hunter’s other novels, but is to be expected as he was still learning his chops. That is not to say he didn’t have any chops when he wrote this, it oozes the Gonzo flavour that made Hunter famous. The review excerpt on the front cover puts it perfectly: “Crackling, twisted, searing, paced to a deft prose rhythm… a shot of Gonzo with a rum chaser” – San Fransisco Chronicle. The story follows journalist Paul Kemp (Hunter S. Thompson) in Puerto Rico, as he tries to make it in the hot and isolated world that he has escaped to. I won’t say any more, but if you’re a fan of Hunter S. Thompson, you owe it to yourself to read this and skip the movie, which is a pile of hollywood shit. If you’ve never read anything by Hunter S. Thompson, then you should start by reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his best work by a long shot (unlike The Rum Diary, the film adaptation of Fear and Loathing is actually very good.)
★★★★ 4 stars