Title: The Rum Diary
Author: Hunter S. Thompson
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 214
Rating: 8/10
Hunter S. Thompson – The Rum Diary
The Rum Diary tells the heartwarming and tragic tale of the adventures of journalist Paul Kemp in Puerto Rico, where he works at the Daily News by day and drinks rum at Al’s by night. Of course, there’s a woman involved, and the novel is also home to its fair share of institutionalised corruption – a very Thompson topic.
The author is better known as the writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and while his style is similar here in some ways, it’s also a little different – little touches, and the idiosyncrasies of some of the characters, make this a much more traditional novel, even though it’s still far from it.
It’s a strong recommendation from me, particularly if you’ve already read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and if you’re a fan of Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway and other writers of that era – Thompson’s style here reminds me a little of that, and it’s interesting to note that even though he sounds wiser here, it was written before Fear and Loathing, although it wasn’t actually released until 1998. I like a book with a story behind it, and you should too.
Hunter S. Thompson
