This book is like a double-barrel shot gun. One barrel is the author, Hunter S. Thompson. The cult hero creator of Gonzo Journalism. I have to confess, I only had a surface knowledge of Hunter S. Thompson. I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and read a few articles, but I really had never read anything by him. Gonzo Journalism, while new and exciting in the 60’s/70’s, in today’s blogging world it’s hardly revolutionary anymore. In fact, I would suggest that anymore it’s just as common as traditional reporting. So, while I wasn’t awed by his writing style, I can definitely see how it was revolutionary at it’s time. He definitely writes like he’s sitting around with friends, describing in detail the time he spent with the Hell’s Angels. Through his writing, you almost feel like you come to know him to some extent. I think what I like most about him, is his prospective. He didn’t write this book with a particular bias (at least it wasn’t apparent to me), though at the end of the book you find out he was given more than ample reason.

The next barrel in this literary cannon, is the subject. The Hell’s Angels. They really are the definitive outlaw biker club. Like “Xerox” was to copiers. They weren’t the first, but the where the breakout club. Just the name alone brings to mind these dirty, bike riding, hard drinking, hard fighting, hooligans. They are shrouded in almost as my mythology as Knights Templar or The Skull and Bones. They embody complete freedom. I mean complete freedom in the Anarchy, base, animalistic sort of way. Which some people fear, and other hunger for…either consciously, or subconsciously. As it turns out, like everything else in life, there is more than just “one side” to the Hell’s Angels. They aren’t just drunken brawler. There is a strict ethos, and pride that come with the right to wear the winged deathhead. In the movie The Corsican Brothers, they warned of evil men coming to “Rape the cows, and pillage the women!” (those are evil men), while not entirely accurate, this might describe them to some extent.

One interesting thing about this book, is that it really stops at 1966. This is for a very good reason… that’s when it was written. So, the events and the perspective are from that point of view. This was before the internet, and to some extent before the boom of the upper-middle-class weekend outlaws, that boomed in the 80s. This was written in a time when sport bikes where just being born, and a “big” bike was the Harley ‘74. Why is this interesting? The club has gone through some serious image changes since then. They have refined their image significantly, and seemed to have dropped the “Who gives a *&@#* what you think?” attitude to some degree. They have actual clubhouses now, with fancy painted signs. They even have a website….

A club founded on the idea and love of chopped motorcycles, open road, freedom to do whatever, whenever, however, to whomever you please… has a website.

The book is well written, and if you find the subject interesting at all, I think you’d enjoy this book. I would suggest reading it with an open mind, as that is how it was written. But overall it’s pretty good.

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005)

Note:  You may or may not find this book in the store.  We will be happy to order for you.