E. Jean Carroll, "Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson"
Hunter Thompson did not, as some people may wonder, inspire me to look into journalism. But he did make an impression on me that made me want to write. Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at age 15 was an amazing experience; it was just so powerful and high-fueled that I couldn�t tear myself away from it, and I think I even re-read three times.
In a row.
Now, however, I really think I enjoy his shorter columns that he wrote, particularly in the era when he was writing for the San Francisco Examiner (now collected in The Songs of the Doomed). "Bad Craziness in Palm Beach" is one of the finest first-person accounts I have ever read, and "Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith" (reprinted in The Great Shark Hunt) is informative, profound, and honest. And, the best sign of great writing, it's entertaining as all get-out.
But I know I�m not the only person who thinks he�s a great writer, and therein lies the problem � I�ve seen him imitated by so many hacks over the years that I�m careful to avoid sounding like him.
There are two exceptions to this: The first came when I wrote a homage of sorts for the De Anza paper when the Fear and Loathing movie came out, intentionally pushing the envelope. I pushed it so much so that our adviser worried about "printing something that says you struck a three year-old child in the head with a box of metal canisters filled with nitrous."
The second example came then I finished my Journals from Bath (which you can read when you buy my book!). Somebody told me it reminded him of Thompson. I didn�t see the connection, but I suppose it was just because crazy things kept happening to me, and I wrote about them.
I also drank a lot.
But the imitation thing is what�s wrong with this biography. E. Jean Carroll takes an odd approach to the biography form, interspersing chapters with a fictitious character that is being held hostage by the Doctor and forced to write his bio for him, mixed with various quotes from acquaintances that know or knew him. The chapters with the quotes work. The incidents with the supposed hostage don�t.
Really, the book is just an extremely cheap rip-off of Thompson�s style. As the guy who made the comparison with me said, "If I wanted to read Hunter Thompson, I�d read Hunter Thompson."
Of course, if Carroll had stuck with just using the quotes, she wouldn�t really be able to claim authorship. I don�t mean to belittle her, as it�s obvious she put a lot of work into this book, but from what I�ve heard, Carroll is a talented writer herself. I just wish she had used her own style.
By the way, the review for the movie version of Fear and Loathing was turned into some journalism competition after it was printed. I didn�t win, and on the sheet reserved for comments from the judges, an anonymous person had written, "I wrote something like this when I was in college. I was proud of it then � I�m embarrassed by it now. Stick to THE FACTS next time."
Those comments made me prouder than any of the awards that adorn my wall.
