Born in Louisville, Kentucky on July 18, 1937, Hunter S. Thompson is best known for authoring Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
and is credited with creating "Gonzo journalism," a highly personal
style of reporting where a writer becomes so involved in the story that
they become central figures in their piece. His hard-driving lifestyle,
which included the steady use of illicit drugs and firearms, made
Thompson a counterculture icon perpetually popular with college
students. After several bouts of poor health, Thompson died of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2005.
Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diaryis a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. The narrator, freelance journalist Paul Kemp, irresistibly drawn to a sexy, mysterious woman, is soon thrust into a world where corruption and get-rich-quick schemes rule and anything (including murder) is permissible. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, this dazzling comedic romp provides a fictional excursion as riveting and outrageous as Thompson’s Fear and Loathing books.
Throughout the novel, the narrative follows Kemp and two of his coworkers, Yeamon and Sala, at the Daily News, as they run into a few mishaps here and there, including a bike being dismantled by Puerto Ricans and Kemp's friends winding up in jail. The novel mostly follows Kemp going from story to story in San Juan, mingling with women on occasion, and exploring the early days of hedonism while trying to maintain his job at the crumbling paper. The novel isn't the most lively of Thompson's, but it illustrates the kind of lifestyle Kemp leads, with a kind of moral sensibility but a passive view through most of what happens.
The Rum Diary is in many ways a glimpse--as good as we can get--to a young Hunter Thompson, and his days living in San Juan, starting out as a journalist. The story is something of a fictional account, sure, but he really did base Yeamon and Sala off of his two real-life friends of the time, and he really did work at a paper there. I'm not sure how much of the novel's events can be considered true, but the novel never quite reaches the caliber of craziness that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas displayed. The novel feels much more realistic and sober, albeit drunkenly mellow.
