Publisher's Weekly Review
Denevi (Hyper: A Personal History of ADHD), a professor of fine arts at George Mason University, serves up a sympathetic biography of Hunter S. Thompson, focusing on the journalist and countercultural figure's life from 1963 to 1974. Denevi's premise, which is only spottily supported, is that Thompson sacrificed himself, descending into drug addiction and a chaotic lifestyle, in order to battle fascism as personified by Richard Nixon and other Vietnam-era politicians. Thompson is, for Denevi, a principled truth teller who understood the dangers to America posed by the Vietnam War and Nixon's cynical dishonesty. But the text is mainly a straightforward biography. As Denevi recounts, in the course of those years Thompson immersed himself in the motorcycle gang Hell's Angels and wrote his genre-breaking book about them; reported on the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention; engaged in participatory democracy by running for sheriff of Aspen, Co.; wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; for Rolling Stone magazine; covered the 1972 presidential campaign and Richard Nixon; and developed "gonzo journalism," the highly personal, free-flowing style with no boundaries between writer and subject and no pretense of objectivity. This account will deepen readers' understanding of the personal events and experiences that surrounded and informed Thompson's best-known works, and as such is best suited to those already familiar with them. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A fresh biography of a significant period in the life of Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005).It was inevitable that Thompson's canon would eventually reach the level of scholarly seriousness it had always merited. While many of his fans are still inspired to blaze off on desert road trips, spun on intoxicants and armed with copies of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his other important work beckons re-evaluation, even renaissance. In his second book, Literary Hub nonfiction editor Denevi (MFA Program/George Mason Univ.; Hyper: A Personal History of ADHD, 2014) carves out a decade of prime terrain, chronicling Thompson's career from his first big break with Hells Angels through publication of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, when he grew into a prized misfit American journalist. Beginning with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the author stresses its impact on Thompson, whose already broad political worldview was quickly morphing into a personal mission: war against anything that threatened bedrock American principles. Whether chronicling Thompson's coverage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, his running for sheriff as a "Freak Party" candidate, his time embedded with George McGovern's 1972 press entourage, or the eventual resignation of Richard Nixon, Denevi hits all the key events, underscoring that Thompson was a serious journalist, driven by passion and motivated by injustice. The author clearly conducted significant research; a full quarter of the book is endnotes and source citations. Fleshing out the narrative with minutiae like what Thompson was listening to with the Hells Angels on first meeting ("The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan") or what he drank with right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan when they met (whiskey), the impressive details anchor the story with the kind of texture and scope that Thompson always appreciated.A thorough, timely, tautly written, and credible volume certain to be assigned by scores of journalism professors and a great new book for fans ready to move past Thompson's alter ego, Raoul Duke, to the next level. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
WIT'S end By James Geary. (Norton, $23.95.) Geary takes an unusual - , approach to writing about wit. The chapter on verbal repartee is written as a dramatic dialogue. For the neuroscience of wit, he delivers a scientific paper. A quirky approach for a quirky topic, freak kingdom By Timothy Denevi. (PublicAffairs, $28.) Beyond the drugs and gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson was a fierce opponent of corruption and the authoritarian tendencies of political leaders. This is what most motivated his writing, Denevi argues in a new biography of the bombastic writer, the new order By Karen Bender. (Counterpoint, $26.) A finalist for the National Book Award, lauded for her short stories, Bender returns with a collection that reflects America's new reality. One story takes place after a school shooting, another centers on a woman grappling with unemployment, muck By Dror Burstein, translated by Gabriel Levin. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) Burstein is one of the most experimental and exciting Israeli novelists writing today. His new book is a reworking of the Book of Jeremiah tinged with much surreality - there are talking dogs and cunneiform tattoos. heirs of the founders By H. W. Brands. (Doubleday, $30.) Brands, a two-time Pulitzer finalist, has turned to the generation of American political leaders who arrived in the wake of the founding fathers and dominated the first half of the 19th century. The intertwined lives of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and John Calhoun are examined for all the ways they helped shape the young nation. "One of the odd effects of this exhausting and endless news cycle, for me anyway, is that I am always looking for something else to read. I'm not looking to be distracted so much as absorbed in bold, ambitious books (fiction, typically) filled with big ideas and imaginative characters. You can't get much bigger or bolder than John Irving's a prayer for owen meany, starting with its tiny, eponymous hero - barely 5 feet tall, fully grown - whose high-pitched utterings Irving renders solely in all-caps. 'THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE,' Owen declares, matterof-factly, staking out his position on one of the existential questions at the heart of the book, set in small-town New Hampshire in the 1950s and '60s: Are our lives governed by fate or by chance? T am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice,' the novel's narrator - and Owen's best friend - says in the book's opening sentence. Months after finishing A Prayer for Owen Meany,' I find myself suffering a similar fate." - JONATHAN MAHLER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, ON WHAT HE'S READING.
Library Journal Review
Denevi (MFA program, George Mason Univ.; Hyper: A Personal History of ADHD) writes a spirited account of journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), the king of gonzo journalism, by interjecting himself into the stories Thompson wrote that resonated with people during the 1960s and 1970s, the era covered here. Colorful descriptions detail Thompson's beats: Las -Vegas gambling, the Hell's Angels, the 1968 Democratic national convention, where he was nearly beaten to death, and the 1972 presidential election. Thompson turned all these events into best-selling books, especially his hatred for Richard Nixon. -Denevi further shows how Thompson gained fame and the skills to write under a relentless schedule at the ultimately fatal expense of his substance abuse, including 100 essential pages of notes containing samples of the journalist's work, and concluding with how Thompson's drug use impacted his ability to cover effectively Nixon's 1974 resignation. See Joe Hagan's Sticky Fingers for descriptions of Thompson's rocky relationship with Rolling Stone magazine. VERDICT Fans of Thompson, those unfamiliar with him, as well as journalists and scholars will enjoy this breezy but ultimately cautionary tale.-Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.