Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson

I bought this book about 2 years ago but gave up reading it after about a hundred pages because I thought it was too heavy...So why I decided to start reading it again is anybody's guess, (although I suspect that it had something to do with a subconscious desire to get away from history books). But I feel like my efforts have been rewarded because, although it is still very heavy, it is actually quite a funny and well-written book. Anyone familiar with Thompson's writing style will know that his sense of humour was savage so perhaps what I think constitutes "funny" in this book might not be everyone's cup of tea, (but I defy anyone not to laugh at the idea of someone sending a gin-soaked wino to a politician's press conference so the wino can grab said politician's leg and demand more gin live on national TV.). But, jokes aside, this is a very important book, not least because it shows the US democratic process up for the sham that it really is...Perhaps one can argue that this is a well-established fact and that it doesn't really matter here in the UK and they might be right. However, the relevance of this book as far as I can tell, (in terms of the US being on the cusp of change as well as trying to oust a mindless little weasel) cannot be underestimated. After all, whether we like it or not, what happens on the other side of the Atlantic has consequences for all of us...

So, if you can get past the (sometimes unnecessary) political jargon and the copious amount of references to illegal substances, then it is time well spent reading this. At the very least, you might get a better understanding of why the US needs someone like Obama as their president. But, as is probably very obvious, it is not for the faint hearted, or for those who have a limited interest in politics. You really have to persevere with it and the jargon is hard to negotiate. And that's a shame because it raises some very important points and is, in places very entertaining. But there are parts of the book, certainly towards the end, where the pages of typed telephone conversation become tedious, (I had to very try hard not to skip these pages and only kept reading because I thought I would miss something important - which, it turns out, I didn't) and, much like his other books, some parts are just impossible to read, mostly because they make you feel like your brain's been wired incorrectly.

Saying that though, if you are a marijuana/cocaine/mescaline fiend, they might make sense. And once I had got my head around most of it, I found it very hard to put the book down.