‘The Rum Diary’ by Hunter S. Thompson

This is the first book I am reviewing that I do not actually own myself; it was kindly lent to me by a diehard Hunter S. Thompson enthusiast eager to spread the proto-Gonzo literary joy. And a joy it truly is.

The Rum Diary, Thompson’s first novel, was written circa 1959 and yet lay unpublished until 1998. The book documents the exploits of Paul Kemp, a journalist writing for the San Juan Daily News on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. During his time on the island he encounters an array of crooked journalist types, he drinks a hell of a lot of rum (and occasionally gin, but mostly rum), and he finds himself inexorably drawn to his buddy’s girlfriend-cum-concubine Chenault, a Connecticut export cutting loose in the Caribbean.

Like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas after it, Thompson’s mission objective for The Rum Diary seems to be to set a vivid and often lurid scene rather than adhering to a tightly structured storyline. I have never been to the Caribbean before and it has been nearly two years since I last drank rum, but I could almost taste the Caribbean brew and feel the searing heat cooking my limbs as I read this, so absorbing and evocative is the prose of a then twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson. Yes, Thompson was just 22 when he wrote The Rum Diary, but you would certainly be forgiven for thinking otherwise; he writes with all the perceptiveness and often world-weary cynicism of a novelist three times that age, but all whilst retaining the exuberance and hedonism of an author on the precipice of adulthood.

The Rum Diary is what I would like to call a ‘quiet riot.’ It does not barrel along at the same breakneck speed as Fear and Loathing, nor do drugs feature heavily - or at all, as it was written in 1959 the novel most likely predates the proliferation of such substances - but it is still a literary orgy of excitement. It is weird, wild and wonderful - unmistakably the work of Hunter S. Thompson, and I am truly grateful that it found its way into my hands.

This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in September 2011.