Barry A. (scary-floating-eye) reviewed on 1/7/2017 + 11 more book reviews

The book chronicles the adventures of a writer and his attorney as they visit Las Vegas, ostensibly to work on magazine articles. Plots require some kind of conflict, often an outside influence which gets in the way of the main characters trying to accomplish their goals. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the conflict arises from the characters themselves, namely their drug use, which severely hampers them actually working on those articles, even when they even bother trying. The drug use is excessive, and the main characters constantly react to situations which only exist in their heads, usually in the most ineffective and ridiculous way imaginable, often confusing or misleading the people around them. As such, it depicts very well one of the problems of using drugs and an excellent encouragement not to follow. At the same time, the author mocks pretty much everything around him, most of it deservedly so, both Las Vegas and the United States in general. One frequent target is the criminalization of drugs, and despite making the problems with drugs fairly obvious, he isn't terribly kind to those who enforce the drug laws either, condemning them as ignorant and gullible. Occasionally the author lets the characters sober up for a moment and make an astute assessment of the world, which is enough to make getting wasted and messed up seem like a good idea at the time. While on the surface it looks like a disorganized and silly mess, there is some good stuff in this book, definitely worth a read.

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