The Joke's Over: Memories of Hunter S. Thompson

Ralph Steadman's savage pictures complemented Hunter S Thompson's angry writing like coke and champagne. The story of their peculiar friendship is just as fascinating as you might expect. HST was a very private man in spite of his apparent openness about his pharma-fueled life and persona. Ultimately, and too late, he realised that his dazzling style as a writer and as a personality was a huge bear trap from which there was no escape.Ralph Steadman is one of the few who truly penetrated the fortified compound which literally and metaphorically surrounded HST. To stand by HST as a longtime friend meant having to endure a torrent of insults 90% HST style. HST could not drop his guard entirely even to his closest confederates.This book is about as close as anyone is going to get to the 'real' HST. Res ipsa loquitur.

Ralph did a fantastic job chronicling his times with HST. He becomes a true Gonzo writer as the memoir continues. A wonderful achievement, and I doubt HST could ever draw as well as Ralph for all their time together. Mr. Steadman, I regret not buying your prints when I had the opportunity to do so years ago.. and I thank you for all your good works.

OK - interesting material but nothing really new about my favourite political/social journalist/commentator.

Makes Hunter and Ralph real.

Hunter S. Thompson was a one-hit wonder. His success with Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas earned him a ticket on the ride of being a court jester to the Rich & Famous, and he took it. The priority to continue to write great novels came second to the priority of hobnobbing with movie & music stars, and third to writing money-scheming letters.As much as I like Ralph Steadman's illustrations, they have had absolutely ZERO influence on how or why I enjoy Thompson's classic Vegas book (and some of his letters). I am thoroughly confident Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas would've sold just as many copies without Steadman's illustrations. The writing in no way, shape, or form depends on the illustrations. At best, the illustrations are some sort of after-thought graffiti.I am shocked by some of the reviewers who criticize Steadman's writing in this book. I think it reads easy and was written well. The history of the first five years of their partnership reads almost as gonzo and fun as the great Vegas book itself. I really liked it.I don't think HST ever seriously meant any TRUE hostility in most if not all of his letters to ANYONE. I think they were both written and sent with cackling laughter. It's an American thing. Mock hostility. Using sledgehammer words when softer words are expected. It's a kind of insulting humour spawned by the likes of Don Rickles. I was bemused by Steadman's hurt replies to HST. At first I thought they were just his way of playing along with the game...but by the end of the book I wasn't so sure.I think Hunter always had a bad boy streak in him and he always wanted to see how far he could push things---how far he could get away with behaving and writing letters like a BEAST. I think Ralph Steadman drew like a BEAST. In person he is supposedly a mild mannered gentleman, but he obviously has something sick & twisted as a BEAST inside him in order to be able to create those horribly fascinating drawings. He and Hunter were perfectly matched, and yet neither really needed the other to become a success. Steadman would've eventually made a name for himself without Hunter. No doubt about it.I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed all the personal photos and faxes and letters. I expected opinions & anecdotes from Steadman about his time & interactions with Hunter and that's what I got. What else can the guy possibly tell you? Add his anecdotes to those of others and you will conclude that what made Hunter S. Thompson "tick" was tied into his infantile need to be a show-off and the centre of attention---at any cost.