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| The Rum Diary,
Hunter S Thompson |
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| Books,
JFK,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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The long awaited new novel from Hunter S. Thompson has just been made available in paperback. According to sources this book has apparently been sitting unpublished for some time.
I couldn’t outline the plot if I wanted to because there just isn’t one; the whole book remains like a tense build up to something bigger. The setting is late fifties Puerto Rico during the anti communist American spread, indeed Puerto Rico had all the makings of becoming the 51st. State. It centres on a young journalist named Kemp who lands a job with a failing daily newspaper in the Capitol City, San Juan. He’s come from New York and is looking for a ‘get out’ from the dull madness of city life. Kemp soon finds Puerto Rico to be a touch less dull but the madness is far more routine. He settles into drinking rum and adding to the mayhem, before he knows it he is jobless and defiantly worse for wear.
Now, before you get the wrong idea, this is an extraordinary piece of work, you do not fear and loath but simply enjoy the tension that grows in the minds of several men as their lives drift from one silly mess to another. As with H.S.T. one often wonders whether he’s documenting fact or just making it up as he goes along. Decide for yourself, that’s half the fun.
Bloomsbury
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