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The Rum Diary (Bloomsbury Classic Reads) (Paperback)
Short Description for The Rum DiaryThe sultry classic of a journalist's sordid life in Puerto Rico
Full description- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Published: 05 July 2004
- Format: Paperback 224 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Contemporary Fiction
- ISBN 13: 9780747574576 ISBN 10: 074757457X
- Sales rank: 957
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Reviews for The Rum Diary
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Top review
Fear and Loathing in San Juan
Although "The Rum Diary" is far from the "Great American Novel" that Hunter S. Thompson wanted to write, it remains an exhilarating chronicle of the disillusionment felt by a generation and very much characteristic of Thompson's other works. Paul Kemp is the vagabond journalist who ends up in Puerto Rico writing for a failing English language newspaper. He befriends the other writers at the paper and soon emulates their lifestyle - becoming lonely, disconcerted and capricious in the process. He lusts after the beautiful Chenault, his best friend's girl, and can only find solace through drinking. Amid the raucous abandonment and drunken antics of the Thompson's characters, there exists an (admittedly oxymoronical) undercurrent of calm and tranquillity in the dead heat of the Caribbean sun, accentuated by the appropriately (and necessarily) aimless plot. It's a story of the ills of capitalism and modernism. It's a story of love, jealousy and, perhaps most significantly, loss. To put it ironically, it's a story of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
In short, it's an easy, yet thoroughly enjoyable, read which is made all the more pleasant with a glass of the finest rum. Buy the ticket; take the ride. Recommended. by Diarmuid Cushen
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