Having just finished writing his first novel on how he had spent a yearlong stint following members of the notoriously known biker gang known as the "Hells Angels" as a budding journalist, Hunter S. Thompson felt that his experience with the counterculture of late 1960's America was not as through as he wished it to be. He then proceeds to rent an expensive red convertible ("The Great Red Shark") and drive directly east toward Las Vegas; and headlong into the heart of his own definition of the "American Dream." .
As soon as the reader picks up this masterpiece of literature they immediately realize that the writing style of it is like nothing they have ever read. In fact the first few lines of the book rival that of "A Tale of Two Cities":.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?".
The unique and zany writing style used by Thompson is coined "Gonzo Journalism," and is a perfect literary reflection of the misadventures that he and his "attorney" encounter over the course of the entire novel. The book seems like it was dictated to an expert typist by a raving drug fiend while in the middle of an acid trip. Even through the novel takes place in situations that if encountered in real life would not present themselves with symbolic meaning Thompson uses his understanding of journalistic techniques, and of literary concepts to show the reader how such circumstances can help one grow not only as a person, but get a better understanding of universal truths and that of human falter.
