It soon becomes apparent that the paper is not properly run and there are rumors that it might fold. Paul realizes the Yeamon is with the girl that he saw on the plane. Sala introduces him to Yeamon who Sala warns is a little volatile. He meets a photographer named Sala who takes him to Al’s where they drink. When he arrives, he goes to San Juan Daily News where he is planned to work for the next few months. He tries to get her attention but ends up looking foolish. The story starts out with Paul Kemp bound for San Juan when he sees a beautiful girl boarding his same plane. Like it is telling me to go out and chase the world. It gives me hope in some odd way that I can’t explain. Many of the characters are flat, unmemorable and start with the letter S for some reason (making it confusing to the reader). Hunter is very witty, sarcastic, can make you feel like a rotten punk bastard.

Not a lot happens, but the little things, the changes in the routines of the characters drinking all night and going to work at the paper at noon, are relishing. He does not grow or change over the story. A flaw in the story is Paul Kemp is a rather static character.

Still, it is a rather mature concept for Thompson to be grappling writing about so young. It makes me wonder if the quarter-life-crisis has been around longer than I’d known. A topic in the book is aging, and the then 22 Thompson writes, “There was an awful suspicion in my mind that I’d finally gone over the hump, and the worst thing about it was that I didn’t feel tragic at all, but only weary, and sort of comfortably detached.” The protagonist speaking here, Paul Kemp, is thirty. If you want to be a writer or are looking for inspiration, this book will empower you to follow your dreams. It was articulate instead of nerve-racking which I think he leaned on when his persona became bigger than life.

It is relatively subdued compared to some of the drug-crazed Gonzo journalism Thompson would write later in his career, but I hope there is more of writing of his in this same vein. Thompson’s iconic language is intoxicating and I felt a little hung-over after reading it. It is not a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, but I did find it rather enjoyable. He wrote the first draft at the age of 22 while he was a journalist reporting on bowling alleys in Puerto Rico. Thompson’s first novel, and technically the first of his books that I have read (I listened to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on audiobook).

The rum diary book review