The Footloose American: Following the Hunter S. Thompson Trail Across South America
As role models go, one could not choose one much more problematic than the late Hunter S. Thompson, whose alcohol- and drug-crazed escapades were, largely through his own words, legendary. As a journalistic example, though (those conditions notwithstanding), one could not do much better, and that is what travel writer Kevin has done, literally and literarily following in the footsteps of the young Thompson, who was working at that time (1962) for the National Observer. It was in South America, Kevin states, “that Thompson developed that razor-edged understanding of the dying American dream.” Kevin wants, like Thompson, to develop a keener grasp of the U.S. by tracing the pre-gonzo Thompson’s path, from Colombia to Brazil. Kevin is, like his model, an observant and witty, if inexperienced, writer; this is fine, historically well-researched travel writing in the tradition of Bruce Chatwin as well as in that of the youthful and restrained (partially thanks to dysentery) Thompson. --Mark Levine