Freak Kingdom, Timothy Denevi
Freak Kingdom, Timothy Denevi
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
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Freak Kingdom
Hunter S. Thompson's Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism

Author: Timothy Denevi

Narrator: Mark Boyett

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 10/30/2018


Synopsis

The story of Hunter S. Thompson's crusade against Richard Nixon and the threat of fascism in America--and the devastating price he paid for it

Hunter S. Thompson is often misremembered as a wise-cracking, drug-addled cartoon character. This book reclaims him for what he truly was: a fearless opponent of corruption and fascism, one who sacrificed his future well-being to fight against it, rewriting the rules of journalism and political satire in the process. This skillfully told and dramatic story shows how Thompson saw through Richard Nixon's treacherous populism and embarked on a life-defining campaign to stop it. In his fevered effort to expose institutional injustice, Thompson pushed himself far beyond his natural limits, sustained by drugs, mania, and little else. For ten years, he cast aside his old ambitions, troubled his family, and likely hastened his own decline, along the way producing some of the best political writing in our history.

This timely biography recalls a period of anger and derangement in American politics, and one writer with the guts to tell the truth.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jon on February 02, 2019

Not sure why this tome is generating so much GoodReads love. Hunter S. Thompson lived an action-packed life and fearlessly wrote about all of it in scorching prose that inspired generations of literary outlaws, so why would you need a collection of bland, academic-sounding summaries of those very sa......more

Goodreads review by M. on August 05, 2018

[URL not allowed] Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is for some an acquired taste. His outrageous and destructive behavior added a negative to his celebrity that was earned first as an insightful and brave journalist. Drugs and alcohol eventually got the best of him. ...Hunter Thompson wa......more

Goodreads review by Marc on November 14, 2018

On the Campaign Trail 72' being my favorite Thompson's book, I really wanted to know more about his politics and this read revealed fascinating details and put his life between 1960 and 1974 in full context. The 64' republican convention His trips to South America How he settled in Colorado His times......more

Goodreads review by Dave on January 13, 2024

When I was in college, I availed myself of the free Washington Post in the library and soon became a fan of the Doonesbury comic strip, the title character of which was also a college student at the time. As I read the strip over the years my favorite character became Duke, the cynical, globe-trotti......more

Goodreads review by Quinn on January 06, 2019

As a person that really didn’t know a whole lot about HST, I enjoyed the chronological format of this book in what seems to be the most relevant era in his career. Truth be told, I always thought HST to be an overrated eccentric writer. Recent pop culture turned him into an icon that I really found......more


Quotes

"Freak Kingdom...sheds new light on Thompson's politically awakening and reporting -- and the toll it took on him and his later work and life. Few books this season will give you a stronger and more chilling sense of déjà vu...The book chronicles, in absorbing day-by-day detail, how Thompson intersected with history more than some may recall."—Rolling Stone

"Denevi...crafts his biography like a nonfiction novel, letting his research unfold in a captivating narrative that places readers at some of the most important episodes of Thompson's career. Denevi's work reminds us that the persistent concern about totalitarianism overwhelming free speech isn't something new. And 50 years ago, one journalist decided to do something about it."—The Associated Press

"What Thompson chronicled in his inimitable way during the Nixon era-'America acting on its worst impulses'-still resonates today."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}The Atlantic

"Beyond the drugs and gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson was a fierce opponent of corruption and the authoritarian tendencies of political leaders. This is what most motivated his writing, Denevi argues in a new biography of the bombastic writer."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}The New York Times Book Review

"Through meticulous research and recreated in novelistic detail, Denevi chronicles Thompson's scramble to create a viable career out of the instability of freelance writing...If you've ever felt Thompson a bit much to read on his own, Freak Kingdom makes a handy and stabilizing companion text: the behind-the-scenes details of how his big stories came together make it impossible to dismiss Thompson as the pop culture caricature he was later made out to be."—Salon

"Terrifically redemptive....the first book about Thompson to be written during the Trump presidency...Denevi gives a charmingly sensational account of Thompson's life in order to prove his point that Thompson actually conducted himself as quite a serious person."—PopMatters

"Denevi's writing does more than just bring the period alive, it makes one want to be there as if it were brand new...there has never been a Hunter S. Thompson biographer who has captured Thompson's work as well...Simply put, Freak Kingdom does justice to Hunter S. Thompson."—CounterPunch

"Not only powerful but moving."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}The Spectator

"Freak Kingdom...is one of the most important books of this election season. Despite the word 'Trump' not appearing in it once, it is somehow present on every page."—Mashable

"By dramatizing the key decade in Thompson's life, "Freak Kingdom" brings his weird journey into clear and vivid focus."—TruthDig