Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson
by Juan F. Thompson
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Tell-Myself-Growing-Thompson/dp/0307265358/
I first heard of Hunter S. Thompson sometime in 1993. I was a teenager at the time, home sick from high school and flipping through daytime talk shows, when I came across a woman by the name of E. Jean Carroll being interviewed about her new biography of Thompson, who apparently was some kind of legendary journalist. The part that caught my attention and the only part of the interview I remember was where she went through his daily consumption routine, which included dropping acid, smoking pot, cocaine throughout the day, and lots of drinking. I didn't know much about journalism or writing but I was impressed and encouraged, at that age, that an adult could survive with a routine like this, that he had no authority to answer to.
I bought the E. Jean Carroll book, and it was awful (one of the worst five books I've ever read), but it whetted my appetite enough that I read everything I could about or by Thompson within the next five years. I liked even the stuff I barely understood (most of the 1970s political stuff) and wrote a couple of short stories emulating his style (poorly). The best biography I can recommend is When The Going Gets Weird. Fortunately I was never able to emulate his lifestyle, because about twelve years after seeing Carroll talk about him on a talk show, he was dead by suicide.
The Caroll book made mention of his son, Juan, and includes a disturbing story about how Hunter convinced a young Juan that his name had been legally changed to "dirtbag". Hunter and his friends addressed Juan as such for about a week before finally letting him in on the joke. This kind of craziness amused me when I first read it, but later when I had a kid of my own, it sank in what kind of person could be able to do this - was Thompson a sociopath? Or maybe the Carroll book was wrong - like I said, it's a horribly written book. Surely Thompson didn't really torture his own son like this, without letting up, for a week?
It was with this mindset that I went into "Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson", a memoir by his own son, Juan.
Stories, truthfully, is not very well written and I don't think Juan has a career as a journalist or novelist, and people unfamiliar with Hunter S. Thompson won't find this interesting. But if, like me, you wondered whether there is another side to Thompson, this book gives you the answer and is well worth reading. It's a very sobering reminder that there's no such thing as a free lunch - the man who spends his life drinking will end up needing to drink to stave of the DTs.
The book is pretty sad. In one of the worst parts of the book, Juan goes on and on about his wedding and some minor gestures Hunter made, which Juan greatly appreciated. It's bad writing, and you'll be tempted to skip over these parts, but what shines through is how desperate he is for the approval of his often (physically, emotionally, mentally) absent father. Juan knows he is the child of alcoholics, and has confronted both his parents about their alcoholism.
All in all it gives you a more rounded view of Thompson, as not just an idealistic and invincible journalist with a steel liver, but also an incontinent, drug-addled has-been who has to publish collections of old letters as a book because he is no longer able to write, who in the height of selfishness, shoots himself in the head while his son and young grandson are in the other room.
My rating: 3.5/5
by Juan F. Thompson
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Tell-Myself-Growing-Thompson/dp/0307265358/
I first heard of Hunter S. Thompson sometime in 1993. I was a teenager at the time, home sick from high school and flipping through daytime talk shows, when I came across a woman by the name of E. Jean Carroll being interviewed about her new biography of Thompson, who apparently was some kind of legendary journalist. The part that caught my attention and the only part of the interview I remember was where she went through his daily consumption routine, which included dropping acid, smoking pot, cocaine throughout the day, and lots of drinking. I didn't know much about journalism or writing but I was impressed and encouraged, at that age, that an adult could survive with a routine like this, that he had no authority to answer to.
I bought the E. Jean Carroll book, and it was awful (one of the worst five books I've ever read), but it whetted my appetite enough that I read everything I could about or by Thompson within the next five years. I liked even the stuff I barely understood (most of the 1970s political stuff) and wrote a couple of short stories emulating his style (poorly). The best biography I can recommend is When The Going Gets Weird. Fortunately I was never able to emulate his lifestyle, because about twelve years after seeing Carroll talk about him on a talk show, he was dead by suicide.
The Caroll book made mention of his son, Juan, and includes a disturbing story about how Hunter convinced a young Juan that his name had been legally changed to "dirtbag". Hunter and his friends addressed Juan as such for about a week before finally letting him in on the joke. This kind of craziness amused me when I first read it, but later when I had a kid of my own, it sank in what kind of person could be able to do this - was Thompson a sociopath? Or maybe the Carroll book was wrong - like I said, it's a horribly written book. Surely Thompson didn't really torture his own son like this, without letting up, for a week?
It was with this mindset that I went into "Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson", a memoir by his own son, Juan.
Stories, truthfully, is not very well written and I don't think Juan has a career as a journalist or novelist, and people unfamiliar with Hunter S. Thompson won't find this interesting. But if, like me, you wondered whether there is another side to Thompson, this book gives you the answer and is well worth reading. It's a very sobering reminder that there's no such thing as a free lunch - the man who spends his life drinking will end up needing to drink to stave of the DTs.
The book is pretty sad. In one of the worst parts of the book, Juan goes on and on about his wedding and some minor gestures Hunter made, which Juan greatly appreciated. It's bad writing, and you'll be tempted to skip over these parts, but what shines through is how desperate he is for the approval of his often (physically, emotionally, mentally) absent father. Juan knows he is the child of alcoholics, and has confronted both his parents about their alcoholism.
All in all it gives you a more rounded view of Thompson, as not just an idealistic and invincible journalist with a steel liver, but also an incontinent, drug-addled has-been who has to publish collections of old letters as a book because he is no longer able to write, who in the height of selfishness, shoots himself in the head while his son and young grandson are in the other room.
My rating: 3.5/5
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