Songs of the Doomed

In this third and most extraordinary volume of the Gonzo Papers, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson recalls high and hideous moments in his thirty years in the Passing Lane. These tales—often sleazy, brutal and crude—are only the tip of what Hollywood mogul Jack Nicholson called “the most baffling human iceberg of our time.”

Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York in the ’50’s, riding with the Hell’s Angels in the ’60’s, investigating Las Vegas sleaze in the ’70’s, grappling with the Dukakis Problem in the ’80s, and finally, in a morbid flashback titled “Character Is Destiny,” leaving little hope for the ’90s.

Here, with insight and integrity, brilliance and savagery, the prince of Gonzo journalism charts our long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle.