Jonathan Yardley
A professor of journalism at the University of Florida, [McKeen] is susceptible to moments of Hunter-worship…but manages to tell Thompson's story in a straightforward way. Certainly, he gets it all in: the boozing and drugging, the histrionics, the womanizing, the violence, but also the intelligence, the loyalty, the inherent decency. Over the long haul, Thompson won't be much more than a footnote in American literary history, but in his day he set off plenty of explosions, and he was a lot of fun to watch. At his best, he was even more fun to read.
—The Washington Post
Kirkus Reviews
McKeen (Journalism/Univ. of Florida; Highway 61: A Father-and-Son Journey Through the Middle of America, 2003) resurrects the Good Doctor with a solid treatment of his life and work. Since Thompson's suicide more than three years ago, there have been countless memorials and appraisals of his career, including longtime artistic collaborator Ralph Steadman's meandering The Joke's Over (2006). McKeen stays on task, maintaining a well-paced narrative as he works his way through Thompson's life, the details of which are by now quite well-known: athletics-filled but troublemaking childhood in Louisville ("I look back on my youth with great fondness," the author once wrote, "but I would not recommend it as a working model for others"); brief stint in the Air Force; frequent rejections of his first two novels, Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary (which was eventually published in 1998); long, up-and-down relationship with the editors at Playboy and Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone; redemptive success with Hell's Angels (1966) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972); increasingly erratic behavior, embodied by his alter-ego, Raoul Duke, and spurred on by his relationship with Mexican-American activist and attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta; seclusion on his ranch in Woody Creek, Colo.; calculated suicide in 2005. Thompson's unrivaled substance abuse and explosive personality were the stuff of legend, but McKeen, employing readable, lively prose, does a fine job excavating other aspects of his character, digging deeper than most of his previous biographers to reveal a vital component of Thompson's genius: "Part of Hunter's art was collecting the right people, putting them all together, and seeing whathappened." Carefully avoiding hagiography, however, the author gamely explores the darker side of Thompson's nature as well. Throughout, Thompson's slavish devotion to his search for the American Dream provides the narrative's binding thread: "The Dream obsessed him . . . but what was it? Was it Horatio Alger, rags to riches, the idea that you could start with nothing and end up rolling naked in stacks of hundreds? Or was it a dream of freedom? Personal freedom . . . or the concept of freedom that the founders brought into the world?"A welcome addition to the Gonzo library and one of the best starting points for HST novices-at least until Douglas Brinkley decides to publish his eagerly awaited version of events. Agent: Jane Dystel/Dystel & Goderich Literary Management
Michael Connelly
"William McKeen has wonderfully captured Hunter S. Thompson in Outlaw Journalist and in doing so has captured a significant time in our national life. Thompson changed how we think about and practice journalism. McKeen gives us a telling insight into how that happened."
New York Observer - Michael Washburn
"The best record to date of Thompson’s life."
Miami Herald - Bret Sokol
"Essential."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Sharon Eberson
"McKeen gives a clear-eyed, detailed accounting, from Thompson’s rebellious youth to his revolutionary writing career…[He] fires another shot for Thompson with Outlaw Journalist."
Douglas Brinkley
"What a wild and wonderful ride Outlaw Journalist is for anybody interested in the literary legacy of Hunter S. Thompson. William McKeen hits all the right highs and lows in this fine roller coaster of a biography…A truly admirable achievement."
Louisville Courier-Journal
"A definitive biography…[McKeen] presents the life of this gifted yet troubled artist, warts and all, and he also takes the full measure of Thompson’s journalistic accomplishment…a comprehensive portrait."
Greg Palast
"This is the Great Red Shark of Hunter biographies. McKeen gives us full frontal HST, horrific and heroic, the class clown of the class war. Read it or die."
Rick Bragg
"There had to be more to Hunter Thompson than we knew. If you’ve ever wondered what was behind the sunglasses, drugs, and booze, what was beyond the craziness and the midnight motorcycle rides with no helmet, not even lights, here it is."
