Charles’s Rating    

Thompson's one and only novel, based largely upon his experiences as a reporter in 60's San Juan. In fact, we have Johnny Depp to thank for this gem. Depp discovered the manuscript in Thompson's basement when he was living with him doing research for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". He read it and urged Thompson to publish it. Eventually, he relented. Thompson\'s writing is electric. You feel like you are right there walking the hot tarmac with Kemp. This book inspired my trip to Puerto Rico.

Begun in 1959 by a then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp in the spirit of Thompson's bestselling Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels.

Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His books include "Hell's Angels", "Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone", "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72", "The Rum Diary", and "Better than Sex". He died in February 2005.