Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Easy to get lost July 8, 2010
Dan (England)
Despite being written by a massive egotist, the book has an appreciable and personal style. It is not a political tract and has the appearance of being very honest, even including risky racial comments and countless accounts of drink-driving and general illegality.
However, the honesty is a little bloody-minded and at times unnecessary, turning the book into a bit of a mess. Not knowing much about the '72 elections, it's very easy to get muddled, and the American sports references will be lost on most British readers (remember that the author used to be a sportswriter). I can see this being an insightful alternative perspective on the personal side of American politics, but only if you are already clued-up. Perhaps start with the political soft-porn that is The West Wing, and work your way up from there.
 Loved This Book July 6, 2010
Neil Gibbs (Cardiff, UK)
After reading "Fear & Loathing in Las vegas" I tried this.
I will admit that it took me a while to get to grips with it as it's nothing like Las Vegas, it's quite factual but still very funny and brilliantly written.
It's a 5 star for me as I'm not a big reader and this had me hooked.
It's The Rum Diary next, then who knows.
"On election day, the West End bars in Council Bluffs are jammed with boozers from Omaha." (HST) May 3, 2010
"Blackbird" Campbell
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Thompson has been many things to many people, which is a testament to his talent. His books have transcended social barriers and have become almost required reading for many diverse, almost diametrically opposed audiences - law enforcement officials and restless youth, politicians and journalism students, to name a few. If this sounds a bit bold, consider the following: His first published novel, "The Hell's Angels", was the first detailed exposé written from within the motorcycle club. It was so in-depth on the workings of the Angels that it became a training manual on dealing with motorcycle clubs for many police departments.
"Campaign Trail '72" was Thompson's third book, following 1966's "Hell's Angels" and 1971's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and helped cement his reputation as a talented if not aberrant member of America's nonfiction literati. Its powerful anecdotes and quick scene changes hold together well as they weave through the early mornings, late nights and political jockeying of three major periods: the primary races, the party convention and the post-convention campaign. Thompson fixes his sights early on McGovern as the candidate to whom he will attach himself. "Campaign Trail" runs month by month from December, 1971, when Thompson began campaign coverage in Washington, through the Democratic primaries, both conventions and on past the election. His book is a mixture of personal narrative, diary entries, tape-recorded interviews and telephone conversations with the candidates and their managers, occasionally irrelevant fantasies and - towards the end - an extended interview with himself.
Thompson is defiantly subjective. Unlike his more conventional colleagues, he feels free to denounce hypocritical political maneuvering when he spots it. He saw Humphrey in Florida struggling to co-opt Wallace's position on busing and then later in Wisconsin trying to "nail down the Black Vote by denouncing Wallace as a racist demagogue, and Nixon as a cynical opportunist for saying the same thing about busing that Humphrey himself had been saying in Florida." Thompson's comment: "There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey is until you've followed him around for a while on the campaign trail. The double-standard realities of campaign journalism, however, make it difficult for even the best of the straight/objective reporters to write what they actually think and feel about a candidate."
Thompson concludes that the McGovern campaign failed because of this obvious shift in direction, and because of McGovern's own indecisiveness, poor leadership within his organization and the inherent political problem of McGovern's "good guy " personality. Lacking a feel for "dirty politics," McGovern suffered the liability of being "what Robert Kennedy once called, `the most decent man in the Senate.' Which is not quite the same thing as being the best candidate for President of the United States. For that, McGovern would need at least one dark kinky streak of Mick Jagger in his soul." In the book, Thompson calls the sitting President, Richard Nixon, a greedy little hustler and presidential hopeful Senator Hubert Humphrey a "disgusting political animal."
What makes this book so special is not so much the subject matter, but the way in which Thompson wrote. His form was wild and breathless, catching action as it was happening, cutting through the bull, fictionalizing here and there, and making sense of it all later (It's no surprise to learn that Kerouac was one of Thompson's biggest influences). Thompson's form became known as "Gonzo Journalism" (a term which was coined by Thompson's good friend, occasional cohort and fellow journalist, Bill Cardoso).
Thompson's year-long immersion accounting of the hypocrisy, hysteria and hyperbole of the American political campaign machine should be required reading for all registered voters. It's an honest and insightful if not jangled saga, and unlike McGovern's campaign, it never loses steam. It's raw, in-the-moment, smart and free - just like Thompson himself. Political press coverage was never the same after it, and neither was politics.
 Hard work at times yet massively rewarding. November 4, 2009
BH Johnson (Thanet, Kent, UK)
This was the second of Hunter's books that I'd read after Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Like most people I was expecting much of the same, however, the books are quite different. 'Campaign' has a little less of the weird and wondeful goings on and has a little more focus. It is hilarious throughout and contains some fantastic stories. For anyone that is a fan of Hunter, this book is a must read. It may seem like hard work at times, but it's well worth it.
Excellent for what it was, but not timeless July 28, 2009
Christopher Fraser
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is an odd book if, like me, you have only a bare bones understanding of American politics. Those familiar with the political figures of the '72 US election will, undoubtedly, have a different stance, but I felt oddly schizophrenic when reading it. I'll explain why.
Much of the book is dedicated to facts, figures, numbers, percentages, and predictions - possibly more than Thompson, calling the work a 'campaign diary' and not a historical document, would care to believe - and as such these are fairly meaningless to me. Not just because I know nothing about the 72 election, what with it being a) in a different country and b) eighteen years before I was born, but also because they often require context, something that Thompson sometimes spares us.
Then there's an intermediary area, where Thompson examines the key campaign figures as people, rather than flat-out politicians. This is interesting to me, simply because (with the exception of Richard Nixon, who I'd have to have been living in a box to avoid) Thompson's interpretation is the only one I've ever received. In this respect, someone approaching the election with no prior knowledge almost sees the whole thing through HST's eyes - I have no other perspective, so the images he creates - true or otherwise - are all I have to go on.
And then there's the gonzo spark - that key sense of involvement that drives HST's writing. This is the bit that appealed the most, I'm ashamed to say - not the precision storytelling, or the analyses of each campaign figure, one at a time, but when Thompson becomes part of the story. The part of this book that will stay with me is his account of how, during the outcome of one of the primaries, HST is nowhere near a television, or any campaign figures; instead, he goes down to the beach in the middle of a storm, swims out to sea and nearly drowns.
If you're expecting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas all over again, don't. This is a fairly even balance of the decadent mess of Las Vegas that makes that novel a classic, and serious political reportage that will only really appeal to those who have a cursory understanding of the key figures in the 72 election. But by all means, give it a go.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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