by Hunter Thompson

isbn: 0345410084
subject: Nonfiction
finished: 10/1/2002

Hell's Angels is an extended essay that's as much about the media and American society as it is about its ostensible subject. Much of the information is researched, while some comes from direct contact: Thompson hung out with some Angels for a while but doesn't seem to have been very well assimilated.

A significant part of the book is devoted to an analysis of what makes the Angels tick. Unlike their portrayal in the popular media (at least at the time) which attributed to Angels any quality that could be construed as frightening to white middle class family values types of folks, Thompson's analysis makes sense. The Angels are, for the most part, losers who band together because being part of a loud, frightening group of losers is a whole lot more fun than being a lone loser.

Another big part of the book is about the interaction between the Angels and the popular media during the mid 1960s -- they got a lot of attention, didn't really understand it, but loved it. In an important sense, the media created the Angels as they are known today. The increased attention won the Angels some very cold (and usually armed) receptions at small towns designated as destinations for a summer "run" -- debauched, multi-day parties attended by many chapters of the Angels plus a few less well-known motorcycle gangs. An amusing footnote concerns the liberal image of the Angels as downtrodden, working class heroes -- an image that the Angels had plenty of opportunities to destroy once they started getting invited to parties in Berkeley.

The tone of Hell's Angels is inconsistent; it feels like Thompson was experimenting and trying to find his voice as he wrote. For the most part it's straightforward reporting: better written and more sarcastic than what we might read in Newsweek, but not all that different. At other times Thompson puts in personal details and anecdotes, for example mentioning a slight conflict created by his powerful thirst for beer, or the time he was required to fire a shotgun in his home to prove a point. One can sort of feel the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas developing and almost breaking loose a few times. These interludes and the hilariously irrelevant footnotes make what would have been a fairly dry book into a more entertaining read.