Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

I was hoping that being a Hunter fan that I'd enjoy this book but it was a really difficult read. It's slow and not any fun or even insightful. What great subject matter not to have a really cool story but it never came together at all. This is a pass and I must admit I couldn't even finish the book.

I have to agree with many readers that this is not a good read, boring etc. I tried sticking with it but is is just poor writing and layout.
I would suggest Outlaws (one man's rise through the savage world of renegade bikers) if you want to really enjoy a good book about bikers.

I read this because I recently read the biography of Hunter Thompson, this was the book that made him known. It is raw. I quickly ruled it out as a selection for our couples book club. It would have turned the women's hair gray. Hunter is a gritty writer. His writing reads well. He has a flow and feel that is real. This book was written in the 60s, therefore much of the data was old. The Hell's angels were presented as a tough, anti social filthy group of men. They made their own laws and were always ready to fight. If one of their group was attacked then all of the brothers would rush to help. They lived to ride, fight and drink. I wonder if the profile of the group has changed over the years. It was first organized in Calif. I think they are now through out the country. Hunter Thompson was a hard drinking party boy, and I feel sure that the year he rode with the Angels he was able to keep up with their drinking, however he was not tough. He was young the year he rode with the outlaw group. I can't help but wonder if it contributed to his downward spiral into drugs and alcohol.

Hunter S. Thompson flirts with gangster criminality and eventually pays the price. I found this book to be a good real-world companion to watching the fictional "Sons of Anarchy" TV show which doesn't give a lot of cultural context to the founding and rise of the motorcycle club (MC) seen on the show. I think of MCs as being a 1960s-70s creation, so it was interesting to learn that they really began in the post-war 1940s and especially the 1950s, and to see how influential Hollywood was to the subculture from Marlon Brando's performance in "The Wild Ones" (1953). Similarly, I suspect that modern MCs likely take a lot of cues, stylistically if not behaviorally, from the SoA show today.

Hell's Angels were something of a confused group, hanging out with Ken Kesey's band of LSD-laced Merry Pranksters, not long before attacking anti-Vietnam War protesters. The Angels were a media sensation during the 60s but ultimately unable to handle it. The explosive violence that Thompson experienced and ended his relations with the club appeared again most spectacularly after this book in 1969 at a Rolling Stones concert at Altamont, where Angels hired as security ended up attacking talent and killing a spectator.

Call it Gonzo journalism or immersion journalism, Hunter S. Thompson could just flat out write. Who wouldn't want to read about a motorcycle gang that attracts a "blonde with lobotomy eyes"?
In his own way and at his own pace. Thompson does a creditable job of presenting the history of outlaw bikers along with his year or so hanging out with the Hell's Angels in the mid-'60s. He was probably the only citizen that could hold his own partying with them, but alas, if a frog hangs out with a scorpion long enough, you know what must happen.
It's a good period piece about (hard to believe) a much more innocent time (when do you read those words next to "Hell's Angels").
Sonny Barger's autobiography "Hell's Angel" was more incisive (but necessarily more guarded). Yves Lavigne's "Hell's Angels: Three Can Keep a Secret if Two Are Dead" is the best book on the Angels, and his story on them and undercover cop Anthony Tait in "Hell's Angels: Into the Abyss" is not far behind that one.
That all said, if you want flat-out entertaining reading, choose this book by Thompson, who was about the only journalist (besides George Plimpton) who could successfully pull off making himself as much of the story as the story itself without the reader wanting to throw the book in the trash.
In this book, you can follow Thompson as he goes from naive Angels proponent to just another victim of a good old-fashioned boot party. Along the way he regales the reader in his own inimitable style of all the sights, sounds and smells as he introduces Barger ("The Prez"), Terry the Tramp, Frenchy, Filthy Phil and a rogues' gallery of other booze-chugging, pill-popping, acid-taking satyrs on motorcycles.
Feel the thrill as you read about guys "like Genghis Kahn on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter's leg with no quarter asked and none given...." And that's only part of Page 1.
Of course if this kind of stuff sounds off-putting, don't buy it. If it doesn't bug you, then but all means, check it out. If you dig Thompson's style, I recommend "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." It's even more outrageous than this book. If you are fascinated by outlaw bikers, try out the titles I mentioned above. "Hell's Angels" is a hell of a ride.

Motorcycle outlaws roaming across California. Nobody is better qualified, or crazy enough, to live and ride with the Hell's Angels for two years. The result of Hunter's "strange and terrible saga" was his book Hell's Angels and a savage beating stopped just short of having his head caved in with a massive rock. Luckily, he was not brained.

The book reads like a massive magazine article, spattered with person experiences, and occasionally graced with socio-philosophical insights. Despite the drug induced mania, Hunter upheld his integrity as a reporter. He never resorted to sensationalizing his story and made it point to denounce government and news agencies that reported exaggerations to a fearful public. Even the most heinous acts of sex and violence are written with cool objectivity.

As an example of traditional journalism, it is a failure. Hunter became too immersed. The outlaw motorcycle culture was starting to consume him. His justifiable paranoia gnawed him into desperation. Yet, the book is a supreme illustration of Gonzo journalism--disregarding all boundaries except honesty (within reason).

Its obvious there is a lack of proof reading in this book. Lost interest when the writer went way off track from the story line. It just felt like the writer was trying to fill pages with worthless words. The book is not worth the cost.

This is the first Hunter S. Thompson book I was able to complete. The others just made me want to tune in, turn on and drop out. Well this one sort of did too, but not in the same way. I appreciate the Angels total lack of give a F&$%, however I don't need the tough guy, outlaw, pirate persona and identity that goes along with their set. I can see how it would appeal to certain types in their 20's seeking identity and clan in a world gone astray. However I guess I just chose to twirl in my 20's instead. I sometimes fantasize still about living a nomadic lifestyle, out on the open road, but I don't need any colors or patches or tribes to make it real or safe. I envision more of an airstream with my wife and Betty by my side. Although I have always been curious about gangs and their culture and this book only piqued my interest more. I think I'll read a few more insider accounts on this run. It looks like I'm changing genres once again

Unfortunately, my first venture into the world of motorcycle outlaws came with their depiction in Sons Of Anarchy, but had I read this book before watching, I probably would have disregarded Sons as nothing more than Sopranos with motorcycles, so far from the truth that it baffles me as to how much America is fascinated with the fabrication of motorcycle outlaws, but thus is the way of America. But Hunter S. Thompson's depiction of the Hell's Angels showcases what it truly means to be an outlaw. This book was great for so many reasons. The reason why I like Hunter S. Thompson is because he makes fiction out of non-fiction, shows the impossibilities of cartoons in a very realistic light because after reading this book, you don't believe that characters such as Terry The Tramp, Sonny Barger, Tiny could even exist, but at the same time, when you realize that these outlaws were once real people, you soon realize the expertise in which Hunter can so masterfully bring out in memoirs. This book is a great read, very much so capable of separating the real thing from FX

If every ethnographer immersed themselves in cultures to the degree that Hunter S. Thompson did for the sake of "Hell's Angels" the social science would take on a wildly different, almost anarchic character. "Hell's Angels" is a venture into the reality of the infamous California motorcycle gang during its heyday in the mid-1960s. Steeped in the political turmoil and the individual crises of the time "Hell's Angels" attempts to set the record straight about the oft vilified and outcast Angels.

Thompson's writing style meshes perfectly with a subject that strains against the framework of the normal sociological perspective. His understanding of the Angels comes from his time as a tolerated companion of the gang who was blessed with the remarkable opportunity to understand the organization from within. His exploration of the gang and its decriers takes a unique position in that it maintains a harsh scrutiny of both the gang and the media sensationalism that launched it to notoriety. He spends quite a deal of time deconstructing the media accounts of so-called Hell's Angels atrocities.

Thompson regales the exploits of the Angels as only someone twisted enough to associate with them could. His tact in bringing their story to light takes an interesting path as it not only details their actions and behavior patterns, but works to explain the societal conditions that bond them together as a group. Thompson successfully navigates being neither a Hell's Angels apologist or a basher providing a clear sense of how the gang operates and why it attracts people.

As the book progresses, the harsher criticism that emerge are aimed at members of society as a whole who perversely shun the Angels begging for government action to protect them, while at the same time poking and prodding the Angels to put on their most profane performances. It is clear that Thompson himself is a character that doesn't quite fit in to either the Angels or "proper society", but he does possess the insight of a person who is able to step back and describe a situation from a more or less objective angle. Thompson is also free from the typical academic constraints that would limit a person providing such a dense glimpse into any culture, instead he is free the Angels from the perspective of raw humanity.

As an admirer of Thompson's work, I would say that "Hell's Angels" is an unavoidable read. The book is slow to start weighted down by explaining the history of an organization that begins long before he emerges on the scene, but unusual journey and view that unfolds is certainly worth the time.

First off, it doesn't seem that long ago that HST was with us. I've read almost everything the author has penned. Being in my fifties, I was bale to follow HST's career, and I awaited every word he would publish, but for some reason or another, I never had actually read his first official book. (I have read the article from "The Nation" in which HST begat this missive.

First off, by any one's standards familiar with the author, this stuff is tame. There are some adventures to be sure, but there is nothing close to the LSD enhanced escapades with Ralph Stedman or HST's Chicano lawyer. Instead, it is a wonderful retrospective on a birth of "New Journalism". The author goes through great pains to explain why, how, and if the Hell's Angles are misrepresented by the Media. Further, it helps to recall the frenzy of both horror and wonder America held in regard to motorcycle clubs. The mid sixties, after this publication, gave rise to an entire lifestyle and Hollywood genre. "The Wild Ones", "The Born Losers", "Hell's Angles on Wheels" et al are well explained by Joan Didion in her essays of the 1960's, but this writing is all made previously.

What we truly have here is Thompson's attempt to be true and fair to his left leaning self. There is mention of Richard Nixon, but only as a tongue in cheek allusion to being "over exposed". There is reference to being in the experience with the subject, the first item with Gonzo truly, but this experience resembles something more similar to an embedded journalist in the Iraq War more than "Fear and Loathing". The author does his due diligence and his background work thoroughly and completely here. It is truly a peek into what Thompson would become, if not what he could also do.

This is an important read for anyone wishes to fully understand HST further. It is not as funny or ranting as "The Banshee Scream for Buffalo Meat", but I see it as important as any author's first work. Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", Kerouac's "The Town and the City", Brautigan's first works of fiction, et al need to be examined to see where the artist began.

I found this book at a bargain price at a used bookshop, and spent the afternoon reading it. I have always enjoyed Thompson's writing, but somehow, always managed to miss this one. I am sorry I did.

Thompson's book is, essentially, a three pronged look at American society in the mid-1960's. On the one hand, you have the Hell's Angels, the consumate "bad boys" of the mid- to late 20th century American imagination. On the other, a greedy and sensationalistic press anxious for the headlines - real or fabricated - the Angels once provoked. And finally, you have "John Q. Public," the man caught in between the Harley riding outlaws and their media myth, far too prone to accept anything negative as universally true based on nothing but what was often nothing more than flimsy rumor and wild speculation. And you see the beginning transformation of the Angels themselves under the barrage of press coverage they sometimes loathed and sometimes embraced as they went "mainstream," for good or for ill. Academically, it's a masterful demonstration of how the emerging media culture of the 1950's and 1960's began to demonstrate a real power in shaping public perception and what that did to at least one "imagined community" which quickly lost or was compelled to transform its own sense of its history and itself, and how a country in small began to rehape its own definitions of "good" and "evil" whetted by an escalating appetite for voyeurism. It is a great slice of period history read broadly.

Thompson has been roundly criticized for making the Angels exemplars of what John Keegan might have called "The False Heroic" and then roundly criticized for stabbing his subjects in the back, in spite of the on-again/off-again grudging and tepid "approval" of people like legendary Angel Sonny Barger. I have to say I did not see any of that. Thompson was struggling to find fact behind the Angel's often self-promoted legendarium, and he succeeded in as much as an "outsider looking in" can. While he amply demonstrates how the social prejudices and slavering media of the 1960's created a "boogeyman" that was really more a creature of shadow, I did not see the Angels getting any "free passes" for their "groupthink" codes or sometimes incredibly bad conduct, even if their mayhem was, statistically, not even a "blip on the radar screen." So what the reader gets is, essentially, a really wonderful deconstruction of several social myths on multiple levels. The dryness of Thompson's prose and the marked disinclination to pass judgments without serious and explained reflection, sourcing and thought is, plainly, a deliberate choice made to avoid the lurid, red-toned language of the popular press and the Angels' own myths circulating in his own time. So, while it is true you do get a book that can seem rather "Plain Jane," in context, it was a brave choice Thompson made if he was going to write something worthwhile. And I suspect that complaints about it being "boring" are really more reflections of the fact that people, hungry for the bloody and violent, had elevated expectations going in and were unprepared for a sober, non-sensationalized account of "Hell's Angels on the Cusp." Thompson had little use for the dark romantic narrative from anywhere or anyone, and this "sick and tired" deadpan attitude served his writing and credibility well even if it won him few admirers anywhere.

Thompson's own self-promotion is really only a small part of this book, and I suspect much of that came later, one of the things making Thompson such a paradox, hypocrite, or court jester, depending on your point of view. Suffice it to say that whether or not his "beating" by Hell's Angels was real, just a tiff gone haywire, or even staged remains debated, apparently. But most of the book is free of that, as I mentioned, and I don't think it had any real impact on the whole.

This is an example of investigative journalism "done right." I learned a very great deal about how what we like to believe and what is actually so can be very uncomfortable when exposed to light of day since, for whatever the many reasons Thompson explains simply and well, the Angels touched a unique chord in the American cultural awareness. And this book also interested me enough to think about a follow-up read updating this fascinating story. It's Americana I never really considered before, and that's always a great discovery.

A worthy book, journalism and cultural history blended and blended well and thoughtfully. Recommended.

Most of us know the Good Doctor as the man behind the lenses driving the big, spanking convertible with a 300 pound Samoan attorney riding shotgun with a couple of bottles of gin in his lap headed for the neon lure of Vegas. Well, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas is a good read, but it has nothing on Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga.

Hunter does infiltrate the Angels, he does "ride" with them, and he manages to get beat up by them while documenting all the inanity(and insanity), but the most important thing is that he comes away with more than 300 pages of observations, fine, fine documentation at that, on what it is like to be a part of this notorious outlaw gang.

If you wanna live with the Angels vicariously, Rick says Check it Out!

I'd read this book a long time ago, and when I saw it at a garage sale for a dime I decided to try it again. It's HST's first book and a pretty good one, too. Later on his ego got completely out of control and he began writing about himself as a colorful hero instead of the story he was ostensibly covering. I never found him as endlessly fascinating as he thought himself to be during his Gonzo Journalism career. Just a drug addict on an expense account, not a skilled writer. He deserves quite a bit of credit for operating such an excellent con that it resulted in a lifelong ideal set-up for himself, but it didn't make for good reading, IMHO. But this book came before all that and it is absorbing, to give the Devil his due.

What's intriguing now is his description of the Hell's Angels as misfits banding together who worked straight jobs and/or collected unemployment benefits to subsidize their outlaw lifestyle; and that there was no high-level crime involved. According to HST, the Angels at that time were strictly consumers of drugs, not distributors or manufacturers. He also witnessed or reported on lots of stray violence, but heard not even a hint of any premeditated murders or intimidation or extortion, or any such goings-on. There were specious media reports and rumors of drug-smuggling by the Angels, but HST dismisses these tales out-of-hand. He makes the point that people as conspicuous as outlaw bikers would make poor smugglers, since this is a field where anonymity is necessary for success. He was absolutely certain that the Angels would wear their colors and ride their bikes in full view while engaging in any criminal endeavors. HST seems to have had both admiration and contempt for the Angels and maybe his disdain for them led him to overlook their possible secret activities, unwilling to credit them with the necessary smarts that would be required. Or perhaps events in this book actually took place before the outlaw bike clubs became enmeshed in organized crime.

An odd parallel occurs in William Queen's book "Under and Alone" about a BATF Agent infiltrating the Mongols roughly thirty years after the events in "Hell's Angels". Mr. Queen describes most of the Mongols that he encountered as unsure of how to exploit their situation for financial gain and perfectly content to just enjoy "The Life". He looked very intently indeed at all aspects of the Mongols' activities that he possibly could; but his investigation mostly uncovered bike thefts and parole violations and illegal possession and sales of guns. There was drug usage, but no sales or manufacturing. He did witness the Mongols' San Diego chapter intimidating and extorting from a strip-club owner, but it's unclear if this resulted in any criminal charges. This isn't intended to disparage Mr. Queen's extremely dangerous and astonishingly skillful undercover mission in any way, shape or form. Some of the Mongols were also implicated in rapes, robberies, assaults and drug offenses during his experiences with them and his own life was very much at risk the entire time. But these similarities to HST's account are really noteworthy, also IMHO.

Maybe the particular chapters of either club that both men were reporting on were relatively uninvolved in big-time organized crime, after all. Or maybe not all outlaw bikers are actually up to their necks in drugs and murder and prostitution and so on. Maybe there are degrees of culpability here. That's not to say that they're all just a bunch of nice guys who happen to like Harleys. They're terribly violence-prone and volatile, to put it mildly. It's always wise to treat with them with respect, but keep your distance. Outsiders can become targets at any time and without warning. Especially when the members get intoxicated.

But I digress. "Hell's Angels" is a good book and a good read, a well-written account of a segment of the Sixties that's pretty interesting in its own right.

Hunter Thompson wrote four books which gave him fame in the late 1960's- 1970's- Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 and The Great Shark Hunt. By the time The Great Shark Hunt came out, his "gonzo" style using offbeat commentaries, flaunting excesses in personal bahavior and hitting hard at public figures- had become quite popular with the 18-25 year old crowd. Thompson was an accomplished, intelligent journalist- meeting and doing interviews with famous people like Richard Nixon and many others- and he took a turn to the left inventing the style that at first shocked the world- but then faded as people became tired of the praise of self-centered, reckless behavior.

In "Hell's Angels", Thompson does a credible job exploring a topic which most writers would shy away from- riding with the notorious motorcycle gang, getting involved in drunken brawls and participating in, shall we say, questionable episodes including nubile young women, wild-haired bikers amidst scenes of loud music, drugs and excessive consumption of alcohol. Somehow Thompson maintains his composure here- he wasn't yet in his full-blown wild gonzo years- and he manages to get a credible story to the public who at the time were scared to even talk about it. The Hell's Angels motorcycle gang was well known for its law breaking and mostly unethical behavior, incluidng wild orgies and raucous public demonstrations... and even police officers were somewhat reluctant to go toe-to-toe with them in a stand-off. Thompson had the guts to "live" the story- and he describes many colorful characters along the way.

"Hell's Angels" may seem quaint today- but if you want to learn a bit about this notorious gang- the people, the places and the lifestyle- this is an interesting read...

-Gene Pisasale
Author, "Lafayette's Gold- The Lost Brandywine Treasure" and
"Vineyard Days"

Who would have thought, in 1966, trying to get Hunter through the publication process of "Hell's Angels" - with his typical opposition to large corporations (through Random House was small and intimate at the time) - that, these decades (and a century) later, his first published book would keep commanding its place in the top tier of the store rankings. Perhaps we all would have! I am full of heart, to see how it surives - rightly - and remember the work Hunter put into it, the stomping, the fact-checking, the money troubles that accompanied it. For years I could remember this through his live words in letters to me at the time. This year I got permission to reprint and extract from those letters and if anyone wants to answer unanswered questions about the book and hear in his own words his hilarious comments and anguished laments while getting the book out to the public, just take a look (on the store) at "Keep This Quiet!"Keep This Quiet! My Relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky, and Jan Mensaert It's a great relief to me that those precious letters from him will survive - many of them uncarbon copied. Hats off to you, Doc.

I was a little disappointed that Hunter Thompson in this book makes no mention of The Wild Angels, a Roger Corman biker flick that came out several months before some of the incidents Thompson includes in the book took place, as the movie is an almost perfect encapsulization of the simplistic stereotype of the Hell’s Angels he takes on.

Perhaps The Wild Angelst didn’t play anywhere convenient for Thompson to see it (it was hardly a big budget Hollywood epic) but it does have Peter Fonda (several years before Easy Rider) playing an amoral biker gang leader and includes several scenes eerily similar to incidents Thompson describes in his book after living off and on with the Angels for a year (most prominently, both the movie and the book include a funeral of one of the gang conducted by a bewildered minister hired for the occasion). If you enjoyed Hell’s Angels the book, you should check out The Wild Angels movie. It’s available as an the store stream and free for Prime members.

As for Thompson’s book, I have to say I enjoyed it immensely not only for the detail and insights about the lives of the Angels, but the surrounding culture as well, which was at this point on the cusp of “the Sixties” as we remember them 50 years on. Especially interesting is the way the supposedly responsible organs of the mass media (looking at you, New York Times, Time and Newsweek) essentially created the Hell’s Angels as a cultural phenomenon by blowing their significance way out of proportion when they swallowed a self-serving report on the group by the California State Attorney General.

Thompson checks into the veracity of a number of notorious incidents supposedly involving the Angels and gives plausible alternate takes on them. He is also present at several others (the Bass Lake outing, Ken Kesey’s LaHonda estate Acid Test) and his reports sound truthful. He also explores the Angels’ relations with the growing student rebellion in Berkeley (Allen Ginsburg makes a memorable appearance at one point) and with the black population of Oakland. I found some of the discussion a bit repetitious but that hardly takes away from what is a first class piece of first-person journalism.

This was the book that first brought Hunter S. Thompson to national attention, and deservedly so. He dissects the cultural phenomenon that was the Hell's Angels in the mid-1960s with great insight and a prose style that reads like a cold beer on a hot day -- impossible to put down.

Thompson stressed two major themes in his assessment on the Angels: (1) They were largely a bunch of "losers," men with very limited opportunities to achieve The American Dream, who banded together to create The American Nightmare of violent anarchy, or at least the image of violent anarchy. In Thompson's portrayal, the Angels seem to revel in their "outsider" status and in their calculated efforts to shake up the "squares." Thompson also indicates that the image of Hell's Angels in the '60s seems to have mattered far more than the relatively isolated incidents of violence and public outrage they perpetrated. (2) That image was swallowed whole by the mainstream media of the mid-'60s (and by law enforcement officials), so that square Americans already reeling from the civil rights movement and black unrest, from the sexual revolution of the '60s, and from the "counterculture" and antiwar movements, were presented with one more reason to believe that the country was going to hell. Thomson sees the hysteria over the Angels in that era as essentially a creation of gullible reporters and paranoid politicians and cops.

This book (which came out in 1966) catches the California-based Angels between 1964 and 1966, as the hysteria was spreading. Eventually the Angels began to believe the media image too, which led to that fatal night at Altamont Raceway in 1969. Thompson may bear some of that responsibility, too, simply because his book was The Word on the Angels in that time; but his accurate assessment of the Angels was overwhelmed by the popular image that "outlaw bikers," Hollywood, and the media as a whole found profitable to promote.

Some reviewers portray "Hell's Angels" as the story of Thompson's own involvement with the motorcycle group. Certainly, Thompson is a "character" in the book, but he's careful to keep some distance from the Angels. (In the first-person centerpiece of the book, an Angels "run" to Bass Lake, California in 1965, Thompson traveled by automobile rather than on a "chopper.") Moreover, he never forgets that the story he's trying to tell is of the motorcycle club and their image, not about himself. His detached involvement (involved detachment?) in this book is a model for all insistently subjective journalists. I have read little of Thompson's later work, and I gather that as he became more concerned about hyping his own image, he worked up some calculated outrages of his own; but "Hell's Angels" remains a damned good piece of "new" reporting.

Since the 1960s, Hell's Angels -- portrayed by some romantic pukes in Thompson's time as latter-day cowboys, the last champions of traditional American "freedom" -- has gone corporate, handing out franchises ("charters") around the world and selling logoed merchandise. The most famous of the Angels, Ralph "Sonny" Barger, has parlayed his status as Oakland chapter president into a franchise of his own (complete with website), marketing his own "lean and mean" brand of beer, writing a philosophical self-help book and selling signed copies at motorcycle shows. Certain outlaw motorcyclists still are being blamed (with some justification, apparently) for a variety of crimes in various countries. Thompson's book has little to do with the commercialized Hell's Angels or felonious "1 percenters" of today. It's a book very much of its time and place -- but such a well-focused, incisive snapshot it is!

It is really astounding how many definitions of "Gonzo Journalism" there is floating around out there...What really is Gonzo Journalism?

According to many sources, Gonzo Journalism is a "hands on approach."; what the journalist is writing about 'becomes' his subject matter. Compared to Method Acting, this is NOT acting but BEING the subject matter making the representation "real".

(Thompson, in his mind, stoned and alcohol affected, became one of them. (Angels)) But after reading the text again, there is that "objectivism", a couragous journalist, (who loved: writing, drugs, guns, whisky, politics and rock and roll) writing about a topical situation in America at the time - he was in his element.

Timing is everyrthing.

One particular scene in the book is a bit frightening, (this one is a minor one.)

The Angel's, in the 100's are headed for a small town of a population of twenty-thousand - 12 cops and one Chief...

"Consider the alternatives available to a chief of police in a remote town of twenty thousand?...the motorcycle outlaws are due to converge on him in a matter of hours...nothing in his experience has prepared him to face an army of half -human hoodlums, a modern day James Gang...infamous thugs who would just as soon stomp on a cop as they would on a toad, and once they get out of hand, the only way to handle them is with brute force." (P.113)

What does the chief do, but hope for the best...contain them and eventually move them on...well easier said than done.

There is something Romantic about Thompson: a 30's style journalist, cigarette in mouth, punching out the stories on an old Remington between swigs of Irish whisky.

After reading his collection of political stories from various publications from Rolling Stone to the New York Times, one gets the feeling that he was, paradoxically, on the pulse of the Present but writing from another Time.

This in-your-face style of journalism has an aura of honesty...something we have not read in quite sometime.

The "Hunter" was from a generation that now is gone.

In terms of "historical-realistic" texts, Hell's Angels, is a Thompson Classic & the beginning of Gonzo Journalism.

Hell's Angels begins: "California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur... The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline..." With a start like that how could you help but be hooked? This is Hunter before Gonzo.

Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels is a fantastically written profile of the outlaw motorcycle club from their postwar origins to their explosion on the public conscious in '64-'65. It begins with the Angels gaining nation-wide attention via a fumbled rape trial and follows the surreal path that led to their interactions and then clashes with Ken Kesey and the counter-culture movement.

Hunter takes an odd stance here. He seems to oscillate between respecting their rebelliousness and really looking down on them as worthless losers. This sort of Yin-Yang of the Hell's Angels follows through the book. They are both repellent and attractive and Hunter does a very good job of sussing out why this is in writing that is compelling and often brilliant. Liberally sprinkled with quotes of contemporary articles, song lyrics and scraps of poetry that fit into the text without distracting.

Hell's Angels is a gritty, classic slice of reportage that manages to entertain in the way good fiction entertains with a gripping narrative and larger-than-life characters.

As Thompson aficionados are probably aware Hell's Angels is Hunter's first real foray into the sustained writing that would make us smile or be provoked to call for his head on a platter for the next forty years. Although the text clearly demonstrates that this is not a piece of `gonzo' journalism, as it later came to be known, one can see the outline of where he could be heading in this book on probably the most famous outlaw motorcycle gang in American history. The line between Thompson the reporter and Thompson the participant is still fairly clear but one can see just enough sympathy with the subject matter of his book to see where he might be heading. His major `gonzo' work and most famous book Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas thus did not just come out of the blue.

And what of the subject matter of his book, the infamous Hell's Angels that in my youth my mother warned me against incessantly? As noted above Hunter gained a grudging sympathy for them during his yearlong experience in and around their hangouts and their nefarious various doings in Northern California. Some of the antics that they were involved in like their `robust' partying in natural settings and scaring the `squares' seem a little dated, and juvenile. Their gratuitous violence, however, seems rather too familiar.

The more sociological aspects of their marginal social existence is far more interesting and Thompson does a good job of identifying the post-World War II American times that gave rise to such self-defining outcasts. This phenomenon enters the books as one of the outcomes that occur when the Turner thesis on the effects of the end of the frontier and land's end get fleshed out in sunny California. While these men, and they were almost exclusively white Anglo-Saxon men (the women involved with them are a separate and in some ways more interesting question although in the book a marginal one), came from mainly working class backgrounds the details provided by Thompson portrays a classic lumpenproletarian milieu. Thus, politics, protest or allegiance to other organizations meant nothing to them. Forget all that intellectual gibberish, it was about the bikes, man. Dr. Freud can read what he wants into that. Dr. Thompson gives it to us straight.

If you selected this book expecting to find off-the-wall writing by the inventor of Gonzo, then you will be disappointed. What this book entails is an on-the-spot analysis of the Hell's Angels during their heyday in the mid-1960's. There's also some history of this and other motorcycle clubs and a sociological explanation for their being. What there isn't is the usual rampant and intrusive participation by Hunter. True, he is covering much of this story in person, but only as an observant bystander in most scenes. He teases us in promotion and earlier pages of this book about the trashing he took at the hands of the Angels, but it comes down to only a two-page fairly tame postscript. In my opinion, the book could stand of lot of editing, the removal of repetitious material and a more chronological telling of the story. But, although I found it tough slogging through the pages, it is interesting to a point. Especially one of Hunter's theories about what brought about the demise of the Angels: It was their lack of personal hygiene and funds to visit a dentist, whcih brought on rotten, painful teeth, and in turn persuaded the outlaws to go straight, first to get a job then to see a dentist.

While in college I bought this book a 11 pm on the night before an exam.
I read a page and was hooked I could not stop reading until I finished it at 5 AM.
Taking the exam 3 hrs later I did poorly as I read Hells Angles instead of studying.

I'd make the same choice again, his book is that good, better than almost any activity I can think of.

establish that before moving forward.

Anyhow, this book is a great read not for what it says about the Hell's Angels, but for what it says about the quality of reporting on them and the ways in which journalists, through sheer laziness, buy into manipulative political narratives that have more to do with keeping the public whipped up into a kind of paranoid fantasy about wild strangers than they have to do with the truth. Thompson's characteristic voice is present here, but this is the book where he lifts the curtain a little and shows us exactly how falsified the news industry is (and who benefits from it). Unlike his later work, he chooses here to explain rather than to show, and reading this side-by-side with The Great Shark Hunt will allow first-time readers to use it as a helpful scaffolding for understanding the nature and purpose of the good Dr. Gonzo's hyperbolic satire.

The two together will also enrich a reading of Fear and Loathing for anyone interested in revisiting that book. They put it into context as one of a series of documents that builds up the romantic image of the journalist as an American hero only to crush it by pointing out that it is nothing more than an entourage of hustlers following in the shadow of (and documenting the life of) those who new how to run a game better than they ever would.

Like most people, the only thing I knew about Hunter S. Thompson was that he was the author of "Fear and Loating in Las Vegas" and that mostly because I had seen the movie. I then went on to read the book (a long time ago, in a French translation, since that's my mother tongue) and quite liked it. But even with this background, I wasn't sure what I'd find with this book.

I wasn't disappointed. Quite to the contrary. In fact, this is a most well-written book, well researched, very insightful and thought-provoking. Thompson makes very interesting analyses about the relationship between the actual Hell's Angels and the way they are portrayed throughout the media; that alone is worth the interest. Naturally, you also get to know about the Hell's Angels proper.

I especially like how they fit in historically. To put it in simple terms, here's how it'd be: the world after World War II seems to have no idea where to go anymore, and the mix of wasted energy and confused lives led in an existential vacuum brings about self-destructive behaviour. That doesn't sound quite right, because things are way more complicated than this, but that's a model, so don't take it too literally. The Hell's Angels were started shortly after the end of World War II, and many of them were war veterans who couldn't get back to a normal lifestyle. So I think it's fairly legitimate to put it in such a perspective.

As to the book itself, I definitely love Thompson's style. Not only is he clever and witty, he's also hilarious at times, and moving at others. I never once got bored reading this book: it's a pure reader's delight.

This was alright, more like 2.5 stars. It was part personal experience (i.e. Gonzo journalism) and part elongated newspaper article. The stories and characters were interesting but at times it also felt like reading an informational booklet on the Hell's Angels. A couple of events were focused on longer than necessary. All in all, this was okay, and there were some fascinating stories.

In order to consider yourself a fan of the great late doctor then i must insist that you purchase this book and read it as it the gateway into the "gonzo" way of writing/reporting. Being his first published novel I would suggest that you read this, F&L in Las vegas, F&L on the campain trail '72, and the rum diary to give yourself a basis for the rest of his memoir styled books. With that said this is a very good book and a quick read, understand going into it that this is a book about the Hell's Angels, not the girls scouts so may not be for everyone, however, Hunter does a good job portraying both the good and the bad, and the misunderstood sides of this outlaw biker gang. There is a lot of straight facts about this or that and it is not simply a day in the life of HST riding around with the Angels. This book is more or less a biography about the angels and a select few members that Hunter met with and traveled with for a year, but keep in mind it is not so much a novel as it is a lengthy news report on the Angels, riddled with personal experiences. As i said this is a must read for HST fans, or anyone with an interest in the great writer, as this is the book that first put him on the map. not to mention just a good book all together.

As a fan of Hunter S Thompson's later works, I found myself to be suitably surprised by Hells Angels. Compared to some of his later Drug and Anger fueled tales such as the Fear and Loathing tales and the Great Shark Hunt, Hell's Angels is Hunter in a more thoughtful journalistic mode.

In a time when the Angels were the terror of middle America and the mainstream press were regularly running tales of pack of thousands of bikers riding the road and entire towns being terrorized, Hunter was willing to do the hard yards to spend the time getting to know his subjects so that he could speak and write with authority. What he found was another pack of "one percenters" those guys who do not fit into society, who will always be the outsiders looking in amazed that we can live the life that we do.

Hunter also provides an interesting example of perception and reality and how one can create the other, which is still highly relevant in our times. When the tales of the Angels first broke in the press, the reports spoke of thousands of Angels operating on the west coast, yet Hunter found the total active Angel population to be about 160. Yet after a year of sensational press coverage their were significant chapters of Angels across America driven largely by the prestige which the press the press endowed them with.

I fear many young readers don't read Hunter because their sole perception of him stems from the Fear and Loathing movie. Perhaps it makes them overlook him, falsely believing they could only take something away from his genius if they themselves were acid freaks or outlaw motorcyclists. What they don't understand is story development is only part of the delicious masterpieces Hunter serves up. He could make a sentence, one short, lonely sentence brilliant. He could read the inner workings of his non-fictional subjects' minds, both good and bad, as though he held some secret intercom to their brain. Regardless of the story, whether it was some drug binging adventure in Vegas or hot presidential campaign, Hunter's details lacked in nothing. If he wrote it, the reader can close their eyes and be in that distant place in that distant time. I wasn't yet born in the 60s and 70s, but I can see that the residue from that era still heavily molds our society and our government. To move forward, it is important to understand our past. And, Hunter's work serve as an ambassador or a time machine for us to go back and reconcile and comprehend such an unbelievable time.
So, read the book. Read all his books.

This book is an amazing portrait of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club when it was still a club of young guys, back from the war, ready to race into any town in California, raise hell, tear the place to shreds and zoom out of there to the next party. The book focuses on the Bay Area clubs, Oakland, San Fransisco, and San Bernadino in the mid 60's before the Hells Angels had spread outside of California and introduces the reader to such colorful characters as Sonny, Terry the Tramp, Zorro, Tiny, Buzzard, Gut, Magoo and several other interesting individuals that seem to be something straight out of a comic book.

Thompson gives a level headed look at quite a few pieces of Hells Aangels history that helped introduce the club to America such as the Berkley VDC Riots, the Hells Angels involvement with Alan Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, the Bass Lake runs, the Monterey Rape Incident and the funeral of Jim Mother Miles that was featured in LIFE Magazine. While he is remembered most for Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, I find this to be Thompson at his best. Read it if you dare.

I had waited for years to see this book show up as an ebook before getting this as a present from my sister back in August. Thompson is at the top of his game and proves he belongs on the level of the greatest writers of the 20th century if not of all time. This story is his chronicle of the mysterious world of the Hells Angels. From beginning to end he tells about all three sides of the story of their history, from the side of the Angels, from the side of Law Enforcement, and the truth which lies somewhere in between the other two. Read it if you're looking for a voyeuristic look into a world that you likely have never seen outside the movies.

I am a huge fan of Mr. Thompson and this was, in fact, the book that introduced me to the Good Doctor, only six months ago, while I was on vacation in the Dominican. A strange place to read this book, but read it I did on the glorious white sand beaches, and I was not easily distracted from it. But enough about me. Here's some brief blurb on the book.

Thompson writes as a very imformed party, indeed he was, riding with the Angels for about a year and studying their lifestyle, what made them tick, whether most of the horrible things that people said about them were true. The fruits of this labor is this wonderful, entertaining book that should be read by every fan of Hunter S. Thompson, as well as anyone interested about hearing what the Angels REALLY were like at their peak in the 60s. The analyzation of the emergence, divergence, and merging of the various countercultural movements of the time (c. 1965) in the San Francisco area is very interesting stuff. The image of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and The Hell's Angels under the same roof dropping acid is an intriguing one.

Read this book. If you are interested in or like Thompson, the Hell's Angels, or the 60s in general, you will not recieve a shortage of information and entertainment from this early masterpiece of the Good Doctor.

Some people have the gift to make dull stories look interesting. Some people have the opposite “gift”. Mr. Lavigne belongs to the latter group. He had material for an excellent story, but could only manage a tiresome account of events. A reviewer in the store remarks that a lot of bikers are pissed off at this book, and adds that “anyone who gives this book less than three stars is very biased”. I disagree. This book is not smart enough to be used against bikers. It is dedicated “To those who fight against the tyranny and terror of crime”. The first sentence of the Introduction is “The darkness of crime lies not in its villainy or horror but in the souls of those who choose to live their lives in the abyss”. Apart from the atrocious style, this fairy-tale morality is useless for understanding and/or fighting organized crime. Mr. Lavigne takes Anthony Tait, an informer, as his hero. It turns out that Mr. Tait is an incompetent petty criminal. Yet Mr. Lavigne underscores Mr. Tait’s greatness at every opportunity. He greatly exaggerates the importance of Mr. Tait for Hells Angels and for the FBI, in order to promote his own book. So I honestly believe that this book does a very poor service to justice and legality, and even a worse one to the true-crime genre. If we believe Jonathan Swift, it inadvertently makes Hells Angels look good: “When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him”. It is unfortunate that David Simon, creator of “The Wire”, was not around to write about Hells Angels.

I'm a great Hunter S Thompson fan, and have read all of his books. Although "Hell's Angels" was his first book, it would be the last one, that I got around to reading. I was used to his later, gonzo style, of writing so I was actually expecting this to be more of the same. But it was not. He seems more objective and a bit more conventional in this volume, than in his later work. He is still biased, but not to the same degree as he would become later. Also he keeps his long rantings about everything and nothing with no connection whatsoever to his main subjects to a minimum.

He is still very eloquent and writes in an interesting way, just more sober. A bit like Tom Wolfe or such.

I'm not particularly interested in the subject of Hell's Angels or bikers, but I enjoyed this look into a culture that seldom lets in outsiders. Also it gives some contrast to the image the Hell's Angels have these days. Very interesting and highly recommendable.

It is so damn hard to find a worthwhile non-bias book on the Hells Angels MC, either the book was written by someone who holds the club to near and dear to talk about the real dirty business (huge meth labs?)or they are so despise the club for whatever reason that there words come through in such a self righteous do-good manner that it spoil the book, unfortunately the author of this book falls into the latter category.
He spend way to much time slandering the angels, saying that they are not men, that they are dogs,rats,worms, and alot of other animals! It gets old hearing the authors opinion on events that may have happened within the organization. There is a difference between accurately describing a situation or a person and putting your two cents in that seem lost on the author. I am undecided on wether or not I like how he goes WAY in depth with some of his descriptions..for instance, his insistance on letting you know just how damn hard it was to get P2P (phenyl2propane) in the early 80's, lots of discussion regarding the manufacturing of methamphetamine that maybe could have been shaved down a little bit.
The only reason I half way like the book is simply for the shock value of some of it, and I actually kind of like how the author portray Mr. Tait, I really got a good sense of who that man was. Otherwise but at your own risk...

How the great Hunter Thompson survived the numerous tribal romps detailed in this novel is an astounding attestment to the author's adaptability despite his masculine and gonzo-eyed presence. While there is sure to be a hint of exagerration due to Thompson's Dali-like warped view of the content in front of his eyes, what he captures is sure entertaining and really transports the reader to that moment in time.

While not as saucy and subserviently humorous as some of his better tales, this two year existence on the road with one of the most dangerous sub-cultures to existent in 20th century Western Culture, is a delightful study. The character's images, personality, excursions, and lifestyle are greatly conveyed through the colorful descriptions of Thompson. In addition, the confusing disorganization and initial fragementation of each Angels group is described, with future recklessness and dissolution portended (i.e. Altamount). Cheers Hunter

This is early Hunter S. Thompson and already his own life is in such disarray that I wonder how much of his information can be trusted. Nevertheless, he captures the relationship between "law and order" and the Hell's Angels in a way that no other has. I have not read Sonny Barger's book but it is a must if one is to complete the picture. Like most "outlaw" groups the Hell's Angels tend to see themselves in a certain almost heroic light. Hunter captures how they saw themselves in the middle sixties or there abouts. Barger admits much later that they have softened with time into something else (just not mainstream society). The all for one and one for all attitude the Angels Supposedly espouse has always made me personally uneasy even when made available to me. I have been more of an independent I suppose so Hunter's descriptions of the Hell's Angels psychology is enlightening to me although it is tempered with half truths.

The book Hell's Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson, is one of the best books I have read all year. The one thing that effected my liking to this book was not the description, it was not the plot, and it was not the excessive sex, drugs and alcohol. It was the fact that Hunter Thompson was living with the actual Hell's Angels for almost two years, for the sake of journalism. Hunter Thompson is by far no saint (as you might know if you read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), but some of the things that were done in the time period that Thompson was living with them were down right sinister. Behind all the rape and the pillaging and the absolute destruction of human beings were the Neanderthals, that would strike fear in the heart of any decent, hard working American. The book goes into great detail about the ways that the press can manipulate a story, and the way that can mislead the reader, and the results of this. The worst thing about this is that a lot of the Angels had things happen to them that they were completely innocent of, but just the mere fact that they were Hell's Angels made them the enemy. In no way am I condoning any of the actions that some of the Angels partook in, but there is a large difference between committing the crime, and being friends with the people that committed the crime. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered what lies on the dark side of society, and to any one with a strong stomach. Thompson is an excellent writer and does go into (sometimes obscenely excessive) detail.

...first hand accounts of Dr. Thompson's personal dealings with the Angels. Much of the book is written as an essay on the topic of the Hell's Angels. It includes many facts and quotes of everyone involved, from the Angels themselves, to quotes of police officers and politicians. Included throughout are Hunter's analysis of press coverage of the Angels and how the press nearly glorifies criminals. Too much facts. When I bought the book, I was hoping to learn of the Angel's reputation not by reading someone's studies (because anyone could do research), but by living it through the author's eyes. Hunter makes it clear that he studied/mingled with the Hell's Angels for about a year. Where are all the crazy stories? There were a couple personal accounts sprinkled here and there, but there he also a lot of general statements in the piece without giving me the experience I was hoping for.
For example, he'd say something to the effect of... and no one wanted these modern day Huns coming into their town, raping, pillaging, and chain-whipping anyone in their path. Did the Angels actually do these sorts of things? Did they go through towns ravaging and raping everything in site? After reading "Hell's Angels" I still can't answer these and similar questions.

Over 30 years ago I read excerpts of this book. In reading the whole piece now, I see that the work not only holds up over time but also that the full work is more impressive than the parts selected by national magazines. This portrait of the Hell's Angels has all the info you would find in a dry academic sociological study, but Thompson's personal experiences and reactions give the work character.

Thompson has a curious relationship with the Angels. They accept him, but he has seen acceptance of outsiders turn on a dime, so he is careful in his demeanor, how he shares beer, stays useful and keeps a distance.

You learn the Angel attitude and where it comes from. You learn how Angels make their living (and don't make their living), acquire and chop their bikes, work their legal and bail issues, use violence, degrade women (and the mamas who accept this). You see their racial attitudes, alcohol and drug use, how they bury their members, how they fascinate the public and their early experiences with California's academics, artists and activists.

I was interested in the pre-Gonzo Thompson and found him to be a serious reporter. He delves into an official investigation (The Lynch Report) and checks out the truth of press reports (showing the New York Times troubles precede Jason Blair and Judith Miller). He reports and interprets what he sees. On pages 252-253 he gives an excellent summation.

The Gonzo style appears now and then in fledgling form in content and metaphor. For instance, on p. 175 "He tended the fire with the single-minded zeal of a man who's been eating bennies like popcorn. The flames lit up his glasses and his Nazi helmet". This may be the first use, in print, of the Thompson cachet "fear and loathing".

I highly recommend this book for general readers interested in this topic or time.

"Hell's Angels" lacks some of the personal edge and Gonzo reporting style that I expect from Thompson. It is fun in parts, but overall it's too objective. After a few chapters, I found myself thinking, "I get it, these guys are burnouts and misfits, and I don't need be told any more minor stories about their antics." I can't be satisfied with this book as a piece of historical journalism either because there is so much post-1966 Hell's Angels history. Altamont and other important events occurred after the book was written, so I feel like I still don't have a good handle on the Hell's Angels' full significance in American culture. The thing I will remember the most from the book is the quote by Samuel Johnson, "He who makes himself a beast gets rid of the pain of being a man." This quote succinctly describes a core motivation of the Hell's Angels and others who know the pleasure of fringe lifestyles and behavior.

I read this book years ago. It was the first HST book I read and if you're new to his writings and new to his style, as your lawyer I would advise you not to start here. Don't get me wrong - it's a great book, however you need to be interested in the topic.
This is the book that began the reign of gonzo journalism. Written in 1966, Hunter does a great job of relaying his exploits as he is allowed to co-mingle with the members of the Hell's Angels. He does a nice job of telling their histroy, the importance of Harley's and how these men are real men - not devils. Well.... maybe a few of them.
Although the book is basically dated, if you want to know more about the "outlaw" biking culture this is a great read. If you're just getting into HST you should try FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS and I'm sure you won't stop from there.

Hunter Thompson brings us underground journalism. Hunter Thompson brings us gonzo journalism. But he can be serious, while not losing that 'underground' quality. No, Hell's Angels isn't the wild ride Fear and Loathing was, but a more serious study of the Hell's Angels, and who and what, and more importantly, why they are. There is plenty of drugs and alcohol in the book, but not is the style of writing. Thompson writes very straightforward, very serious (and very entertainingly). You can tell he took his topic seriously, and wants us to do so as well. All the way through his 'ending': the beating he took that ended his time with the Hell's Angels. If you are interested in outlaws, or if you are interested in Thompson's work, or if you liked Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests, then you'll love this book. I highly recommend it.

This book was written in 1966 so if you are looking to read about such things as the infamous incident involving the Hell's Angels at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont, you will be disappointed. However, this book is a fascinating snapshot in time of the outlaw motorcycle gang just as they were gaining national notoriety. Hunter S. Thompson, who would later achieve much wider fame as a "gonzo" reporter for Rolling Stone, actually hung out with the gang for about a year or so while he was writing this book. This is not HST at his best - he would get much better later on - but nevertheless this book makes for compelling reading.
The Hell's Angels in the mid-1960s were the scourge of America. Just a rumor of them coming to town would cause mass hysteria. Most of the natives would cower in their homes and many of the men would load their weapons and gather at the town square. Police would throw up roadblocks and attempt to discourage them by citing them for any violation they can think of and throwing them in jail, if they can find a good enough reason (such as an unpaid traffic ticket).
But according to Thompson, the Hell's Angels didn't go out of their way to terrorize people and they just wanted to be left alone. Sure, the Angels got a kick out of "spooking the squares" with their loud choppers and their menacing dress and mannerisms but they wouldn't go out of their way to harm anybody. If you decided to lock horns with them however, all bets are off. The Angels have a code in which if you take on one Angel, you take on them all. Give any one of them some lip in a bar and you will find yourself surrounded by a dozen of them wielding chains, monkey wrenches and whatever else they can find that can serve as a lethal weapon.
Also discussed is the real story behind the alleged "rapes" committed by Hell's Angels. I was amazed to read of how women would willingly "throw themselves" at the Hell's Angels in spite of their reputation for "gang-raping" any female who willingly enters their midst. Once the Angels started making the papers, groupies started coming out of the woodwork everywhere. I think Thompson does a good job explaining the circumstances behind the notorious "rapes" and when you hear the whole story, you will no longer wonder why nearly every rape charge leveled against a Hell's Angel was thrown out of court or ended in acquittal. Rule of thumb to would be Hell's Angel groupies: Don't stick your hand in a hornet's nest unless you intend to get stung many times!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not making the Hell's Angels out to be nice guys. These are true outlaws who have virtually no respect for decency or law and order. Some parts of the book will gross you out (if Hunter is telling the truth). For example, when you are initiated and wear your "colors" for the first time, a pail of feces and urine is dumped over you and you are required to wear those same clothes unwashed until they fall apart.
No question this is one wild bunch and this book makes fascinating, if voyeuristic reading. One gets the sense that Hunter Thompson was never really accepted into the club. Supposedly Thompson "wimped out" during a riot by locking himself in his car trunk (not mentioned in the book). This may be why he ended up being beaten to a pulp by them towards the end of the book. Also, Thompson is said to have welshed on the deal he made with the Angels for writing his book. Supposedly he offered to buy them two kegs of beer when the book was written and he never delivered. Many years later, he offered the beer but his offer was refused by club president Sonny Barger. Once you get on the wrong side of the Angels, it is for life!

Roll up your sleeves boys and girls, if you read Hell's Angels the Doctor is going to inject you with a dosage of Outlaw Reality and Hog Rage as it were. The Hell's Angels are the last vestiges of the American Outlaw, 1%'s they're called, outside the outside, committed to a life of Freedom, punctuated by violence, booze, barbituates, indiscriminate sex and of course cruising the Amercian Wastelands on their Great Metallic Steeds, stripped down Harley Davidson's known affectionately as Hogs. Hunter S. is in his own right a one percenter. This book shows the Dr. of Gonzo's journalistic zeal, as he braves the world of the Angels, driving not a Hog as he should but a Dark Shadow. This is only too perfect as Hunter is the dark specter following the dastardly deeds of these bastard bikers. This book displays Hunter's ballsy journalism, as well as allowing him to focus on a central theme that would go on to pervade his other works: the outlaw and his importance to American society, a society that is dredged to the hilt with phonies, gutless wonders, souless greedmongers, hypocrites, cowards, politicians and other scum, capitalisitc, bureacratic, pig-like and otherwise. Hell's Angels is the journalistic calm that precedes the storm of hallucinagenic brilliance that was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So one way or the other let the Doctor of Gonzo vaccinate your mind from the mindless surge that makes up the money grubbing, TV watching majority of this Great Country of Ours. (...)

Hunter Thompson trys to get the facts about the "outlaw's" by being there with a group of them. He was upfront and got beyond the hype put out by "the man" and dealt with bikers as real people. This book speaks of a time before the "R.I.C.O." statutes turned loose "agents-provocateur" to entice individual gang members to break the law. Thompson's accurate descriptions of his time within the biker community are now historical documents speaking of a past 30 years gone. In his time Outlaws were still creating the biker lifestyle, free from the image consciousness of today's bikers. [$20G's&20 miles don't make you a biker!] They ride what they want and do things that make for good storytelling on Thompson's part.
I recommend this book as a balance to the disinformation found in most others on the subject, and because it's entertaining reading.

Not as over the top or as wildly entertaining as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but still very well written and highly entertaining. You don't get bland prose from the Doctor, and does it get any better than phrases such as "young blondes with lobotomy eyes"? This book is about 40 years old, and the reader certainly gets a feel for the 1960s, but I wouldn't at all call it, or Fear and Loathing, dated. The book is anecdotally driven, there are a lot of highly amusing stories with the bikers, and the bikers don't come across to me as completely unlikeable. If you like Fear and Loathing, you'll probably like this book too, although it's not as wacky and wild. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

There isn't much here to learn about the Hell's Angels if you're already familiar with them. If you're not familiar with them, and you want to learn about them, just about any other Hell's Angels book will tell you as much. The difference is in the storyteller. Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Usually when you read or hear something like this, you're told by some raving pompous reporter, reminiscent of Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Natural Born Killers who tries to hit hard and scare you. Thompson plays it cool with his usual wit and insight. That's what makes this book worth a read. Thompson understood the Hell's Angels. He road with them, made friends. From Thompson, you always read the truth in its truest form you can read. What he found through his adventures with them made for what was indeed a strange and terrible saga.

It's a shame that Lavigne's book lacks continuity and focus. He jumps from one place to another, and from one topic to another without a good transition. There are too many supporting characters in the book and it's difficult for me to keep track. His prejudice shows through the story, and unlike T.J. English, he can't be neutral or impartial.

I say it's a shame because this is a serious subject. The Hell's Angels are a recurring problem for law enforcement in the USA, Canada, and Europe, and there have been many books on biker gangs as organized crime. This is also a book about a top FBI informant, and anyone who read "Black Mass" or "The Westies" knows that informants/snitches are a major source of convictions. Unfortunately the book lacks a central purpose. Was Tait trying to gather information on drugs, guns, explosives, or all three? What did the chapter in Kentucky have to do with the story? Other than one murder, it occupies to much space. The different crimes for which the members were convicted should be broken into some sort of order.

If the events occured exactly as written, I doubt the informant could've kept track of his own activities. I hope he kept his log in alphabetical order.

On another note, I think "Anthony the Informer" messed up his life. His army service wasn't boring by any means, and it could have been his crowning achievement. But he screwed up because he was so tough that he couldn't take orders. He could have been a top lawman like Bernard Kerik, but going AWOL doesn't help a soldier's career.

By the 1970's The Hell's Angels were misunderstood by most law enforcement officers. Seen mostly as a fun loving but rowdy and unpredictable bike gang, they were often put on the back burner by the police and FBI. Enter one Tony Tait, an Alaskan biker with a police fixation who found himself drafted into the "Angels".

Tait was appalled by the illegal happenings within the Angels and couldn't believe how police either ignore such actives or just plain didn't know about them. Tait soon came up with a twisted idea, what if he became an informer? As an insider he could work his way up the social ladder and gain access to things it would take the government decades to get their hands on. Tait would in effect become a paid double agent for the FBI. Easier said then done, but after some false starts Tait would go on to do just that, exposing the gangs meth labs and gun running which eventually lead the U.S. government to a string of successful arrests with in the biker organization. It's an interesting story, partly because it sounds like a Hollywood screenplay, partly because (no matter what you think of Tony Tait) you know that Tait will forever be cursed and hidden within witness protection for the rest of his life. It sounds like at the very least this would make a great book, sadly however that is not the case.

Yves Lavigne refers to himself as a expert in the area of biker gangs and Hell's Angles, and I don't doubt it. He's gone through pages of audio transcripts that Tait helped secretly record of illegal transactions with-in the gang. I know this because Lavigne re-prints many of these transcripts within the pages of the book. Incriminating? Yes. Interesting? Not so much. The writing is clear but seldom captivating and the book probably ends up being at least 50 to 100 pages too long. Or at least that how it feels.

Lavigne's take on the Angels is apparent from the get go, he feels that they are criminals, often crowdedly (hiding behind the very system they seem to be rebelling against). He details some hideous murders between the Angels and other rival gangs that often prove to be far more interesting than Tait's scenario. More details such as this might have added more seasoning to this book and help booster Lavigne's opinion. Another problem is that Tait never speaks for himself; it's always through interviews with Lavigne. As a result we never get a true sense of Tait's situation. Did he ever get close to anybody in the gang? Was he conflicted? It seems he should have been. We do learn about a girlfriend/common law wife who sheds a little light on Tait's character but it's never enough. And that's the true irony of the book with all the transcripts and all the names and dates and other info the book has to offer...it just never seems to be enough.

The inside story of the Hells Angels at their inception by HST hanging, riding and drinking with them. Makes it much easier to understand how they began, how the media created a personna for them that they felt compelled to live up to.

I've read the other reviews and it seems like everyone is comparing this book to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is a mistake. They are 2 very different books, but still contain Thompson's wit and style. If you aren't intrested in reading about the more turbulent parts of the 60's, or seeing an inside look at one of the more mysterious and persecuted sect's or our society you are better off not reading this book. Hardly any other journalist could have written this book. Thompson and the Angels both share common intrest's and I'm amazed at how well they get along in the book, and even in the end the parting ,for the most part, is one of mutual respect.

The Hell's Angels and the outlaw biker gang phenomenon have always made for interesting discussion. One needs only to recall some of those B movies made in the 1960's about the Hells Angels and how many "ordinary" folks fantasized about living the life of a biker gang memeber. This book was written as sort of an expose'into the lives of "typical" biker gang members. It follows the history of the group from the end of World War II up to about 1966. I found it an enjoyable, easy read when I first read it 20-some odd years ago. I think the reader will come away with the understanding of why some individuals find the biker lifestyle an expression of total freedom, albeit within the seedier side of society. Anyone with an interest in the subject matter would find this a good book to buy.

Ever since i read Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas years ago, i was hooked. This book is very informative and gives an insider look at life with the Hell's Angels, one of the most notorious biker clubs. Thompson debunks many myths fabricated by the media back in the sixties, in his own hilarious Hunter Thompson fashion. He manages to get his ass kicked at the end by a group of Angels'. If you've read Fear And Loathing and The Rum Diaries and you dug them, this is a must read.

I admit that I am not much of a literary scholar, and I am not known to sit and read huge books. Reading words make me itchy.That said, this book is engaging and fascinating.For anyone who has ever been curious about the Hell's Angels, and enjoy Dr.Thompson's mastery of the English language, this is a must read. My brother let me borrow it from him and I couldn't put it down. Thompson could be the funniest man to ever grace the planet Earth.He is also a very observant man on human nature. He is unrepentant and completely controversial...in other words, he is brilliant.

tragicomedy about America's best known motorcycle gang. Thompson dissects the Angel phenomenon and its effect on America with dazzling sociological precision. His first, and not his best, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Far from glorifying the excess and flamboyance of the Angels in the 60's, he instead writes them into history as heavy handed, naive outsiders with little to believe in except their own hedonism and terrfying image. All the gory details are here, drug use, sex lives, media exposure, cops,bikes, dope, booze, costumes...interesting insights into the ugly underbelly of the postwar reality.

This is a profound, incisive tome, bound to chain-whip some serious insight across the face of mainstream stupor. Thompson cogently observes, in perhaps the finest capsule summary ever of our festering existential miasma, that America has been breeding mass anomie since the end of World War II. Dead on the money, Doc. Pun intended. Also contains the best short exposition on Linkhorn evolution ever written, and the quintessential explanation for the decline and fall of Lenny Bruce. Oh, and there's no one on the planet who could have captured the Angel ethos as well as the Duke. Read it or lose.

Hunter holds himself back and lets the story tell itself. That's is both good and bad. I am a big fan of his Gonzo-style and must admit I missed it. In "Hell's Angels" his writing style was supplanted by the lifestyle he adopted for a year in order to journalize the "trips" of the notorious California Motorcycle gang. Unless you were previously exposed to some (true) stories of the Hell's Angels, much of this book will be eye-opening for the gang did and didn't do. I hadn't been and only knew the myth perpatrated by the media. Hunter does his best to expose the NY Times, Time Magazine and others for their taget-picking, fear-baiting, if-we-printed-it-it-must-be-real style of reporting and de-myths many of the groups exploits. Hunter focuses his story of two or three "runs" the Angel's take. He captures the anti-social attitudes and behaviors of the gang without judging and relates the booze, pills, sex and thuggery stories without embellishment (or so it seemed to me). Read this book if you've ever wondered what the gang life was like for this group of misfits '60's drop-outs. Read this book if you enjoy HST and his eye for the real story.

If you're a fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, don't expect to find that same genius in Hell's Angels. Not that it's a bad book. It isn't. Some of the sordid activity of the Hell's Angels is quite an interesting read... but at other points in the book I found myself skimming, i.e. the descriptions of the cycles, etc. However, one thing I really admire about the book is it's sheer objectivity. Thompson neither loves nor hates the Angels. He obviously shows contempt for some of their loutish and criminal/psychopathic behavior, but also distinguishes them as misfits looking for a home. If you're looking for an expose on biker gangs that would reflect their modern dimensions, obviously this book wouldn't be for you, but as a history lesson in outlaws it has strong merits.

This book is great, a look inside a secret society few really know of, except for rumors and myths. HST gets inside this organization and lives a life few do, on the edge of society and lives to bring us the story. The misadventures of these bikers are intense and enlightening for those interested in what really goes on in such a world. Filled with drugs, partying, fights and travels of the most notorious biker gang back in their hayday. HST was a bold man for such an excursion and we thank him for risking life and limb by delivering us this masterpiece of Gonzo writing.

Written before Thompson freaked out on drugs and went truly Gonzo, "Hell's Angels" is instead a great piece of reporting. The Angels were a fairly new phenomenon in the public mind when Thompson went riding with them and recorded all that he saw. It is a fascinating account of what has become one of America's most notorious criminal enterprizes. Thompson's description of an LSD rush (taken when the drug was still legal) is worth the price alone. For all his troubles, the Angels beat him half to death. This is a must read for anyone ineterested in criminology.

The complete history of the notorious motorcycle gang up to 1965. This is an amazing achievement and in my eyes one of the greatest works of non-fiction in twentieth century english literature.

Thompson (R.I.P.) was one of the greatest journalists of our time, but more than that he deserves the same respect as Ginsberg and Kerouac in regards to his contributing to America's reputation as a home for people with an insatiable hunger for human experience.

Unfortunately, he left us when perhaps we needed him most. As second hand human experience (i.e. the voyeristic tendencies of a culture hypnotized by "reality" T.V.) has become almost more important than the first hand variety.

"Gonzo" journalism was all about becoming involved. It was raw enthusiasm and gusto, not that Hunter didn't do a lot of research as well. This is his ultimate work, though I would never discount "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", but it worked better as a memoir than a piece of journalism.

"Hell's Angels" will always be my favorite by Thompson, it is an amazingly penetrating analysis, where the reporter really get's under the skin of his subject. What makes it so entertaining is the great sympathy Thompson feels for the Angels. I'm sure he had much more respect for their brazen and amoral ways than he ever had for the zombies that inhabit the cozy living rooms of the American comma ward known as the heartland.

Who will fill the shoes of this giant, and those of his mentors?

I know not.

Hunter S. Thompson bravely partied with the notorious gang for some time, presumably in an effort to humanize, demystify and, I guess, understand this bunch. He finds the humanity but also is witness to the raw, booze-fueled aggression so inherent in an organization of self-described outlaws. The vignettes satisfy, but the book has a sarcastic, braggadocios edge to it that distracts. He adopts a nauseating You-Had-To-Be-There voice early on that cheats the book of authenticity. A bright point was that Thompson is ultimately circumspect about his experience with the bikers, tossing off a well-reasoned psychological profile of his subjects' outcast leanings.

Reading 1-star reviews of books which one would put on their top 12 list if they had one is always frustrating. The desire to respond to each short, mindless rant with a brief, thoughtful exposition of the point the writer clearly missed meets the realization that once written one would have no way to physically cause the author of the offensive screed to read it...

This only results in more feelings of dislike for the 1-star-giver, causing thoughts of various forms of corporeal harm visited upon them to drift through the pleasure centers of ones brain. Unfortunately, as a responsible-appearing member of my social system, I am held back from bringing my most gloriously gory fantasies into reality, should I ever be fated to meet the twit behind the taunt.

That's why I'm glad we have the Hell's Angels.

Thompson is very clear throughout the book that he personally disapproves of the worst of the Angel's behavior. He explains the thought processes behind the bad behaviors as they are explained to him by the Angels, with shadings of his developing wry wit as mere commentary. One point is made, I feel, several times in this book: that the Angels are aware that their behavior is 'bad', and that they could, despite the many legal and social bridges burned behind them, return to polite society.

Even after himself learning the history of the 'motorcycle gang', which evolved after tens of thousands of soldiers were cut loose in California as WWII ended, with no trained skills in anything other than busting heads and blowing stuff up, the author still isn't at all an apologist for them. Conversely, I think that a little more research on his part would have shown him that the notion of a 'renegade gang' of deposed soldiers isn't an American invention, as he infers, but is a part of the human condition and therefore might conceivably be 'apologized' for.

So, back to the book - it's gruesome at times, warm-hearted at others, and painfully revealing of one's own innermost demons at points throughout. The Hell's Angels are a part of our humanity, part of our nation and world, part of our most desperately hidden fantasies.

Anyone will benefit from reading this book because this book is about YOU.

This turned out to be a very interesting book. The author was a rider with the Hell's Angel for a short duration. He was able to relate his time as an angel into a very readable book. This writing tells of the partying,drinking,and drugs that make up the everyday life of being a member of the Hell's Angels. Hunter is also able to show the dangerous sides of being part of this notorious group.After reading this book and hearing Thompson's experiences you will know that he went to great lengths to bring this story.All in all a very exciting and readable story. Read it you will be greatly entertained.

This was HST's first book after doing free lance journalism almost everywhere. It does not have his wit and style of his later works, but still offers insight and his interpretations of everything. How many writers, authors, and journalists would actually hang out with this group of "bikers" for a year? He did and lived to tell about it (barely), but some of it is redundant. It is not a bad book and HST's account of this year of his life makes for good reading and you don't want to put it down, because you want to know what happens next.

Dr. Hunter S Thompson captured what it was like to be in a gang on a hostile hog, hateful and on drugs-- circa 1965. There was mischief in the air and things were never what they seemed to our hero, Hunter S.-- and then he got his ass beat.

This epic tome was Thompson's explosion onto the literary art scene. Hell, back when this descent into hedonism was published, "The Brady Bunch" and "Nixon" where almost 4 years away.

This novel 'freaked' everyone out and remains the pen-ultimate tale of debauched barbarians waging war against 'mom and pop' America.

This was the book that got me into Hunter S. Thompson. Back when I was living in the Bay Area, I was on the verge of buying a Triumph Bonneville. I figured that this book would give me some inspiration, and get me to go through with my purchase. What I found was a book that pays great respect to a fantastic machine, and an outlaw culture that surrounded it. Sex, violence, LSD, politics, and counter cultural icons like Keasey and Gingsberg all pop up in this book. I also found this book interesting becuase of it's historical insight into the Bay Area during one of the most exciting decades.

Hells Angels by Hunter S. Thompson disects the infamous motorcycle gang. He defines them with a gritty first hand portrait that seems to favor the idea that they are not just unsavory animals but they are simple loosers wanting to go out with a bang. Shows them for what they really were and not their hype ridden reputation. Also Thompson offers up a biting contrast between the Angels and his "Respectable" friends. Though it is not the same twisted Gonzo journalism that we saw in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas it is well worth the time and money.

Having read Hell's Angels, A Strange and Terrible saga at least eight times starting in 1968, I never cease to be amazed at the criticisms leveled against it in the ensuing years, the major one being that it's not a Fear and Loathing book. I'm pretty sure it was originally a (very) long article written for The Nation magazine. The Nation ain't Rolling Stone, kids. If you are coming to this book expecting Hunter's usual blend of fact, fiction, and hallucinations, you will be sorely disappointed. "Gonzo journalist" though he is, the operative part there was journalist. He had, after all, developed a rather strong food habit since birth, and had no desire to kick it. He explores the Angels' mystique by letting them provide the history, their then current attitudes, and their lives as outlaws outside the system. He then blends research and his observations gleaned from riding with them for the better part of a year into the mix, producing a riveting book.
Since the recent death of Marlon Brando, his movie The Wild One has gained a new audience; it is in fact based on an incident Hunter chronicles in this book, the Rape of Hollister. Oddly, nothing remotely similar to the movie happened there, and some other legendary "motorcycle riots" such as the one at Laconia, New Hampshire, weren't initially riots at all, and certainly didn't involve the Angels, though the media portrayed these events as the brink of Armageddon and gave middle America yet another "dangerous group running wild in their midst," something else to freak over in addition to Communists hiding under every rock.
The Angels became, over time, what people expected them to be. Hunter recognized this transformational quality in his own profession: if other reporters, from respected national magazines, could make up stories or at least embellish them enough to freak people out, he could do it better! What you will find in Hell's Angels is great reporting, an unflinching look at real wildness and personal risk, and the genesis of what would become Hunter's trademark style.
If for no other reason, fans of Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, or the "Beats" (including the real "Dean Moriarty" from On the Road, still alive at the time, still driving, and hanging out with the Pranksters) should read this book for the legendary Acid Test at Kesey's place at La Honda when Hunter and the Angels showed up (by invitation, as Kesey was burning to meet them). In a singularly rare occurrence, we find two journalists just before they became instant icons writing about the same private party, rather than, say an inauguration, or awards ceremony, or some other public spectacle; the "public" was definitely not invited to La Honda. Compare Hunter's account of that weekend with the one that appears in the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test; you might just be surprised by who is the more "legitimate" writer.
I obviously love this book and highly recommend it, but again, it isn't FEAR and LOATHING WITH THE HELL'S ANGELS; it's far too serious a situation for that, as you will discover upon reading it. (And if that idea somehow still escapes you, watch Gimme Shelter, the great Maysles brothers' documentary of the Stones free concert at Altamont; if THAT doesn't do it, go down to your local biker bar and kick over a few choppers; you'll deserve what you get.)

Thompson's Hell's Angels is a masterpiece of American Journalism...Not only does he teach us about the most known--and maybe the most notorious--outlaw biker gang in the world, he also teaches us what it means to be a journalist. He shows he has guts just by spending so much time with the gang most people feared back in the 60s, and by not being afraid to show he had what so many other writers and reporters lacked. I can only hope journalists in the 90s--including myself--can follow his bright example.

I am by no means saying the Hells Angels are altar boys however most of the claims in this boomadevbythe by the author and king rat himself, don't add up or take any and all credence away from their story, leaving it to be just that. A story. First, Anthony Tait, the stories protagonist and the government's star witness, was dishonorably dishcarged from the US Army because he "disagreed" with their training tactics and continuously went AWOL. The Hells Angels may be bad people, however it says something about any individual who signs up for military service and then runs like a coward. Tait applied to the CIA, claiming they "needed people like him." obviously not. Then Tait, who had not been arrested or charged with a crime, as most informants are when they decide to cooperate, offered to inform on the Alaska chapter of the Hells Angels MC.......for a steak dinner and a bottle of whiskey. The man was apparently so dense he was unable to spell angels on club material, spelling it angles instead. The author himself makes several odd statements such as Sonny Barger has an adult son that he refuses to see because the boy wanted nothing to do with the Hells Angels. Ralph "Sonny" Barger has no children despite four marriages. Throughout the main part of the book that involves Barger's conviction on charges he planned to transport explosives over state lines and blow up a clubhouse belonging to the Outlaws MC, tape recordings made by investigators suggest entrapment more than justice as Tait is the individual purchasing explosives and planning the bombing of the Outlaws clubhouse with Barger apparently only agreeing to stay in Tait's hotel room in Oakland while he "bombs" the Outlaws, which Barger didn't even follow through on. On top of this Tait was paid by the FBI and ATF with tax payers dollars as was his hooker/stripper girlfriend and the explosives he bought were purchased with taxpayers dollars as well. The book is rife with what seems like fiction and examples of bad management on the part of the ATF and FBI. If the Hells Angels are bad, the author and sir scumbag AnthonybTait are worse.

I first got to know Hunter S. Thompson through the worst possible way: the movie version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Don't get me wrong, I loved the film then and I still love it now, but it is one of the riskiest ways to get introduced to this brilliant author.

The thing is, I became instantly smitten with Johnny Depp's performance and I was completely won over by the brilliant humour, but after the film was over, well... it was a fun ride but, hey, that was it. Besides the humour, and the prodigious drug taking, there was not much insight that I got out of it, so Hunter dropped off my radar for some years.

All of that changed when I picked up the Rum Diary two years ago, recognized the author, and decided to give it a spin. Boy, am I glad I did that, otherwise I would have missed out on one of the most brilliant authors of the 20th century!

Hunter S. Thompson is a MONSTER writer, and he is one of the most original, funniest and insightful voices I have ever heard in my entire life! He is brilliant, a master of hyperbolic realism, and reading his books is like engaging in a late night conversation with a genius: it can be funny, disconcerting, gross, insightful, frenetic but always unforgettable.

Hell's Angel's - the book that first cast the spotlight on Hunter - is a perfect example. I didn't buy this book because I was particularly interested in the Angels - I'm not! - or even motorcycles - I don't really care about them, to be honest. I bought it, because I knew that it would read like the brilliant account of a writer who is so talented that he can make any subject interesting, whether you had any interest in it or not!

I exaggerate, of course. You have to be attuned to Hunter's sensibility first, to his Fear and Loathing, to his take no prisoners sense of humour - which has the calculated subtlety of a nuclear bomb! - but if you are, man, what a ride!

This book fits like a glove in the main theme of Hunter's oeuvre - The American Dream, or rather, What became of the American Dream - and what starts as a character study on one of the last embodiments of the Dream turns out to be something quite different...

There are many layers in this book, some frightening insight, brilliant analysis and, of course, a superb sense of humour.

If you are familiar with Hunter, you already know this but if all of you've read, or heard about, revolves around "Fear and Loathing..." give this one a try. There is a lot more to the Good Doctor than what his wild legend might suggest.

After spending time with the notorious bike gang, Hell's Angels, Hunter S. Thompson tells his stories and confrontations. Including factual detail and expressed how the media portrayed them in there stories by setting up a stereotype of all motorcycle riders. Contrary to Thompson's later books, such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he adopts a more journalistic approach in Hell's Angels.

In a time of drugs, violence, and rock and roll the outlaw motorcycle gang, the hells angels, ruled the streets. With their gang rapes, pimping, drug dealing, and violent tactics they became famous over night with every source of media following their trail. The way the media portrayed them set up a common stereotype that affected all motorcyclists. Thompson actually spent time to get the real story behind these ruthless motorcyclists to really see if the media is correct in their portrayal.

From the first paragraph to the last you would not want to put this book down. Thompson gives a thorough background history behind the gang, which makes you want to learn even more and what they do next. He also includes much detail like how one being associated with the Angles at one point in time effect there lives by getting a job and with the law. This is a true Hunter S. Thompson piece that is more in a journalistic mode that Thompson does best.

I was born in 1962 and was too young to appreciate the special generation that the 60's spawned. The Hell's Angels were definitely NOT to be messed with in that time period. But he hung out with them and wrote a compelling book about the demons on Harleys with deft mastery. They actually almost killed him when they found out they were not getting paid for the information gleaned from HST. The 60's to me were a hazy memory and I remember flower power, Watergate, Nixon, Hippies, etc. But the Hell's Angels were dangerous and belligerent; not to be messed with. They fueled a rage for the tiniest of infractions. Mainstream society in the 60's were definitely shocked and afraid of them with good reason. I sort of saw them as buffoons, but it is a great book. It rocketed HST to fame and fortune.

This, uhh, author has some serious emotional issues. This is an example of how this, umm, author might relate the experience of walking into a convenience store and briefly making eye contact with a scruffy-looking person exiting the store.
"His cold, brown eyes bore into mine, daring me to answer his challenge... I knew my life was in danger, as I watched him swagger through the door, reeking of beer, sweat, and the stench of the violence I knew he was capable of." While the scruffy guy exiting the store is wondering, "Why is this guy staring at me?"
OK- I am a woman, and I've worked with felons, some of whom were OMG (outlaw motorcycle gang) members, and some of them flirted with me and/or threatened me frequently. However, I cannot imagine ever reaching the emotional state that apparently affects this, uh, author and his "writing". Unless he wrote this book in 48 hours, immediately after being released from being held hostage by Hells Angels who hogtied and tortured him over a period of 612 days, there is no excuse for this emotionally wrought, hand-wringing diatribe. Anyone, with any passing knowledge of this subject material will find this endless editorial absurd. Yes, some bikers in OMGs can be very dangerous, break laws, threaten and murder people, ad infinitum. But- anyone who writes a book about this material, attempting to present information about OMG culture, law enforcement investigations, and other pertinant data needs to retain some semblence of objectivity. This author's emotional and biased writing style makes the reader struggle through endless sermons to get to the data. And data that is presented in such an extrordinarily emotionally biased manner, is of questionable value to any intelligent reader.

I just gave this another read after having first read it in the seventies. It lacks Hunter's usual wit but offers a clear picture of those tumultuos times. This book was written before the fiasco at Altamont.
Hunter takes us on a journey through his year long affiliation with the Angel's originally intended to get their side of the story. We see the human side of one of the most infamous and misunderstood groups of the era.
This book held a few surprises for me such as the internal conflagrations between the Angel's chapters from Frisco, Berdoo, Oakland, et al. The book also describes the "love-hate" relationship between the Angel's and law enforcement, the Angel's and the peace-niks, the Angel's and the Beatniks and the Angel's and the Merry Pranksters.
Hunter doesn't sugar-coat his experiences. In fact this work has an anti-Angel's sentiment for the most part. Perhaps because he winds up on the wrong end of an Angel's stomp-fest.

A fortifying piece of pure American gonzo literature, no doubt about it. In this one year epic of HST's dealings with the vile, wretched, destruction mongers of the world; a consequential admiration seems to develop for the "mutants" that Thompson brings to life. Social degenerates, too legit for extermination yet so malicious that fear itself would never discover the Hell's Angels(Only their unfortunate victims). Blessed with such a cast as Terry "the tramp",Ralph "Sonny" Barger and hundreds upon thousands of willing destructionites the Angels were certainly at the forefront of idealistic individuality by way of sheer brutality. Armed with strength in numbers, a general disregard for societies norms and an unwavering sense of self righteousness the Angels ran roughshod over the meek 99%ers that make up the establishment. The general dicontempt of press held by the Angels scared many an ambitious journalist away but not Thompson. In rechanting this grotesque yet entertaining account of America's most notorious congregation, HST displays his gusto for getting to the heart of the story as well as a true grit in the face of personal injury. In cliche; An insightful look into the habits of an outlaw motorcycle gang's rise to American media fame. Truly, the most recommendable piece of reading material for any of HST's admiring fans and a sick and twisted look into the 1%er way of life{...} "The Hell's Angels...blood, gang rape...glance over at your wife, your children in the back seat, could you protect them against a gang of young toughs gone wild on booze and drugs?...remember those pictures? Big ugly street-fighters not even afraid of police, loving a fight, swinging chains and big wrenches, knives - no mercy at all".

Just finished reading this book and couldn't put it down. If you have a curiosity about the Hell's Angels, this is the book to buy! Hunter S. Thompson rode with the Angels during a promonient time in their history with all the colorful characters that have made a name in Angel's history like Sonny Barger, Terry the Tramp, Mouldy Marvin, Magoo, Mother's Miles and many more. Hunter writes about the infamous Bass Lake Run, the Monterey Rape Incident, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' parties for the Hell's Angels and the Viet Nam Day Committee confrontation with the Hell's Angels in Berekley. He also takes the opportunity to inject his take on the biased press-media of the time and pretty much tells the stories as they happened that will keep any reader riveted and titallated. Buy this book if you want an adventure with the most infamous motorcycle gang on the scene today and then.

Like the term co-opted by the great Ghostface Killah, HST's "Hell's Angels" is the uncut raw. For all those who try to shrug Doc Gonzo off as just a drug-abusing satirist, peep one of the illest non-fiction accounts this side of In Cold Blood. And in keeping with the man's boundary flexing style; here he legitimizes journalism by inserting himself into the narrative. This is not the product of a Harvard research grant, nor the dripping perversions of a Pulitzer-seeking swine (see S. Templeton, The Wire season 5); this is Upton Sinclair on acid getting his scalp peeled back by taking a curve at 100 mph. Nuff respect due.

"The horror. The horror... Exterminate all the brutes!"

I have never taken so long to read a book in my life! Boring, boring, boring! Even if you skip the many pages of legal mumbo jumbo, you still have to read Tony Tait's constant whining and moaning sections. I can't believe this author even wrote about this guy! Generally, I find the subject of Hells Angels to be entertaining but this book was an exception to the rule. Anthony Tait manages to make Hells Angels seem totally boring but if the truth be told, Anthony Tait is the most boring subject I've ever read about.

Hunter gets inside the mind set of not only a biker gang mentality, but the mentality of the rabid news media and the hyped up public it panders to. Great documentary on the country shortly before Hollywood got addicted to the biker craze (when Easy Rider would hit the big time.) More straightforward and less deranged than Thompson's later classix, this is a nice place to begin before he went truly gonzo insane.

I have always loved Hunter S. Thompson's work and he did not let me down with his look inside the facinating, demented world of an iconic American sub-culture, the Hell's Angels. Thompson emerses himself, both feet first, into the world of outlaw bikers and all that comes with it. This book deatails the escapades of the typical Hell's Angel, or 1%er, from the inside. Thompson lived, partied,and rode with one of the most notorious motorcyle gangs of the 1960's and 70's. He gained their trust,as much as he could, and reported on what he experienced with the Angel's with brutal honesty which is my favorite aspect of this book. He told his story as he saw it, not as a promotion or glorification of a biker gang. In the end he probably got more than he bargained for. An extremely enlightening look into a world that most of us will never get a chance or have the desire to see. It was like driving by a car wreck or walking by the freak shows at the fair, no matter how hard you try you have to stop and stare.

Snitches get Stitches... or big royalty checks, depending on which puppet masters you bend over for.
Another rat with a pen, spreading all the pre-approved "Hard hitting, gritty..." uh, 'Truths' you already knew from
sizzling 'News' exposes washing over your brain by the Television Machine... don't waste the cash or your time on
this tripe. Go back and read HSThompson, or (if you must) Sonny Barger's 'histories' of the most infamous outlaw
biker club in the world. Phwew...

You have to appreciate a writer that takes care of his characters the way a good and talented actor takes care of his character. This is one of few writers that understands that to write about a certain thing, you have to research and become that thing that your writing about. Hunter S. Thompson is one of the best writers around because of his care for the craft. The work slides off the page and mesmerizes the mind. If you don't have this, pick up a copy of it as soon as you can. Also, I'm not one to promote but I ran into a couple of books as of lately that need to be read by anyone with eyes. As completely unrelated, pick up a copy of Berserk (manga) the story alone is worth the time to read, while it's long, you will completely appreciate this work. Also, pick up a copy Dope by: Robert J. Escandon, the work is a derivative of Thompson's own exploits. It's truly worth the 15 bucks and the time. Trust me on this guys, it's awesome.

As good - and compelling - a writer as HST later proved himself to be, 'Hell's Angels' is a let-down. Far from the hilarious and often insightful candor of 'Fear and Loathing', Thompson serves up a flat and frankly overly-sensationalist treatment in 'Hell's Angels'. Yet 'Hell's Angels' is an important book, not for any light it might shed on the club itself (which is dim at best) but as a glimpse into 1960's counterculture, of which the Hell's Angels were one expression. That 'mainstream' America accepted all of the horrors HST 'reported' with such acceptance is in and of itself telling. Just as telling is his neat sidestepping of any issues which might cloud the story (such as many of the Hell's Angels being veterans and saddled with regular, day-to-day jobs just like the rest of us). The problem with 'Hell's Angels' is that HST never really brings any authority to the tale. In fact, he often comes across as a bit pedantic - and strikes one as being quite out of his league (he is rather vague about how much time he really spent with the men he is assesing). That he elected to put an exclamation point on the story by getting himself beat up at the end is, for lack of a better word, embarrasing. I rated this book at three stars only for its value in any HST collection - for the casual reader, or anyone interested in a reliable account of the Hell's Angels, this is not worth buying (scour your local library for it instead).

The book starts out slow with basically an overview and history of the Angels and well motorcycle gangs. But it picks up the pace and doesn't let you go. We enter the brutal and vicious world of the Hells Angels. We see this slice of life through the weird and off beat eyes of HST. Even while he gets closer and closer to certain Angels there is always an air of uneasiness around him and we found out the hard way.
A great read if you're into the Anegls, HST, or the 60's. The culture of the time is on display and presents a backdrop for the rise, fall and resurrection of the Angels.

This book was OK. There were a lot of parts that i just scanned when Lavigne was talking about the interworkings of the Federal and State Law Enforcement because i simpley dont care. Tait is a top notch scumbag as well. He didnt do any of it for the greater good, just to make a name, and his desire to go into law enforcement. If he wasnt an informant, he would have been no different than any of them, maybe worse. The one thing i did like was the taped church meetings. For the first time we know what they were talking about at Local, Coastal, USA, and World Meetings. The author was definately biased, and to claim he is the top Hells Angels advisor is rediculous. Also he says they started from the Boozefighers MC when they actually stared from the Pissed of Bastards MC. Isnt as good as other books out there. Read Williams Queens book 'Under and Alone'.

This book was not what I had expected, having already read several of Thompson's books. The Gonzo-style that he is so well known for is not present here. There are moments of "Gonzo" that appear and inpire some laughter, but it is not what makes the story a good read.
What we have is a completely objective view of a group that terrified most that came within earshot of their screaming motorcycles. Thompson sets the record straight on what the Angels were really all about. He does not glorify them nor condemn them. He simply gives you the straight story.
I loved that he does not make them out to be saints, but simply exposes that they are not what the media had been making them out to be. He gives several examples of what was printed and what actually happened.
In short the great Doctor does for us what journalists are trusted and supposed to do for us: give an objective story based on fact.

The book was very interesting and so intrigueing. Where can I read more about where this book left off? Better yet, what other books are there that relate the early history about the Red and White or the one percenters? I love the 60s especially ideas and trends that were pushed underground and that the status quo desperately tried to ignore or tried to relegate to obscurity. Those trends had real meaning and artistic value. But it is precisely why this book was so fascinating to me. I guess the status quo's intentions backfired in a major way. This book also demonstrates how the outlaw bikers actually set off certain trends like tattoos and piercings which are quite popular among the "artists" and "art" of today...actually quite boring and predictible like today's "music". The attached chains on the wallets, tattoos, and piercings had already been done by a more interesting subculture in the late 50s and early 60s which were totally rejected by most people. This book offered a glimpse into something I really had little knowledge about. Today's youthful culture think that they are doing something original and interesting with tattoos and piercings but they don't even come close to the counterculture of the late 50s and 60s, particularly the outlaw culure.

As for the Hunter S. Thompson's other famous book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,...what a bore. I disagree that it's a better book than this one that I'm reviewing. In fact, it's totally the opposite. Hells Angels left me with more hunger to gobble up more material related to the Red and White and outlaw bikers in particular. I had to almost force myself to read Fear and Loathing. Drugs can sometimes have the opposite effect on creativity, and it seems that drugs and writing were not a good mix for Hunter S. Thompson when he wrote Fear and Loathing.

Somewhat more staid and conforming to acceptable human regulations than his subsequent howling manifestos, Hell's Angels is nonetheless a rare and wonderful work. From the opening paragraphs, consisting of Thompson's jarring, disjointed, and richly lyrical account of the tableau of the American motorcycle gang, I was hooked. In the later, more conventionally journalistic sections, always present is a perplexed half-pity for the bikers of the title, and a scornful resentment of the frothing media and law enforcement types who've so thoroughly hyped up the shaggy ruffians. Views on crime and social responsibility aside, lovers of true innovation--on the page and elsewhere--will find much to enjoy.

The most amazing thing about this book is that it somehow brings the reader right inside the minds and yearnings of the Angels, making their antics seem not only understandable, but almost desirable (i.e., the wrong effects for the right reasons).
Another very appealing aspect of the book is its thorough discussion of Angels "stuff:" the all-important Angels logo or "colors," grease-encrusted denim, nazi helmets, green beard dye, nose-rings, iron crosses, various firearms, coffins, beheading swords, bikes, beer, and leather.
Thompson makes it clear these so-called "scumbags" are not to be emulated, but they do have their code, and it's easy to understand: ride, shock, get loaded, ride, frighten, maim, drink, rape, fight, ride, and drink. And then go out and rape.
This reader could not put the book down.

Hunter S. Thompson writes a truthful, unsentimental and ultimately sad story of the Hell's Angels in the mid 60's. After describing the activities of the outlaws, exploits which we are mostly familiar with and which pale by comparison to today's youth gangs, he concludes that the Hell's Angels are losers; lonely and uneducated.
I was surprised at H. S. Thompson's ability to describe the personalities behind the outlaw biker facade. He makes the sad point that the HA's would be the first group eradicated by the very political factions they reflected, if those factions ever came to power. Of course, the Angels weren't remotely aware of this.
Thompson writes with a simple, hilarious style. I found myself laughing out loud at sentences of brilliant understatement. I had no intention of reading this book, which was loaned to me by a friend, but once I started, I couldn't stop reading.

This is a wonderful republishing effort in hardback with a great photo of Hunter on its cover - a tribute to Thompson's literary accomplishment and treatment of the Hells Angels when they were truly a cultural attraction.

Hunter's writing is clear, fast-paced, insightful, hysterial, and damning with just a bit of the Thompson humor to get the real point across. There's not be a book on the Times and the Angels since to match it.

Great addition to the library - thanks, Dr. Thompson - RIP

Everyone else can applaud this Hunter Thompson if they want. I read this book with no preconceived notion regarding its author, and I can state with no hesitancy that it reads as little more than a star-struck tribute. Mr. Thompson takes great pains to show how misunderstood these fellows are, and how a few random rapes and assaults are misportrayed by the multitudes of journalists who are less insightful than he. Although the Hell's Angels are outdated and tame by today's Crip and Blood standards, there remains a chilling message: bad people exist and bad sycophantic writers exist to worship them.

Having spent a considerable amount of time with several of the Hell's Angels written about in this book, I can say without any hesitation that Mr. Thompson has misrepresented some basic facts. While it is often expedient for the sake of the story to have these Hell's Angels consistently dull, boorish and intimidating, the journalist must -- repeat must -- remain true to the facts. The Hell's Angels of this era also had a sentimental and altruistic side that Mr. Thompson chose to overlook. Now, having said that, I concede that Mr. Thompson has created a mildly interesting world of good guys and bad guys. This book should be classified as a work of fiction, however.

Hunter S. Thompson has lived his life as if he wishes to actively alter his legacy. From exagerated experiences which he contrived strictly for the purpose of adding to his legend, to the outright falsification of simple facts, Thompson represents what you get when you cross-breed a toothless Kentucky derelict with a bipolar neurotic. In this particular book, Thompson takes great pleasure in representing that he was present during several Hell's Angels criminal episodes. The simple fact of the matter is that he was never present for so much as a peaceable pow-wow. The Angels do not let sycophants like Thompson in on their innermost secrets. Hell's Angels is fictional ---- just like Ken Kesey's review below pointed out. This is nothing more than a talentless wanabe "breaking through" as a writer by means foul. Avoid this stinker at all costs.

This was a very informative book. Mixes the historical information of the Hell's Angels (and other motorcycle groups), with enough details of their activities to keep the reader interested. Very descriptive, made you want to take a shower to wash all the grease and testosterone off you after each reading. Captured the attitude of the times very well. Couple parts where it got a little graphic, but rang true. Would have liked to have had more recent information on the subject, but understand this book was written some time ago. Seemed to be a very accurate depiction (balanced) on all sides; the motorcycle gangs, the attitudes of the general public and the authorities and how they interacted and were perceived.

I was a young, impressionable 18-year-old high school senior in upstate New York in 1970 when I read Hunter Thompson's first book, "Hell's Angels," and was totally blown away by his first person, in-your-face, stream-of-consciousness "Gonzo" writing style. It was absolutely incredible to me. His unique writing style combined with a fearless attitude toward actually living and riding and learning the truth about this outrageous band of motorcycle outlaws produced an incredible look at the seamier, lawless side of life. And, of course, the alcohol and drugs and high-powered Harleys and thugs and ex-cons who eventually beat the crap out of him also added a real-life luster and dimension that Thompson captured so brilliantly in this amazing classic.

First of all there are a lot of Bikers who are pissed off at this book. Anyone who gives this book less than three stars is very biased and shouldnt be taken seriously. This book is exciting. It does jump around a little, but it is far from being hard to follow. This book is also biased to a certain extent. Yes, the author believes that the Hells Angels are criminal organization during the duration of the book if not to present day. The author presents a very compelling case for this. The story is centered around Anythony Tait the FBI informant on the Angels during Operation CACUS. If you aren't interested in someone who goes into organized crime and helps the government take them down, dont read this book. If you want to read a book about the Hells Angels Drug dealers and upper leadership being taken down from within by an FBI informant this is the book for you.

Feared by his superiors and sometimes colleagues. Loathed by the literary pundits who couldn't stack up against him. In 1965, Hunter S. Thompson shed light on one of the darkest subjects of the 60's. The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Riders. Thompson shows little remorse for infiltrating the place[s] where no other journalist dare tread, and even chronicling the experiences in a book he had to have permission to research and write, from the very subjects of the book. That permission went beyond legalities. Thompson was governed by another rule. The Hell's Angels' Rules. Readers will be shocked, surprised, and maybe sickened while they delve from the safety of time passed into the world of the most notorious two- wheeled gang in history. However, readers will also get a history lesson. A lesson obtained with real blood, sweat, and fears. Thom Ryan

i bought this book a few years ago and began reading it as soon as i got home. i got eally bored with it, really fast. i stopped reading it about half-way through, and have not picked it back up since.

this guy became an informant long before he could have done anything for the HA that you would find interesting to read about.

dont buy.

I have read many a book...but so far this one takes the cake, and the birthday candles! Turned on to Hunter S. Thompson, after renting, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", I bought the book, only to further my relationship with this brave and eloquent man. As most college kids would love his work only for the humorous style in which he writes, those same souls will be sure to be enveloped in his insanely descrptive stories. He captures the entire essence of The Angels, as he lived, rode, partied, was stomped with and by this, modern day group of Huns. My stomache litterally turned at the thought of some of the visual images that this book inflicted me. MUST HAVE IT, THAT MEANS YOU!

Hell's Angels is a Thompson classic. It is a tale that not only covers the Hell's Angels from the inside, but also an expose on irresponsible reporting that drove America into a frenzy over the outlaw motorcycle group. While the book is dated as a whole, I feel that Thompson's depiction of the American response to the Hell's Angels is very relevant today. It showed me that our society that is seemingly ruled by fear, uncertainty and doubt has indeed been present for quite some time now.

Overall, Hell's Angels is an amusing, funny and at times shocking read. Highly Recommended.

By no means the best book HST wrote... Still, it's essential reading for any fan as it was written by a younger, more serious and lucid Hunter Thompson - not the hilarious-dope-fiend-life-on-the-edge Thompson that we all grew to love.

The author knows little about the real Hells Angels and has never spent time with them. He gets his information from a paid rat and a bunch of cops, each trying to justify and glorify themselves and support each other's lies in an effort for self-aggrandizement and profit. They try to trash the names of people I know and respect. I met Tait at the Hells Angels clubhouse on several occasions and had a bad feeling about him, the only time I met someone there I felt that way about. If they told the truth, they would be the ones in jail for the crimes they committed against America's favorite motorcycle club. I will always respect and support the Hells Angels. I have been proud to call some of them friends. The book is loaded with lies, as was Tait's testimony.

If you are interested in HST and/or the outlaw biker movement of the 2nd half of the 20th century than this is for you. A very candid tale is told by Thompson as he submerges himself in the Hell's Angels' society for a year. This is his take ...warts and all.

Poorly written but still difficult to put down. Yves Lavigne seems to throw his books together in a hurry, maybe he can't stay too long in one place ? Tait [the informer] is clearly a pathetic individual whose sole reason for grassing on his 'brothers' was to ingratiate himself to authority figures [that & a little money]. Although maybe physically tough he's clearly a man with no morals or character. He even looks like a cop, how didn't they spot him ? That will teach the HA to invite 'citizens' into their club who don't even own a motorcycle. Although I'm pretty impartial when it comes to the FBI/Hells Angels Lavigne's personal hatred of the HA makes this book a fun antidote to the club's propaganda about being modern day heroes & innocent victims of 'big brother' repression. Recommended.

I've read five of Yves Lavigne's books, and they are all great: Hells Angels: Into the Abyss; Hells Angels at War; Hells Angels: Taking Care of Business; Hells Angels: Three Can Keep a Secret If Two Are Dead; and the huge masterwork, Good Guy, Bad Guy: Drugs and the Changing Face of Organized Crime (reissued and updated as Death Dealers). The latter is a comprehensive analysis of organized crime in America, including chapters on the Mafia, the Bloods and the Crips, the Jamaican posses, Chinese and Vietnamese triads, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs--it's the best book I've ever read about the forces attempting to enslave America. Lavigne gets the facts right--I've checked the federal court website (PACER) and read about the thugs he exposes, and he is always accurate. Those who disparage Lavigne have a vested interest in hiding the truth. I give his books five stars. And the notion that he focuses too much attention on the Hells Angels is farcical for two reasons: (1) although the name Hells Angels appears in the book titles, the books really cover ALL the biker gangs, in the course of describing how the Angels interact with their competition, and (2) the Hells Angels are the most aggressive at presenting a smiley face to the public in an effort to propagandize their supposedly benign intentions, and therefore deserve the most exposure for being the murderous, thieving, dope-dealing, sex-trafficking lowlife they are.

First, I don't normally write, but as a biker with a voracious appetite for all things literary I felt a need to express my opinion about this book. DON'T BUY !
I have never read a book whose storyline was so erratic. The timeline bounced so bad that I was never sure what year I was in. This book was written as if the author was dictating to a tape recorder random thoughts while on the run from the HA and then published without proofreading.
This is the second book read from this author with similar results so I have learned my lesson. If readers desire readings about the Hells Angels, there are quite a few books that cover the subject properly from both sides of the fence.Even Sonny Barger expresses his story better than Yves Lavigne and I believe his expertise is in other areas.
To sum this up, Yves Lavigne writes the way Hunter S. Thompson talks.Maybe the literary police will arrest Yves before the Hells Angels find him.

If your not a pretty big HST fan, a fan of journalism, or interested in the MC (motorcycle club) culture I wouldn't recommend this book. Admittedly I give this book 4-stars because Thompson wrote it, and as an aspiring journalist I enjoy reading his style. As the title of my review suggests it reads like a newspaper article. Thompson gives facts and makes many references to events occurring during the time period. This limits the book as a period piece. There are parts where you can really see HST's talent as a writer, but its not every page, not even every other. If you haven't read Thompson before don't make this your first read of his work. Start with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If you like it consider going to Hell's Angels, but this book is not for everyone.

I read this book probably twenty years ago and it definitely made an impression. He calls a group of drifters that moved west a humorous name (Sneads?) and links it to the attitude of the Hell's Angels. I always remembered that, just not the actual name. The ending is quite poetical. Also the confrontation with locals during a bike run sticks in my mind.

Hells Angels: Into the Abyss, is more than a 5-Star Book. Its a True-Life Story; where the passed fogginess of the Hells Angels myth is broken. Written without the sugar coatings, or punches pulled, no-holds-barred. Yves Lavigne wrote a True-Story behind the Hells Angels and their leaders lack of genius. Details within the book are excellent, void of cover-ups. Whereas; other related books, some written by Hells Angels leaders are but childish cover-ups in comparison. Yves Lavigne's book was written for all ages of men and women to read, and see the true-light. Hells Angels: Warriors of the subterranean secret society, themselves victimized by secrets more lethal than murder. Thank You Yves for the Truth.

Hunter has done it again,,,, this is an in your face look deep into the depths of the worlds most dangerous men(and some of their women) since Billy the kid..... way to go Hunter,,,, we love you,,,,,,keep it Gonzo

sure, fear and loathing gets all the hype, but this is where the gonzo ethic was born, when being a journalist was actually a risky and enlightening profession, when America was still shocked and scared of bikers. this book (as well as anything else Thompson has written) reminds me of how regulated and anal-retentive 90's American society ironically is when compared with the outlaw status Hell's Angels enjoyed in the 60's. Thompson reveals alot not only about the bikers and social mores, but how law enforcement deals with those outside society's "normal" realm. Go Gonzo Go!

I read this work while recouping from an operation. I could really identify with his tale of life with the Angels as I at only twelve years old was on the yearly, family summer vacation at Bass Lake when the Angels arrived in the evening. I now at 52 remember the experience as graphic as HST desribed it as I ran up to the highway after being awaken by the ground shaking noise of I do not know how many hundred knuckle, pan, and shovelheads slowly cruising around the Lake with a right hand on the throttle and the left hand holding an open bottle. It showed an expression of freedom that most will never know. It was one of the best books that I will ever read.

Those who would discredit Hunter S. Thompson's work as decadent nonsense would be well-advised to read this first-person account of time spent with the Hell's Angels club. Thompsons gonzo style, combined with an obviously plentiful knowledge of literature and history give him a magnificent perspective on this seldom seen aspect of American society. This is true jounalism with a remarkably singular and unique style; this book was a pleasure to read from page 1.

This doesn't deserve to be called "Biker Trash" that's almost a term of endearment to us.
I give this author 1 Star for managing to have another book published! He is absolutely the worst writer I have ever read. Grammer, prose, language, not to mention information context just wrong, verbose, overbearing and pure fantasy! If however, you enjoy prolific filthy language, hey, this is the guy!
As usual, he bounces from one club to another, one chapter to another, dropping names, talking a great deal of "poetic license" in filling in the blanks to create his stories. Talks about his relations with insider informants, names club members, the main members anyone might know.
He still harps on all women associated with the clubs as sex slaves and prostitutes and other selected adjectives. There are a those stupid girls out there. I guarantee you, I may be a 1% VP's wife, but if ANY man dared to touch a hair on my head, do I need finish. And that goes for any other wife I know.
The first lousy book (Three can keep a secret if 2 are dead) seemed to focus on murders and drugs in Canada with the HA's then jumped to outlining other clubs and back to HA's. I am curious as to how any of his info might be substantiated.
If you are looking for that sort of truth, the only place you will find it is on the inside, no matter what you read, who you talk to, or who you think you know. News is always more sensational than the truth. Everyone that wears a badge isn't a good guy. And every Biker with a beard and log hair on a Harley IS NOT a bad guy.
Try Sonny's book, doensn't give a lot of detail's of the HA operations or organization and it doesn't have to. Respect that it exists whether you like it or not. We can agree to disagree

Book is an honest reflection of the author's experiences and analogies on the outlaw gang as a unit and specific individuals. The authors insight is sometimes flattering but often times demeaning or possibly insulting if read by a club member. Reads like a documentary and always entertaining

Hunter Thompson gave an excellent chronicle of what the Hell's Angels are really like, as well as their history, when he wrote a book about his yearlong journey with them. Too bad that his journey with the Hell's Angels took such a bad turn, in the end.

There's a reason Thompson is such a respected writer. This is gonzo at its finest. Thompson takes us to the very heart of an exclusive crew and gives us a reasonably objective and interesting view. 5/5.

This book fears to go where it should: straight at the Hell's Angels. The author seems scared of them, and he seems to believe that he'll get hunted down and beaten if he says anything bad about them. Violence is glorified. Scumbags who have such nicknames as Gut and Drive-by are glorified as modern-day heros. They are not heros, and this book is a zero.

I really should like Hunter Thompson more than I do, I mean he did ride a BSA and he is from my hometown of Louisville, Ky but to be honest he's always seemed kind of faggy to me with that gay filtered cigarette thing hanging from his mouth, plus there's that whole bizarre chapter he dedicated to finding a link between outlaw bikers and homosexuality. Hey what can I say, the guy sets my gaydar off. But I will give him credit, he did write a true classic in Hell's Angels. I've heard grumblings that he sacrificed reality for entertainment value by making some of the HA's into exagerated caricatures of themselves in this book, but whether thats true or not this is a great read.

Most readers of Thompson's later works will find a distinct change of meter and substance when compared with this work. Here we find the stylings of a foreign correspondant, mixed with the wry wit unique to the doctor. Over all, this is compelling work. A well-paced, thoroughly documented existence in a world where very few of its residents are still around to share their experiences.

great book.It changed my view about Hells Angels.I didn't know much about them nor did I had any interst in geting to know them.But after I read it I was glad I did.I have more respect about for them they had some fun time back then and Hunter tells u all about it.

I highly reccommend this gritty book. It is a very real feeling honest expose of the cult of the outlaw bikers, how the American media reacts to and manufactures disinfomaiton. It is a story of the sorry truth of the patholoy of the underclass of American society. One of Thompson's best.

This is a great book. It maybe paints the Angels in an excessively positive light, yet to condemn the book for this is harsh.The whole piece is fascinating, giving a rare insight into a culture we would all probably like to give a bash (for a few hours at least). Hells Angels is the emergence of a genius.

The reviewers that gave this book a negative spin really missed the boat. The book is not a sensatonalized account as "Fear and Loathing", is it is a record, and a great one at that,of Hunter's time spent with these modern outlaws. It is informative, shocking, and very entertaining.

The book had some exiting parts in it ,but he always seemed to not be there for the real deal.Read bargers book for the indepth stuff to bad barger and thompson could not of got together and wrote a book,bargers storys and thompsons writing skills would have been a killer book.RIDE ON BRO'S Bradski

This book was interesting, but I was a little disappointed that it had less of Thompson's signature voice of insanity, and was more of a detached piece of journalism on the Angels. There was a good angle about the media frenzy that unfairly characterized the bikers as maniacs, and a lot of investigative journalism that almost nobody else would have been crazy enough to undergo, but those people looking for a colorful Thompson memoir should look elsewhere in his catalogue. They can read about the Angels on Wikipedia.

Anyone looking for the same trippy magic carpet ride found in 'Fear and Loathing...' beware: Hunter S. gets a lil' bit serious in this socio-historical ride with the bad boys. Although much of the information contained in this book is relatively interesting, it somehow lacks that 'oomph' that made 'Fear and Loathing; such a great read

The author and the informant put a lot of self love into this garbage book. Just... terrible. Tait (the informant) wanted to play secret agent, but lacked the discipline to be an actual law enforcement agent; so he turned rat. Lavigne (the author) wanted to write fiction, but lacked the imagination. Thus a partnership of convenience was born. Their lovechild was this tripe.

after reading hell's angel,the life and times of sonny barger,i was completely pissed off i bought this book. it took all i had to read about 20 pages before i gave up(sonny's book was a page turner). it seems to me that the author took sniper shots from a safe distance.

As a senior in a reading class, I have had to read novels in my English class. i don't like reading but I chose this book because it loked very interesting. Well, i was right. This was a very good book. It tells about the history of the Hell's Angels and about all the crimes they committed.

the hells angels own mostof the meth around the world. They pay a someone to make it then they sell it. they were bodygaurds for the rolling stones they dont take crap from anybody.

It is a very good book. If you lke excitment, you will like this book. Although the language is kind of bad i recomend this to 16 year old or higher. But other wise it is a good book.

Never in the history of Bikers has there been written such worthless textual matter. Can not be followed from page to page and has no praisworthiness what so ever. Next time I'll spend my money supporting the "Big Red Machine".

If you are looking for the same high calibur, rapid gunfire writing as Fear and Loathing, look elsewhere. I read this book first and thought that it was plainly and intelligently written, but not at all interesting, and I'm glad one of my friends made me read Fear and Loathing because I would have never touched it after having read Hell's Angel's.

Regarding that tagline: "A strange and terrible saga". For what it's worth (not much, admittedly, but feel free to congratulate me nevertheless), I just discovered that the phrase "strange and terrible" didn't originate with Thompson. But rather with one of Thompson's favorite writers.

From THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "His memories of the Boston Society Contralto were nebulous and musical. She was a lady who sang, sang, sang, in the music room of their house on Washington Square---sometimes with guests scattered all about her, the men with their arms folded, balanced breathlessly on the edges of sofas, the women with their hands in their laps, occasionally making little whispers to the men and always clapping very briskly and uttering cooing cries after each song---and often she sang to Anthony alone, in Italian or French or in a strange and terrible dialect which she imagined to be the speech of the Southern negro."

If you're expecting an introspective study of a complete infiltrate on the Hell's Angels day to day, forget about it, this is basicly the report of two big reunions of the Angels in the early 60's, with some articles of the time. And ONLY till that date, no further. TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING. Tedious, boring, in fact didn't finished it.

Hunter S. Thompson is a putz! And thats putting it lightly. HST was a hang-around with the Angels for a short time and decided he would cast a light on the underground world of the HAMC. If you want to read something you'll actually get your money out of try "The life and times of a Hells Angel" by the Godfather of motorcycles himself Ralph "Sonny" Barger!!! At least in Sonny's book you don't get just a taste, but a mouth-full of what the HAMC is all about. I am personally begging you all not to waste your money on this book that's not even worthy of wiping your backside with!

This guy is a self-inflating ballon. No one and nothing is as important in his eyes as he is. His opinion of himself and the world around him is all that really matters. His ability to cunningly insinuate himself into the minds of others dramatically increases the danger he poses. If you have the misfortune to be assigned one of his books in a college class, lament that no one has made "Cliff Notes."