Better Than Sex by Hunter S. Thompson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Penguin

This is a collection of gonzo writings about American Politics in the 1990’s, and particularly about the 1992 election in which incumbent George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton. The title comes from a quote about politics that, by the book’s end, Thompson makes clear he finds utterly discredited. It is a tale of dissatisfaction with US political leadership. Thompson’s discontentment with the Bush 41 administration (going back to the Reagan years) leads him through a brief period favoring Ross Perot (a rare third-party candidate to garner a modicum of attention or support) and ultimately on to Bill Clinton, who is always presented as the lesser of two evils and about whom Thompson has nothing particularly charitable to say about beyond, Well, at least he’s not Bush. If there’s one overarching theme that can be applied to the many disparate articles and missives, herein, it’s that if this is the best we can do as a country, we are once and truly fucked. (Little did Thompson know, American politics could – indeed – become more deeply mired in the cesspool.)

A final chapter was added when Nixon died, and it consists primarily of a harsh obituary. I imagine Thompson’s impression of Trump would be similar to that of Nixon — i.e. that he is an absolutely vile and cretinous individual, but worthy of some begrudging respect for being an evil dimwit in such an upfront manner. At least one sees something like this in his comparison between Nixon and Clinton — i.e. the idea that Clinton may not be as reprehensible, overall, but there’s something unsettling in the way Clinton masks the truth.

This is a worthwhile read because it taps into America’s perennial disgruntlement with our inability – despite a large population and many resources – to find a decent human being to run the country, but it puts all that broadly felt sentiment into funny and clever words. I’d highly recommend this book for lovers of Gonzo journalism and / or (haters of) American politics.

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