Hunter S. Thompson “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome
Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American
Century”
For the ever-reclusive gonzo scribe Hunter Thompson, “Kingdom
of Fear” is his most intimate work. From one part
tangent-ridden autobiography, another part previous papers and
another part outside materials, what emerges is a portrait of the
artist as an old man. At first glance, the book operates as a
memoir for the writer. Thompson discusses what he finds to be the
seminal moments in his upbringing, like when he was a nine-year-old
accused of tipping over a mailbox. In the book, FBI agents arrive
on the scene demanding that young Thompson confess, claiming they
were tipped-off by others of his guilt. Instead of a confession,
however, the boy asks who allegedly snitched. Most of
“Kingdom of Fear” deals with what the United States has
become post-Sept. 11. Thompson’s oft-imitated yet never
duplicated style gives way to a naked seriousness that does not
appear in many of his other books. Underneath a persona that some
claim has become a caricature of itself is still an authentically
capable journalist, someone able to observe unflinchingly the true
State of the Union and live to write about it. As expected,
“Kingdom of Fear” is still pumped full of
Thompson’s own moonshine brand of fear and loathing, and is
rife with mad rants. It is interesting to note that the
overwhelming tone of “Kingdom of Fear” is actually a
positive one. The book ends with the section “Amor Vincit
Omnia,” which deals more with love and nostalgia than fear
and loathing. It is a moment where the Thompson from the past and
the Thompson of today finally operate in resonance, taking
previously written material to complete the arc of a very esoteric
but highly enjoyable work of art. -Christopher Cobb
Anthony Bourdain “A Cook’s Tour: Global
Adventures in Extreme Cuisine” paperback
Chef Anthony Bourdain’s breakthrough book, “Kitchen
Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” cemented
him as the anti-Emeril, an outsider who berated his culinary
brethren for crossing over to, as he put it, “the dark
side”: TV cookery. Where “Kitchen Confidential”
was more a memoir of his rise in the culinary world,
Bourdain’s latest finds the author in the role of sell-out,
traveling the world on camera in order to find the perfect meal.
Much of the book’s magic comes from this awkward position;
the hated artificiality of “spontaneous TV” becomes
Bourdain’s passport to an entire world of free meals. The
weekly show with the same name on the Food Network has been on for
some time now, showing off Bourdain in various locales. What makes
picking up the book worthwhile as opposed to catching the late
night reruns is what doesn’t appear on the TV screen. While
in Morocco, for instance, Bourdain writes that he picks up and
consumes a rather large amount of hash before filming dinner in a
local family home. Unable to speak, he turns the meal into a
hopelessly endless gauntlet of silence and paranoia. There are also
a good number of moments of clarity; times even when joy overtakes
the author’s cynical facade. Whether it’s at a pho cart
in Ho Chi Minh City or Napa’s four-star French Laundry,
Bourdain reaches out to the light of perfection, sharing the
experience intimately with his readers. The result is an enjoyable
read. The episodic nature of “A Cook’s Tour”
makes the book portable (especially now that it’s in
paperback), and the author does well as a cultural outsider to not
prostitute the exotic nature of the food. -Christopher Cobb