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The Rum Diary

by Hunter S. Thompson

A journalist amid ambition and desire in 1950s San Juan

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    New York Times Notable Book

    Identified as a New York Times Notable Book.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A journalist amid ambition and desire in 1950s San Juan

Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the late-1950s boom, the novel brings freelance journalist Paul Kemp into a world shaped by corruption and get-rich-quick schemes. His attraction to a mysterious woman entangles the story with jealousy, betrayal, and dangerous desire. The Caribbean setting is more than a backdrop: the publisher description places Kemp among people for whom profit-seeking and lawlessness are part of the surrounding social landscape. The book combines a romantic entanglement with a portrait of a boomtown where personal loyalties and the pursuit of money collide.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction about journalists and precarious work.
  • Those drawn to stories of romantic jealousy and betrayal.
  • Readers curious about a fictional portrait of late-1950s San Juan and its boomtown atmosphere.

Themes

Corruption and opportunismJealousy and betrayalDesireJournalismBoomtown life

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

**National Bestseller
**New York Times Notable Book

"Nobody tells you that reading Hunter S. Thompson novels as a young adult male while serving in the military is a potentially very bad idea. Some things you simply must absorb and learn on your own." --Sturgill Simpson

Made into a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp, The Rum Diary--a national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book--is Hunter S. Thompson's brilliant love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent lust in the Caribbean.

Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. The narrator, freelance journalist Paul Kemp, irresistibly drawn to a sexy, mysterious woman, is soon thrust into a world where corruption and get-rich-quick schemes rule, and anything (including murder) is permissible. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, this dazzling comedic romp provides a fictional excursion as riveting and outrageous as Thompson's Fear and Loathing books.
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