cover image When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson: A Very Unauthorized Biography

When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson: A Very Unauthorized Biography

Peter O. Whitmer. Hyperion Books, $21.95 (335pp) ISBN 978-1-56282-856-1

Whitmer ( Aquarius Revisited ) weighs in here with the third in the recent spate of unsuccessful unauthorized biographies of legendary gonzo journalist Thompson. Though Whitmer can write stylishly--``Thompson was a rock star trapped in the mind of a journalist''--he sketches his subject's life and work with little depth. Whitmer interviewed Thompson in 1983 for the Saturday Review , but his recollection of him offers less insight than bizarre detail: Thompson drank Bloody Marys with a side of coffee. Moreover, Whitmer lacks the sources of E. Jean Carroll's oddly annoying The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson (Nonfiction Forecasts, Dec. 14, 1992). He did not speak to Ralph Steadman, Thompson's illustrator sidekick, whose tale of a trip to cover a heavyweight title fight in Zaire is the highlight of Paul Perry's otherwise undistinguished Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson (Nonfiction Forecasts, Nov. 16, 1992). Were these three books mixmastered and then joined together to make one Thompson biography, readers would be better served. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)