The Rum Diary

The inspiration for the Duke character in "Doonesbury," Hunter Thompson invented "gonzo journalism," the subjective, macho, grandiloquent and self-serving writing that is as much fiction as fact. This early novel is as much fact as fiction, a first-person account of a young gringo reporter's hard living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the 1950's. Campbell Scott captures the authorial voice in the first sentence, crisply delivering the swaggering narrative and neatly fleshing out the characters. Thompson's inspiration may have been Hemingway, but Scott gives us a touch of Mickey Spillane as well. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine