The Footloose American

May 15, 2014
A footnote to renowned journalist Hunter S. Thompson's yearlong adventure in South America, which Thompson recounted with zest in The Proud Highway and elsewhere.With zest, yes, but with some padding and stretching of the facts here and there. Travel writer Kevin does good work in following Thompson's path across the continent, occasionally correcting the details, to revisit the places where the gonzo master lived and worked-some of them places that, readers of The Great Shark Hunt will remember, were thick with gringos who thought nothing of driving golf balls off penthouse decks into the teeming streets below. ("Golf," one local rightly remarked to Kevin, "that's only for the elite.") Kevin spends much of his time, as did Thompson, in Colombia, where, half a century ago, Thompson marveled with thinly disguised fear at an epidemic of rural violence that left unfortunates beheaded and otherwise lifeless. Kevin updates the portrait by noting that among the last of the guerrillas in the Colombian outback, "there isn't much ideology left, just a fanatical devotion to drug profits." (Never mind that Thompson might have funded a squad or two with his consumption habits.) Kevin's forays to places such as Machu Picchu have a by-the-numbers travel journalism feel, but when he's onto meatier matters, he turns in memorable work-as when, for instance, he digs up some long-forgotten pieces that Thompson wrote in 1962 for the Brazil Herald, an expat publication with a readership in and around Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo of about 7,000. Writes Kevin, nicely wrapping up his perambulations, the paper's society column "had a slightly glib, above-it-all tone, and I imagined it appealing to people like the British rooftop golfer and his well-connected chums."A minor but well-intentioned and entertaining entry in the ever-growing library of Thompsoniana.

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June 1, 2014

When he was 25 years old, before he became a larger-than-life gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) traveled across South America writing, indulging himself, and forming the opinions that would influence him throughout his career. Long intrigued by Thompson's early travels, writer Kevin decided to follow in his footsteps, not only to develop his own sense of South America, but also to discover how Thompson's travels affected him. What follows is a fantastic journey bouncing from one incredible scenario to another. Whether it's army crawling for 30 feet in a Bolivian mine, petting a piranha-bitten caiman in Mato Grosso, or a semidebaucherous visit to Bogota, Kevin's vivid descriptions easily bring the reader along for the ride. He travels and writes from a perspective that has one foot in the past with Thompson, while the other is in the present, delving into philosophical questions about the impact of travel as well as experiencing all that South America has to offer. VERDICT An informative, captivating adventure across South America with a guide both searching for echoes of his antihero and seeking his own growth experience. Recommended for Thompson fans as well as travel buffs interested in a wide-ranging exploration of the region.--Katie Lawrence, Chicago

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2014
As role models go, one could not choose one much more problematic than the late Hunter S. Thompson, whose alcohol- and drug-crazed escapades were, largely through his own words, legendary. As a journalistic example, though (those conditions notwithstanding), one could not do much better, and that is what travel writer Kevin has done, literally and literarily following in the footsteps of the young Thompson, who was working at that time (1962) for the National Observer. It was in South America, Kevin states, that Thompson developed that razor-edged understanding of the dying American dream. Kevin wants, like Thompson, to develop a keener grasp of the U.S. by tracing the pre-gonzo Thompson's path, from Colombia to Brazil. Kevin is, like his model, an observant and witty, if inexperienced, writer; this is fine, historically well-researched travel writing in the tradition of Bruce Chatwin as well as in that of the youthful and restrained (partially thanks to dysentery) Thompson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)