He wrote the novel between California and Colorado in the years following his departure from the island, but it was only following the success of his collections of letters that Thompson thought to look back at his old works, at his fiction. This novel drew heavily from his experiences in Puerto Rico, but was not entirely autobiographical. It was all Thompson’s fault, and he played out the whole affair as a theatrical farce, calling the police Nazis, and again enraging his friend.īy the time that Thompson escaped Puerto Rico (through an attempt to get to Europe, but only making it as far as Barbados) he had the idea of a novel in his head. Soon after this, Semonin and Thompson were arrested after a dine-and-dash attempt, and spent part of a night in jail, before being rescued by Kennedy. However, the article was completed fabricated, in no way endorsed by the subject, and contained quotes from Semonin that had never been uttered. The article was about Semonin, describing him as a wandering Louisville son in the Caribbean, honing his skills as a painter. She was Semonin’s ex-girlfriend, and the couple’s nudity and outward sexuality made for an uncomfortable stay.ĭuring this period, Thompson published another piece, this time for his hometown newspaper, which had for the duration of his stay listed him as Caribbean correspondent. Soon Sandy Dawn Conklin, Thompson’s common-law wife, was living in the crowded beach hut. Semonin landed a job at the Star, and rented a better place with Thompson, outside the city. Soon, however, Thompson persuaded his old friend Paul Semonin to come to San Juan. In between, he earned work as a male model. To keep himself interested, Thompson was writing mediocre travel pieces for newspapers across America, and wrote a few pieces for bigger publications. What could you say about bowling?…But about half my work was making sure every bowler in San Juan got his name in the magazine…ever since then I’ve hated the world of bowling. Bowling alleys were popping up everywhere. I had to go out and cover bowling every night in San Juan. They were introducing bowling to Puerto Rico. He wrote intolerably high-minded letters to publishers and editors, and yet was somehow employed by a low-class bowling magazine, doing nothing more than jamming bowlers’ names into print. Thompson’s ego at this point in his life was incredible. Thompson found himself living in a beach shack, in some strange paradise. The magazine, however, didn’t turn out to be ‘the Sports Illustrated of the Caribbean’ that Thompson expected, and he was trapped in Puerto Rico, writing about bowling, for bowlers. In 1960, prompted by a strange friendship with William Kennedy, and the appearance of his friend Bob Bone, he took a job at a magazine in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is, however, based on the world around Thompson at a certain time. Īlthough one could claim any Thompson book to be a novel, due to the dubious claims and distorted versions of true events, The Rum Diary is almost entirely fictional. Thompson would use in the years ahead - bizarre wit, mockery without end, redundant excess, supreme self-confidence, the narrative of the wounded meritorious ego, and the idiopathic anger of the righteous outlaw - were all there in his precocious imagination in San Juan. One can certainly see the early signs of what Thompson’s writing would become, though it never began to peak for another decade. According to David Hamilton’s memoir of his meeting with Thompson in South America, the young man was talking about journalists as participants and even actors, helping the events around them to unfold, rather than noting them as an outside. Yet, even in those early days, Thompson was mapping out his future. The book predates Gonzo and Thompson’s journalistic innovations, and comes from the period in his life when he was just another writer, trying to cut it working for a newspaper, and trying to write novels like his idols – Hemingway and Fitzgerald. This is different from Thompson’s other books in that it was a genuine attempt at a novel, with a plot and stories that didn’t necessarily happen to the author in real life, but were merely inspired by his surroundings. One mustn’t forget, in looking at the works of Hunter S Thompson, to go back and visit his first book, which was ‘lost’ for decades until its eventual publication in 1998.

The rum diary