"The Law Of Dreams" by Peter Behrens

The Law of Dreams is the story of Fergus O’Brien, a farm boy from Ireland, who struggles through the Great Famine of 1847. Fergus and his family live and work on a potato farm and have been for many years before. Fergus’s family are tenants who make a living on their landlord, Mr. Carmichael’s land. Phoebe Carmichael, Mr. Carmichael’s daughter is Fergus’s friend and, unbeknownst to Phoebe, the apple of his eye. Everything seemed to be going fine for the with the exception of Fergus’s cousin and his friends bullying Fergus on occasion. Then the mold came followed by the famine. Since the Carmichael family relied on either potatoes or money from their tenants when the mold came no one could pay for their land so the Carmichaels went from door to door either kicking the families out or burning them out of house and home. Fergus's siblings and parents are burned alive in their beds, too weak with hunger to escape. Only Fergus survives, and, in what's considered a great act of charity, he's deposited in a workhouse, where he's immediately stripped, shaved and sprayed with acid to kill the lice. From now on Fergus’s life turns dire. He realizes that everyone at the workhouse will either starve or die of the fever. Fergus is forced to steal pennies and coins from recently deceased friends just to get by. In a daring escape Fergus manages to flee from the workhouse and join a band of thieves who’s base of operation is a whorehouse. From there he moves on to work on the rail roads and dreams of leaving Ireland for America, which he still only dreams of.


Some themes in The Law Of Dreams were hunger, power, fear, and loneliness. Hunger from the famine at the time, power from the constant power struggle between characters and people of the time, fear from Fergus’s constant confrontation of things that would scare or scar any normal human but Fergus stays strong, and loneliness from Fergus’s perpetual moving around and not having time to have friends. The author, Peter Behrens (who is a family friend), uses the third person in his novel and it works quite effectively. He also uses language that really is just perfect for what he’s trying to convey. Eg "The world, latent; a gun loaded with chance and mistakes.", “You could eat pain and come out alive. It was a silent meal. You could eat pain even find a relish. You ate unhurried. You made certain to taste every bite. You could eat pain; it wouldn’t kill you.” Every chapter works perfectly with each other with no overlap or thoughts like, “wait shouldn’t this have happened?” The book was similar to Great Expectations. It was a story about a young boy who is in love with a better off girl and who goes through a hard time only to be a taken in by a gentle care taker. I would absolutely recommend this book to others if they like a sad tale. It is a fairly easy read but its heavy, heavy material. "The world, latent; a gun loaded with chance and mistakes." Is a metaphor saying the hidden world is always a dangerous place to be. “You could eat pain and come out alive. It was a silent meal. You could eat pain even find a relish. You ate unhurried. You made certain to taste every bite. You could eat pain; it wouldn’t kill you.” Is a metaphor saying pain is a meal that we all at one point have to eat and it’s never fun to take down.

Gonzo: The Life Of Hunter S. Thompson (Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour)

Gonzo is an oral biography about Hunter Stockton Thompson, the journalist and author. The book is a collection of quotes by friends, family, editors, fellow journalists, former presidents, hells angles members, actors and artist who knew Thompson from his childhood up until his suicide in 2005. This is by far one of the best books available, and I'm sure anyone reading this had heard that in almost every book review ever written, but this is honestly an amazing book. The oral biography format is far superior to any one person sitting down, collecting information, and writing because it gives the reader different views into who Hunter S. Thompson really was. It follows him in every step of his life giving in depth detail on the personality of one of America's most influential journalists of all time. From a somewhat troublesome young boy in Louisville, Kentucky to a freelance journalist for the, at the time, small "Rolling Stone" Magazine in New York, to the heart of the Hells Angles biker gang, to Las Vegas, Aspen (or Fat City) Colorado, the Nixon vs. McGovern campaign trail, Zaire, Vietnam, Hawaii and the Florida Keys Hunter S. Thompson was known, loved, feared and loathed by everyone he met. Through this book we can follow Thompson through 3 marriages and 67 years of drug and alcohol use and abuse and see the controversial writer evolve from a man on the edge to the full blown Gonzo version of Thompson, Raoul Duke.

Since the book was an Oral Biography the type of language used changes from speaker to speaker and is very casual but informative. It is very much like an interview transcript with hundreds of people proving to be extremely effective. Hunter S. Thompson was a user of almost every drug except for heroin seeing as he "didn't like needles", so the issue of drug and alcohol use is mentioned in almost every speakers paragraph or paragraphs. There really isn't anything that the authors could have done to improve the book because it is the most accurate, informative biography I have ever read. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. You don't even have to know anything about Hunter S. Thompson to enjoy this book. There really are no rhetorical devices in this book because it wasn't written it was spoken BUT! After much searching I have found one in the introduction to the book by Johnny Depp. "I have millions of visions of him seared into my brain..." This adds to the book by giving an impression that Hunter S. Thompson is an undying creature that will live forever, seared into Johnny Depp's Brain.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicoloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls… But the only thing that worried me was the ether.” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the true story of Hunter .S. Thompson and his attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta and their journey through America’s nocturnal city with nothing more than a red convertible and what’s listed above. It follows Thompson and Zeta Acosta (under the names Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo) to Las Vegas, where Duke is supposed to be covering the famous “Mint 400” An annual car race across the salt flats outside of Vegas. The story evolves from what was supposed to be good fun into, though it may be fun, an all out path of destruction from hotel to hotel constantly on one or more drug of choice. Though the two main characters are constantly in their own world the conversations that are had are what make this story keep moving. Yes it is fun to hear about all the different news stories that Raul Duke has to cover but what’s more interesting is his conversations with complete strangers or just managing to function in a human orderly run world when the people involved are melting into butter and having dinosaurs and bats attack them constantly. It all makes for a very interesting read. And Duke should have been afraid of using the ether. That, or using it in a circus/casino.

Drugs and drug use play a major key in Fear and Loathing and arguably the story wouldn’t be around if the drugs hadn’t been around. Drugs as a way of escaping the world is probably the major theme in the book. Thompson uses Samuel Johnson’s quote, “he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man” which is a really good way of summing up the whole book because that’s pretty much all the story is; Escaping the pain of being a man. Since Hunter. S. Thompson is a journalist the book is very similar to reading a news paper or magazine in the way its written. It has the feel that it was written for a purpose and that it is always trying to get or getting to a point. It was in first person most of the time with the occasional transition. The issues that were raised were perhaps a bit out of date seeing as the book was written in 1971 but the idea’s and morals of the book are interesting. The books brings up the question of drug use from a fairly biased point of view; that of a user. But it is still very interesting. I would certainly recommend this book to others who have a taste for out there books. Its not a light sit down and read kind of book. It’s more of a social commentator than JUST a story. Once you get into it you really get into it. Rhetorical devices. Simile is used quite often when comparing people and their surroundings. E.G. “A thing like that could send a drug person careening around the room like a ping pong ball.” (referring to a giant tv screen in downtown Las Vegas). And symbolism. On the outskirts of Las Vegas there is a sign that says “DON’T GAMBLE WITH MARIJUANA! IN NEVADA POSSESION -20 YEARS SALE – LIFE!” this sign represents the risk that Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo are taking in going to Las Vegas with their suitcase full of drugs.