The
autobiography of
Oscar Zeta Acosta.
The Autobiography, unlike Revolt of the Cockroach People Revolt of the Cockroach
People, Acosta's other book, doesn't deal too much with
politics, but tells the life of Acosta. It mirrors
Hunter S. Thompson's, oddly enough, with a country upbringing,
high schoolers with trunk fulls of
beer on the way to the whore-house every weekend, and the slow,
cruel destruction of one person's American Dream. Like Revolt
of the Cockroach People, Acosta also tracks his on-going quest
to figure out just who the hell he is.
If you're in for a kind of outsiders view of those whacky, drugged out
fun-lovin' 60s people, Acosta delivers. The flash backs
to his childhood, unfortunately, seem a little gratuitous -- however, it
is an autobiography -- and the interweaving "in the present"
chapters are more interesting. That said, the childhood chapters are interesting, and the quality of
Acosta's utter frankness about his weaknesses and how he coped with
typical teen-age problems is hard to find elsewhere.
Hunter S. Thompson appears in this novel much more than in
Revolt, and as "Karl King" again. The two
meet up when Acosta visits "King" in Aspen,
first mutually ribbing him in a bar, and then hiding with him at
Woody Creek from the sheriff.