What we're reading: The Joke's Over by Ralph Steadman

In February of 2005, Hunter Stocton Thompson put one of his many guns in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

We knew the fucker was gonna go on his own terms.

The book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is probably the most famous collaboration between the journalist Thompson and the artist Ralph Steadman. They first met covering the Kentucky Derby, Thompson a Kentucky bourbon that hadn't had enough time to mellow and Steadman a political and kind-but-corruptible Brit.

The partnership continued for about 35 years, through books and articles, through marriages, divorces, children, arguments, lawsuits, and more drugs and booze than two men should reasonably ingest (most of it Thompson, by the way).

The Joke's Over is Steadman's memoir of the pair's partnership.

It ain't pretty.

Not that this will surprise you, but Thompson was an exceedingly difficult man to work with. Difficult enough that Steadman is much stronger than I to have stuck it out for so many years.

For better or worse, Steadman is too gentlemanly to really let loose. He leaves Thompson's family and ghost with his dignity, and probably does the same for many of the other people who appear in the book.

But if you're like me, you'll want to read this book.

What Thompson taught the world I inhabit – that of journalism – is that a story doesn't stop being a story when you become a part of it. And if you were part of a story, you're important to the story – you shouldn't leave out your involvement and write a drier piece.

In other words, the world does not operate independently of those in it, and those in it are probably the ones best qualified to write about it.

Steadman's pen is so much more incisive than anything a camera ever did. His contribution to Thompson's world cannot be overlooked.

And that's what makes this book so interesting.

I would definitely recommend reading Fear and Loathing before reading this book. You could pull up some of the old Rolling Stone pieces the two did together, but I'm not sure they would give you enough of a precursor, especially given the icon the book has become.