What I’ve gotten out of The Rum Diary so far is it resembles the child of The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye--which shouldn’t
be a surprise considering Hunter S. Thompson copied The Great Gatsby in its entirety on his own typewriter while
working at Time magazine. But there
are many connections I’ve made from the book to other classic novels.
Rum
Diary takes place in Puerto Rico in the 50’s centering around a freelance
journalist, Paul Kemp, who seems to be a combination of Nick Carraway and
Holden Caulfield. Kemp arrives in San Juan to work at the ‘Daily News,’ an
international, English newspaper. When first arriving, alone, he befriends the
paper’s photographer, Bob Sala. Kemp examines the room or journalists and
employees. “’They look normal.’” Sala tells him that they’re
“thieves—packrats.” (16) Kemp has his friends, Sala and Segarra. But he’s also
an observes to Lotterman, the head of the paper who is slowly going insane and
Yeamon who was just fired from the paper and continuously treats his wife like
a slave. Kemp may or may not have some attraction to her, that much is unclear
though.
So far the story is Kemp,
surrounded by savage natives that have beaten him, on an island that depresses
him and seems to be falling apart—a connection to the Heart of Darkness. He is “the new kid” in town and is an observer
to the crazy affairs going on in everyone’s lives—a connection to The Great Gatsby. And the continuous use
of Holden Caulfield’s favorite word: “he was a phony, and he didn’t even know it.”
Although the book is drawing many
close connections to other classic novels, the one thing The Rum Diary is lacking is an actual story. Other than his
internal conflict of not knowing what to do with his life at the moment, there
seems to be no main conflict, story or point the book is moving toward.
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