Freelancer Carroll, who apparently debauched with the legendary gonzo journalist, recounts her experiences here in the precious, faux gonzo voice of a semi-fictionalized alter ego, Laetitia Snap. She intersperses her Thompson escapades with an oral biography, assembling quotes rather than crafting a narrative. Carroll's interviewees--including Thompson's brother, mother, ex-girlfriend, ex-wife, colleagues, even George McGovern--offer many interesting observations on her subject's alienated youth, writing style, celebrityhood, behavior and journalistic influence. "He's both ultimately sane and crazy," declares one friend. Paul Perry's Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson is a more coherent biography; also, although Perry had fewer sources than Carroll, he had one she didn't: Thompson's sidekick illustrator Ralph Steadman.