Part I: Chapter 1 Summary

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas opens both ominously and comically with the narrator and author, Hunter S. Thompson, noting the early effects of the massive amount of narcotics he has consumed. Both the narrator and his companion-identified only as his "attorney"-maintain this drug-warped state through the rest of the tale, indulging copiously in every illicit substance they can acquire. In spite of the violent effect of the drugs, the narrator and his attorney drive their rented red Chevy convertible through the desert with a purpose: Thompson is a journalist sent by a New York sporting magazine to cover the Mint 400, a motorcycle and dune buggy race located in the sandy outskirts of Las Vegas. Troubled by his hallucinations, the narrator asks his attorney to drive, but with more than one hundred miles to go before they arrive...