Perspective

The book is written from a first person, autobiographical perspective. The narrator and protagonist both are Hunter S. Thompson. While the narrative is focused on the "now" of Hunter-as-protagonist, most of the book is written in the past tense, with the author ostensibly relating past events from his own life. Thompson occasionally slips into the present tense, creating a great sense of experiential immediacy. This usually occurs when Hunter refers to text written in the context of an event.

Thompson, as narrator, is both invasive and unreliable. Events seem fictionalized for the sake of storytelling. Even mundane events such as checking into a hotel, drinking at a bar, being picked up at an airport, are inflected with drama and hyperbole. Characters, meanwhile, are drug-using, scheme-hatching outlaws; exaggerated icons of functional counterculture similar to Hunter himself. Throughout the book there is every indication this style is intentional.

The Curse...