5. out of 5 stars:

Memoir of The Revolution, March 5, 2012 By Blueboy

This review is from: Keep This Quiet! My Relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky, and Jan Mensaert (Paperback) Memoir can be so intimate a narrative form. Margaret Harrell’s story is intimate and revealing, as she shares with the reader her affair with HST and details of his early writing career. Her writing surprises with turns of phrase and paragraphs that unfold in unexpected ways. Her aliveness and depth of experience come through. As the copy editor of HST’s first book, Hell’s Angels, and a fine writer herself, she recounts their unique relationship from a feminine perspective, different, I think, from other women he knew, and further different from the male perspective which has been more commonly reported. She contributed to HST’s initial success in bringing his words to print, a task for which I am personally grateful. She extends her unique insights into two other relationships she recounts with the poet Milton Klonsky and the poet-artist Jan Mensaert. The book recaptures the intellectually rich revolutionary spirit of the period 1963 to 1970 of which we hear much about but today find elusive to actually enter (or reenter). What I missed of that then is in some measure gained as this book invites the reader into her experience in the literary heart of The Revolution. The rarefied ether of her emotional world surrounds the three men of genius Margaret was involved with and the volatility of their collective egos on her is formative in her life’s search for meaning, love, and deep inner peace. A memoir this sensitive and well written is a gem.