Hunter

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 (``Truth being excusable in a Biographer . . .''). 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 (Nonfiction Forecasts, Nov. 16) 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. First serial to Esquire. (Feb.)