Keeping Curious Company: Wayne C. Booth’s Friendship Model of Criticism and the Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Wayne Booth’s model of reader response as “friendship” would seem to be severely tested by the writings of Hunter Thompson, because this author often portrayed himself as someone who was anything but ingratiating. Yet we can indeed apply Booth’s theory to Thompson’s texts, especially if we distinguish their protagonist from what Booth referred to as “the implied author.”