Books : Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo
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by: Oscar Zeta Acosta
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.00468720092
EAN: 9780679722137
ISBN: 0679722130
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: July 17, 1989
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: July 17, 1989
Sales Rank: 137517
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Immensely readable...A Chicano Manchild in the Promised Land.'
-- Publishers Weekly
Before his mysterious disappearance and probable death in 1971, Oscar Zeta Acosta was famous as a Robin Hood Chicano layer and notorious as the real-life model for Hunter S. Thompson's 'Dr. Gonzo,' a fat, pugnacious attorney with a gargantuan appetite for food, drugs, and life on the edge.
Written with uninhibited candor and manic energy, this book is Acosta's own account of coming of age as a Chicano in the psychedelic sixties, of taking on impossible cases while breaking all tile rules of courtroom conduct, and of scrambling headlong in search of a personal and cultural identity. It is a landmark of contemporary Hispanic-American literature, at once ribald, surreal, and unmistakably authentic.
'Acosta has entered counterculture folklore. This is the life story of a man whose pain is made real, whose roots are in question, and whose society seems to be fragmenting around him.'
-- Saturday Review of Literature
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Read this and watch Fear and Loathing in Vegas again
By reading this book before watching the movie, you will see what Dr. Gonzo's life was like right before he decides to become a lawyer. If you have ever felt alienated by American ideals, regardless of your race, you will relate to this book. Acosta's writing is good and he does a great job of describing what the character is feeling when he encounters life, drugs, and ulcers.
Rating:  - A good story at heart
It is easy to dismiss this book. The hallucinations and drug-induced rants become a little exaggerated and tedious. Although, his friend and partner in crime, Hunter S. Thompson, would detail similar bizarre experiences in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, their intent seemed different. Whereas HST played with fantasy in social satire as a form of comic relief, OZA seems to want you to believe it to be fact...or at least for you to trust that he believed it.
With that said, the story is one ... Read More
Rating:  - Overhyped, Formless And Dull
Strong writing in places, but Acosta's style is sometimes hard to follow. Overall, I found the book to be meandering, formless, and kind of dull. The "Chicano in search of his identity" stuff is pure marketing hype. "A Chicano in search of beer, chicks and drugs" would be more like it--but there isn't much of that here, either, in case you're looking for a story of epic debauchery by Hunter Thompson's Samoan attorney. Acosta comes off as a fairly conservative character--he was a Christian missionary ... Read More
Rating: - A superb book
This book is one of the most memorable I have read in many years. Oscar lived an incredible life, and his ability to render it in this book is consistently amazing. I've read this book about three times, and I reflect on the trajectory of Oscar's life often.
Rating: - Good saga from a good writer
I heard about Oscar'Zeta' Acosta basically from reading Hunter S. Thompson's book but became quickly fascinated by Dr. Gonzo and wanted to know more about him. I was pleased to find out he had also written some books and was even more pleased to find out he was(is?) a very good writer. Truly an inspiration to anyone who has ever felt their identity as an american is something that they have had to come to grips with. Apart from that serious subtext, it also a very entertaining and amusing story that ... Read More
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