The Bum Diary, for all good reason or purpose, is a symptom of our trying times… when the world seemed most destined to spiral out and vanish, it arrived. not as any sort of savior or hero, but as an observational force. bum diary is a reflection of all the ugliness and beauty it is graced with witnessing, regurgitating back out a rundown of the events that puts the mess back together in one comprehensible piece. sometimes there’s nothing legible enough to comprehend in one of our stories… but there’s truth to find in the attempt at making it that way.
The Bum Diary is the name-child of Hunter. S Thompson’s 1998 novel — which was actually written in the 1960’s — Rum Diary. The book loosely follows a journalist, Paul Kemp, and his unusual journey through Puerto Rico on a reporting stint that even he himself can’t see the purpose for. It’s not only the gig, but the journey too, that perplexes him so. Nothing thrilling, rousing or substantial occurs throughout the entire novel, but there’s a certain pointless truth to the whole thing that excited feelings of melancholy and profundities in so many. The pure sensation of regularity that you could only find in the bottom of a rum glass — that is the sweet feeling that Bum Diary seeks to capture.