Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Naked Lunch
Book Review: "I am a recording instrument. I am not an entertainer"
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are considering reading Naked Lunch, you should be warned that it is one of the most challenging classics of recent literary history. The infamous novel, scrawled down during the twilight of author, William S. Burroughs' fifteen-year addiction to opiates, has frustrated countless readers with its inability to fit into any type of classification; its vulgar, offensive nature and its shaky stream-of-conscious narration. To some, Naked Lunch may seem like tasteless gibberish (That is certainly how it seemed to the Massachusetts Attorney General who unsuccessfully tried the novel for obscenity charges in 1966). But by taking the right approach to this story of Bill Lee, a drug pusher and habitual user, and Interzone, the surrealist, netherworld in urban Mexico to which he flees, you may find it to be a spectacular writing. Keep in mind that Burroughs is the definition of a beatnik, an author who forbids himself any scholarly instruction and simply wrote as he felt, scraping satire, fantasy and social realism together into one vessel. Understand that he lived much of his life as a drifter, pulled ever downward into society's grimier aspects. Vulgarity and mortification are simply results of the author writing what he knows. Remember that his psyche had been scrambled by opiates and that Naked Lunch's rickety form intriguingly mirrors Burroughs' sense of reality. Now you are ready for this bizarre, extraordinary book.
Although reading Naked Lunch is a thorny process, it offers numerable delights: Deep belly-laughter at Interzone's funhouse mirroring of American decadence, intense visualization of the area's vividly described, baroque spectacles, astonishment at its denizens' all-consuming greed, hypocrisy and sadism, speculation at how much of these strange observations were based on what Burroughs actually experienced and fascination at the way in which the narration breaks down as the speaker's mind erodes. I hope that you find that, despite its disregard for almost every rule taught in High School English; despite its rawness and vulgarity and despite being an exceptional challenge to follow, Naked Lunch is a mind-blowing book.
Book Review: "That's not writing--that's typing"-Truman Capote to Kerouac
Summary: 1 Stars
Too bad you can't give a book "zero stars." This is the worst book ever. Burroughs attempts to offer up the complexity of a "Ulysses" or "Finnegan's Wake" with none of the talent or intellect. Unfortuanately, drugs don't make you deep, they make you incoherent. Absolute, chemically induced nonsense, like listening to someone slam on a piano keyboard for twelve hours and then tell you that it's not that they can't play, they're just interested in slamming on the keys. The big mystery is how this nonsense got published, but, after reading some of the reviews, I see that there are some people who seem to "get it". "Wow, man, dig it, it's like, so surreal..."Book Review: ....
Summary: 1 Stars
Don't even waste your time with this book, much like I am now in the process of writing this review.Use it as kindling.
Book Review: ...cancer is waiting at the door with a singing telegram...
Summary: 5 Stars
William S. Burroughs was on a quest to overthrow time. And although "it" still governs us, he has succeeded in creating a universal anti-religious, unconventional, and cosmic Bible for the futuristic cynic in us all. A commentary on the darkest possibilities we are capable of, but neither a criticism or an admiration; a twisted glimpse at all the wonderfully abstract beauty we could appreciate if we just expanded the gateways in our mind; but most importantly, a truly great piece of "enlightenment through words" if there is such a thing. And to think-Webster probably never expected this when he created his first dictionary. Read this book, expect nothing, and let your universe mutate...ah, protoplasm...FADEOUT.Book Review: ????
Summary: 3 Stars
This novel is either the most profound revelational epiphany ever put into the form of print, or the biggest piece of garbagey fraud perpetrated on the literary world. I just can figure out which one!