Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Naked Lunch
Book Review: A fine piece of work, but not for everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
You can look at all of the reviews here and see 1-5 stars. That in it self, says something very impressive to me. Good art, in my opinion, evokes strong reactions. You either love it or hate it. If you only get a half assed reaction, then you've done a half assed job. Burroughs creates something completely different and amazing here, but not everyone's going to see it. Even if you like the book, you might not see it ... I'm not sure I have. But much like the work of artists like John Cage, Picasso, and David Lynch ... there's something bigger here.Book Review: A great read...mindblowing
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend recommended NL to me, without preparing me for the literary experience I was about to embark upon. Burroughs puts to pen his hellish experiences as an addict to junk. The characters and plot fade into a nightmarish landscape of Mugwumps, centipedes, mad doctors, and corrupt cops, who have the nasty habit of disolving the essence of others into themselves.Burroughs plays with words the way Charlie Parker or Coltrane played with notes and rifts of music. There is high poetry found in these pages, with much to enlighten and much to offend (or scare off) the squimish or self-rightous. This book will challenge and expand the limits of the open-minded, it will entertain and horrify, it will repel and make you laugh outloud.
Convinced yet? Naked Lunch should be on the reading menu of everyone.
Book Review: A lightpost of its genre
Summary: 5 Stars
When the film of this book came out there was a temporary resurgance of interest in Burroughs, mostly to do with the controversial aspect of his work. At the time my older sister had this book and wasn't very interested in it so being a curious 13 year old I picked it up wanting to find out what was so 'depraved' about it.From the first page I quickly found myself immersed in a very strange, paranoid world indeed and found it absolutely fascinating. The writing style is quite manic, jumping through different subject matter, sometimes incoherently. It took me a couple of chapters to realise that most of the prose is the hallucinogenic ramblings of a drug addict. When I realised this I stopped trying to read the book like a novel or look for any kind of storyline for that matter and just read excerpts, sometimes twice for good measure. Despite the constant drug references I feel there is a strong anti-narcotics (certainly heroin anyway) theme, Burroughs conveys the sense of helplessness he experiences at trying to kick his habit insightfully and deliriously. If there was an overall storyline to this book then it would be a tale of decline; from his sometimes charming descriptions and interludes with the junkies in his area of New York, over the course of a few years his deranged drug life and spirit of adventure takes him to Tangiers. During the course of these travels his desire to kick the habit becomes stronger, the naivety of his New York life is stripped away and his furtive hallucinations become darker and more schizophrenic as he searches for a place of refuge away from the 'normal' America he fears and dislikes. This book isn't so much a story as a visceral experience. It makes you curious about the drug induced beat culture he was at the centre of, though his disdain for the 'junk' which controls him is always apparent. The literary credibility of this book is often disputed but regardless its comically entertaining and its influence cannot be doubted.
Book Review: A masterful work that uses words like weapons
Summary: 5 Stars
Burroughs's vision of decay through the eyes of the junky may be the most innovative (and infuriating) book of the twentieth century. Burroughs blends fact and fiction into a melange of imagery that assaults the senses and purees the brain with its "trust me/trust me not" sensibility. Naked Lunch is like Henry Miller meets Thomas Pynchon (though it's faster than Miller and, in the end, more understandable than Pynchon). Every adult should read this book, if for no other reason than to blast them out of the cocoon of suburban domesticity that we make for ourselves in this day and age. BRAVOBook Review: A reader
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading Junky and Queer, this book was a major disappointment. It is confusing, and not very well written. There is not real story here, just a lot of confusing rambling.