Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Naked Lunch
Book Review: An oft-misunderstood classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Naked Lunch is a seminal 20th century novel, but it probably isn't as widely read as it deserves to be. Many potential readers may be driven away by its total abscence of plot, its notorious obscenity, and its sporadic and impenetrable hallucinogenic passages.
The novel is not as inacessible as its reputation suggests; the first step towards a better understanding of this beat classic is researching its background, and its author. William S. Burroughs was an eccentric who went through phases of obsession with various esoteric themes, and he wrote Naked Lunch during the height of his obsessions with control, dehumanization and addiction. The novel itself is edited down from a thousand pages of 'notes' and is not meant to be ingested as a continuous whole - as Burroughs suggests in the introduction, you can jump in at any point.
Read some of Burroughs' essays, read about the Beat generation, and read Burroughs' more straightforward debut 'Junky,' and things will begin to come together in the surreal satire that is 'Naked Lunch.' The bizarre images and phrases will convey the bleak poetry they were meant to in the first place.
Book Review: As always, the lunch is naked.
Summary: 5 Stars
First-time exposure to "Naked Lunch" produces two reactions: total confusion, or total devotion. People either love it or hate it: they either see a wretched mess of sex and violence, or they see a whole 'nother universe waiting to suck them in, beat them up, and take their lunch money. Which is all any decent book should offer -- a glimpse of something you can't have "out here with the rest of the apes".Is there a plot? No -- not in the sense of a story where a challenge is overcome and we all go home happy (or fuming, depending on how our proclivities have been stroked or enraged). Burroughs himself says: "I am not an entertainer." He is not here to tell us something we already know (and certainly nothing as trite a mistakenly moralistic screed as "Don't Do Drugs"). He is here to show us the territory he walked when he was dying in his own flesh. And if we are honest, we know that we have seen a piece of that world as well. Burroughs lived in it for fifteen years. Presumably he has something to tell us about it.
"'Naked Lunch' is a How-To book," Burroughs says in his "Atrophied Preface" (which, thanks to the book's mad logic, comes at the end). It's an instruction manual of sorts -- a way of tearing off veils and seeing things as they need to be seen. Human nature is scarcely pretty, concerned mostly with feeding hungers and satisfying exploitive urges without getting caught. The process may get a dressing-up, but we forget all too easily how there are frankly unscientific, illogical and downright bestial things pumping away messily inside all of us. (Doc Benway, call your office.) For anyone seriously interested in talking or thinking about the wretched state of human existence as it is now, the book's pretty much indispensible. You need this.
Book Review: Better than an acid trip (not that I'd know)
Summary: 5 Stars
Definitely one of the quirkier highlights of that sometimes strange animal we call "literature", this is a book you have to shove right up to someone and make them read it right in front of you, attempting to describe it by way of recommendation will only get strange looks and perhaps people's revaulation of their opinion of you. But how do you describe it? I took a stab at it and said it was about a drug addict and in a sense that's right and in a sense that's so far from the truth as to be absurd. But absurd is what the book is all about, Burroughs seems to be lampooning and satirizing everything he can about American culture, from the highest skyscrapers to the utter dregs in the gutter, he hits all the highs and lows of this country, and you can spend multiple readings trying to piece together what it all means. The narrative is completely non-linear and really only the beginning and end make much sense, whether that was delibrate or not or whether it was just the way it all fell together is beyond me. The middle you just sort of have to experience and get whatever out of it you can, needless to say don't skip it, once you wade past the bizarre imagery, absurdist characters and situations and the nonstop onslaught of sexual activities (most of the them drug related), you'll find some of the best writing this century. There's science-fiction, hallucatinations, crime, just about everything you can think of. And while you might think that Burroughs is just messing with the reader and throwing up all that wild and perverse stuff as a front to pretend he's a good writer, get to the literally breathtaking end and you'll see that this man had talent that we rarely see. Extremely ahead of its time (it was written and published in the late fifties . . . there was nothing remotely like this back then), much like William Gaddis' The Recognitions a few years before (though for completely different reasons), even today and in the years between, very little has come along that even begins to match it for sheer style and audicity. Not for the faint of heart, but something everyone should attempt anyway.Book Review: Boring, idiotic and Pointless
Summary: 1 Stars
I picked up this book because of its reputation of being an underground classic. After suffering through this horrible "work", underground (DEEP UNDERGROUND) is where this tome belongs. Basically, the book is an unending montage of nonsensical images spliced in with bizarre homosexual occurances. You could literally pick out a page at random and still have an overall feel for the book. It can be simply described as a junkie with homosexual tendencies who prattles on and on, thinking he's interesting. Many have tried to have this book censored from schools, but that should never happen. Far from it. All juveniles should be FORCED to read it to see what happens when you're constantly stoned. A stronger anti-drug message could never be made. Stay away from this stupid book unless you just want to be bored senseless.Book Review: Both shocking and useless the first time you read it
Summary: 5 Stars
Burrough's captures you with his awkward insight into life, lusts, violence, sexuality, America, and other frightning false idols in modern society. A truly gripping and shocking book that will leave you with your jaw wide open. At times hard to understand one must take this book slow, very slow, and think about each "blurp". Each of these small phrases will cause you to think. Burrough's genius is not easily won, it takes a while to figure out what he's saying and for many-a pages he rants and raves about something you won't get the first time so I suggest one buy a nice copy and reread it over and over, searching for that meaning and when you die you will understand the meaning: some of this book is meaningless just as life is.