Rating: 
Summary: Coo-coo-nutty, man, a real heavy trip!
Review: Where do I start? Well, normally, I would start at the beginning, but that is probably not the appropriate place
for this book. Naked Lunch is diffcult to understand at times if taken one
page at a time. So... DO WHAT I DO... Read it. Read it again.
Think about it. Read it until you can actually recall some
parts which you found particularly funny, disgusting, happy,
etc. and then think about the book as a whole. Read it until
you get the main idea. Then buy another copy and read this one
from back to front. Repeat all steps for previous reading and
discard both copies. Buy 3 more copies and read them simultaneously:
one front-to-back, one back-to-front, and one you should read
by randomly picking a page, reading a word off that page, highlighting that
word with a yellow or black marker, and continuing until every word is highlighted thusly. If done properly, this results in either complete
understanding of Burroughs' mind and the minds of everyone else on
Earth as well as telepathic abilities--or a headache.
If done improperly, it results in your catching a disease that
not even them jungle dudes with their jungle medicine can cure.
Share and Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Loner,hipster,junky nightmare.Taken to the Supreme Court
Review: Burroughs lived a life on the edge and on the dole. A junky , Harvard educated,receiving a monthly stipend for his estate (Burroughs adding machine). From rolling drunks in subways to rolling in bed in Tangiers, the reality is mixmastered with the terrors of withdrawl. Side trips into exposition are as common as sidearms. All the while the text is manufactured/manufractured by the "cutup method" of puzzling together word and phrases cut out on paper. This is a work which has held up in time, 30 something years. The book's final review board was the United States Supreme Court, who did not like it, though, found it not to be obscene in a pruient way But then again, so did James Joyces Ulysses have to go through the high court too
Rating:
Summary: A Counterculture Literary Classic: Essential Burroughs
Review: What else can I say, other than that this is "the" book that has brought William S. Burroughs the most fame(infamy?) and glory. Most people interested in Beat Literature choose Kerouac for insight, but I feel that Burroughs gets to the root of the Beatniks' most defining element: Drug use/abuse. His style is unrelenting. His prose harsh and ragged, not unlike himslef for some 15 odd years of his life in which he lived as a junky. I urge the reader to not read this book in sequence from beginning to end as a traditional novel. Instead, read a chapter or two at a time. Then, set it down and leave it alone for a day. The next day, return and continue reading. Each pargraph; each page is a message unto itself. Burroughs uses a rehab center in a place called Interzone, the character William Lee, and a sadistic orgy to help convey the over-all idea that the junky is a sad and tragic individual. But, what makes the junky so tragic is not his position in life. It is the sad fact that he put himself there in the first place. And, to spite himself, the junky's body must continue this act even though his mind says no. It is sad that this book has not been given the credit that it is due. Only at the end of his life did Mr. Burroughs begin to reap the rewards of his, and his comrades' work. As though he couldn't stand another minute in the world of the straight and narrow without a friend(Allen Ginsberg, the last Beat), he died after a life of extreme hardships and bittersweet success. Needless to say, this book sums up Burroughs' early life on the streets before any real intimations of success. It is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for those of you who prefer "popular" literature. It is for those of us who seek the truth, and read books about certain topics for an element of reality.
Rating:
Summary: Imagination and Exotica: A Compelling Trip
Review: NAKED LUNCH is the ultimate cut-up/quote bible/scrapbook of what it was like to be alive and a free-thinker in the Fifties. As well, the horrors of the "oil-burning junk habit" and the worlds in which the visionary dwells, are covered in great detail. There is somewhat of a back-story, dealing with a kind of Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-meets-HR-Giger-meet-sthe X Files cabal of aliens and other species infiltrating the human race. Burroughs sees himself as a catch-as-catch-can reporter on all this, "like an agent who has forgotten his own cover story [but] all agents defect and all resisters sell out." This book is one wild ride, and as I said, should be read as a poetic scrapbook. Burroughs' contributions to all forms of media have been absolutely invaluable. This book was declared innocent of obscenity charges by the United States Supreme Court in 1959, and thus are we allowed to cuss (to an extent) on TV and on the radio. Burroughs made a great leap for free speech that is still being felt today: if a work uses questionable material within contextual merit, then it is not obscene. And NAKED LUNCH is anything but a hemmorhage of the imagination. The role of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavor, the role of the writer as idol-breaker, and the very form of writing itself. His work is hard to access, and very much an acquired taste. But when you acquire the taste....the world never looks the same. Pick up a copy of this great book, and take your time. If nothing else you're bound to appreciate the exotic settings, Burroughs' imagination, his dry caustic wit, and some gorgeous surreal visuals: i.e. take in the Mugwumps (p.46): if this is not worth the price of a book, nothing is! Another cult novel I'd like to suggest is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez
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