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Rating: 
Summary: great collection
Review: A very exspansive and definitive collection for the Burroughs enthusist. This does not have it all, but it does offer a generous portion of this man's work. Including the forementioned, in the other reviews, colaboration with Jack Kerouac. Grauerholz really put togther this labor of love. I'd recomend it for first timers as well as old time collectors. Inbetween each chapter biographical information pertinent to that era is included. Also features a cd spoken word sampler, that pulls material from the Giornio boxed set. I'd also recomend that hefty delight.
Rating: 
Summary: The one Burroughs book to buy
Review: Every book that anyone owns will, upon reflection, remind them of the period of their life in which they read the book. Sort of like music.If I look at my bookcase, I can run my eyes over the spines of a hundred or so spines, and by extension, a hundred or so feelings given to me from those books. 'Word Virus' is by no means an exception to this rule. If anything, it proves it. Simply due to its extensiveness, and the complexity (or stupidity depending on how you look at it) of Burroughs' writing, it took me a few months to hack through in my final year of high school. Even now, the glaring red spine amongst my other books manages to evoke my feelings of that time even now. But by god it's worth it. There is nothing more frightening than Burroughs' prose. Everything he writes cannot be understood intellectually, but rather emotionally. You read his words, trying to make head or tail of what is printed in front of you, but that's not the point. You just have to let his ideas, his experiments simply wash over you and you'll understand them in due course. A true shining light in literature. Belive the myth.
Rating:
Summary: Beat Myth a Lie
Review: I can't believe this is actually available! Just think about all that this has to offer: (1)An in depth analogy of Burroughs life, mind, art, and everything he did/was. (2)A CD with readings from various Burroughs novels! (3)A great looking hard-cover book All this stuff is really great, but the kicker is an exerpt from the un-released, rare, never-before-seen collaboration with Jack Kerouac! I hope that the whole thing is published someday! BUY THIS NOW!!!!!! E-MAIL ME IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE KEROUAC/BURROUGHS COLLABORATION!!!
Rating:
Summary: The one Burroughs book to buy
Review: The one book by William S. Burroughs you should buy. The unique genius that William truly was-yes, indulgent, odd and unsettling at 80, but how great it would have been to have known him young and probably pretty in 1950-is best understood with the direction of J. Grauerholz, although a bourgeois beatnik, for sure, who did love him and is the world expert on him. Ira Silverberg is a true young publishing genius, the new Ferlinghetti, and most responsible for the book. My earlier review I withdraw. Although true, it did not reflect the genius and truth of William-and Jack, Allen, Anne, Philip, Lawrence, Gregory, Gary, even Neal and Huncke, et al. View their literature with a full and clear understanding of their weaknesses and that we, the readers, are almost certain to have less ability to 'drive-on' pass the drugs, sex, parties, confusion-to produce as they could or can. At least be warned. A lot of souls have been lost on the beat road.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful introduction to the author's work
Review: This book was a hard one to review. The writings sampled are inconsistent-but then again, so was Burroughs's output, so in that respect the writings are a true representation of Burroughs's corpus. The chapter introductions by Grauerholz are especially valuable for readers who are removed from Burroughs's original context, and assist in further illuminating Burroughs's writings. The later works (after the "cut-ups") are especially prophetic; it was interesting to read Burroughs's commentaries on Hussein and another Bush in 2003. All in all, a useful and comprehensive introduction to one who is seeking to get acquainted with the wide range of work that came from the pen of Burroughs.
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