Rating: 
Summary: CRAZY-ASS!
Review: This book is tough-both with comprehension and on the stomach. Virtually every page has some refrence to sodomy, not that im a homophobe by any means, it just gets to you after awhile-thats all. If you can handle that much anal sex, baby, you're going to love this book-assuming you also have incredible patience and smarts to understand Burrough's hidden (!) points. This one might take more than one read.
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: 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
Rating:
Summary: Stream Of Consciousness At Its Prime
Review: If you read this book and don't like it then you need to have your perception realigned. Nothing else like it. Let the words come off the page and take them in. No struggles. Forget the story. It's pure genius.
Rating:
Summary: Macabre and haunting!
Review: To read this book one must have an open, objective mind and in some places a strong stomach. Burroughs pulls no punches describing a junkie's world and what goes on within his mind whether it's real, imagined or while in a narcotic stupor. I now understand many things after reading this book. For example, some content of Salvador Dali's paintings. Accounts are that he painted while under narcotic influence; the descriptions in 'Naked Lunch' match many scenes within Dali's paintings except in more detail. Before reading this book, I saw within Dali's art distortions similar to Picasso's work....graphic hallucinations, for want of a better word, without explanation; now these are defined and explained thanks to Burroughs. Also, his description about living a life of addiction, to me, is hell on earth... a fate worse than death....if faced with that or death the latter is preferable to a life centered around ones next 'fix.' 'Naked Lunch' is not for the young or weak...but is enlightening if one sheds prejudice and subjective assessment before opening the cover flap.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for your morning commute
Review: I had a bit of a problem with Naked Lunch because there is only so much monster on young boy gay sex I can read about on the train each morning before work. I don't know - this book definitely has its moments - Burroughs was obviously is brilliant man with a fantastic way with words, but the "non-linear" way Naked Lunch is written is just not for me. I have seen very intelligent people rave about this book, but I just can't get into it. I do think it influenced Layne Staley of Alice in Chains though, so all you Dirt fans might want to check it out. But yeah, this is a weird book to read in public because you keep thinking the person next to you is going to peer over your shoulder and see what you're reading - I had the same experience with American Psycho (an excellent book).
Rating:
Summary: Hard to follow at times...
Review: ...but that's to be expected. Before you read this book it's vital to listen to some spoken word recordings of William S. Burroughs. Once you hear him speak for 5 or 10 minutes you'll be able to read the book with his voice in mind. It's a monotone, world weary, deadpan voice, dusty dry and gritty. There's a lot of pain in this book. It's an EYE opener.
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
Rating: 
Summary: Good novel, but too scatterbrained
Review: I read "Naked Lunch" hoping for a gripping story of darkness and despair, but instead I found this book to be a little light in comparison to similar works like "Last Exit to Brooklyn." While its content is equally disturbing, the tone is not as dark as it ought to have been to better explain the story. This book is decent. It's confusing. It's a challenge. I never advise people not to read a book just because I don't like it. Try it out--decide yourself.
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