Rating: 
Summary: If psychologists can't get it, what chance do YOU have?
Review: Everyone who has read this book either A.) says that they had no clue what it was about and said it wasted their time, or B.) lies shamelessly and says they were smart enough to get it, and encourages you to "keep an open mind." My opinion of the book is that you probably won't understand it, but you're not supposed to understand it. If you see a ranting heroin addict on the street, would you understand what he's saying? Then how could you possibly understand one who writes a book? My guess is that he's writing about everyday life, but from the perspective of a "junky." As he says in the Introduction (it helps if you read the Introduction before the actual book, that is if you choose to buy it), he makes a comment about how he would stare at his shoe for eight hours. We, the (hopefully) non-user population, would consider looking at a shoe a normal and pointless activity, but to a junky he sees a whole different world, and that's what is written in Naked Lunch: The everyday world as a junky sees it.
I might not be 100% right on my theory, but only Mr. Burroughs himself would be able to tell me for sure, and he's dead. So putting aside what the book may or may not be about, I could easily say this: If you have patience and like things that are really different and off-the-wall, then this might be something you would be interested in reading. If not, you could always just say you've read it and impress all your friends. I don't think anyone is going to ask you any comprehension questions.
Rating: 
Summary: impasse
Review: I just finished another reading of this book (I guess that makes something like fifty or more now) and I still can't decide if this is a work of accidental genius or just the dumpings of a polluted mind. Some give Ginsberg credit for arranging it all, but, come on, you can read this thing in any order and it's still the same book.The point is (is there one?) that NAKED LUNCH is a must read and a must re-read. It's just amazing and haunting, a startling piece of work. In the end, it doesn't matter how it came to be, what kind of drugs the author was on, etc. It's just a great book, ok?
Rating:
Summary: Will blow your mind
Review: Read this book on a greyhound bus from Ohio to St. Louis. It blew my mind. Definitely not for most, but if you have an interest in the Beats, avant gard writing or just searing, no-taboos art that will blow your mind, this is for you. My favorite Burroughs novel. Very disturbing, violent, graphically erotic. Stunning imagery that will stay with you forever.
Rating: 
Summary: This book has no meaning!
Review: This book couldn't be more over-rated. I kept reading this book thinking it would give me some insight into the author or the drug culture of the time, but all I came away with was a lot of confusion. The author knows a lot of ten dollar words but there isn't a story here just many passages that just ramble on and on and further on. I want to know who are these people that rated this book 5 stars because they must have been either really high or have financial interests in this book. Take a pass on this book and don't look back.
Rating:
Summary: Whats going On?
Review: I am actually in the middle of the road when it comes to liking this book. Obviously it must have hit me strong enough to write a review about it, but I can't see where it would be "life changing". I think that the over-the-top 5-star reviews are a little much, but this book does (at times) create horrific visions and shows that the book shouldn't be totally ignored. Most of the book is a chore to get through. To me, the book seems like short stories (if you can call them stories) chopped up and mixed together.It is very hard to follow a character or even know which character we are looking at. You can basically tear the pages out of the book, rearrange them in any random order, and read the re-ordered book and it wouldn't make that much difference. As A matter of fact I believe that is how the book was put together in the first place. I will remember the book by is its dark and sickening sexual images. Burroughs does a good job of making you feel very uneasy, almost sick at the images he throws at you. Once more, the book isn't that great of a casual read since it has very little character developement or plot, but the language is used very well and is an inspiration for new authors. If you want to read it but don't want to dish out the dough just borrow it from the library...it is there most of the time.
Rating:
Summary: It's a trip
Review: Sever yourself from reality before you read this book, you will not understand it otherwise. Burroughs writing extraordinarily moves from reality to hallucination from the point of the hallucinator. You will not realize you have entered a hallucination until the hallucination has ended and you think, "Wait, that can't happen." I find the book to be filled with social commentary, others do not. I find wonderfully written allusions in many of the characters and settings. Take from the book what you will, but you will certainly take a lot!
Rating:
Summary: Like rubbernecking at a car accident...
Review: As an avid Stephen King and splatter-movie fan, I can still say that Naked Lunch is the most genuinely disturbing book I have ever read. Written under the influence of what was apparently a really bad heroin fix, Naked Lunch is the stuff of nightmares. I can't stress this point enough: Burroughs doesn't just cross boundaries of good taste, he utterly destroys them with sadistic glee. No stone is left unturned, no taboo left unbroken.
That said, this is a pretty enjoyable read. The lack of a coherent story line may annoy some people, but it also shows how sporadically the author's hallucinations appear and disappear. The only main character seems to be heroin. This is the literary equivalent of the film Eraserhead; dark, morbid, sickening, and about as close to a nightmare as the conscious mind can get. And like Eraserhead, it's impossible to fully interpret or ignore once it's in view.
Rating:
Summary: ....
Review: Don't even waste your time with this book, much like I am now in the process of writing this review. Use it as kindling.
Rating:
Summary: A trip to the dark side
Review: I have had my copy of Naked Lunch for years and years, read through it many times, but have never attempted to write any kind of review on it, up untill now, because it is just such an amazing book that no words could ever do it any justice! Right from the beginning the writing is brilliant and creative and the pacing is absolutely furious. There is no simple way to convey the 'story' because indeed nothing like a linear plot line exists. Many people, my own brother included, hate this and simply will not read the whole way through it for this reason alone. The only way to attempt to summerise the book as a whole in a tidy fasion is to say that essintialy it chronicles a mans journey from the United States, the heat was closing in, to Mexico and later Tangiers and finally to the imaginary Interzone. Along the way we meet many colorful charaters, the most memorable of which is the charming and diabolical Dr Benway, and visit many exotic dreamscapes like the Meet Cafe where patrons eat the black meat of the giant aquatic centerpede while mugwamps dispense addictive fluid from their heads. At first glace the reader may assume that this dark world with its evil political factions and infernal beaurocracies is a paranoid nightmare of the author, but when you look closer it is the dark side of same world that we live in everyday rendered down to its most extreme and 'naked' form. While many would like to put William S Burroughs down as nothing more than a junkie who killed his own wife and whose writing is very overated, there is simply such power in his words that cannot be denied. The captivating writing style and the amazingly hilairious black humor that abounds throught out the book (and is probually some of the darkest humor ever, in any medium) come straight off every page. Likewise many people, insecure people I would assume, look down on this book for it's sections that are some what pornographic, not that they that far from your average 'rommance' novel, but because they consist of homosexual activities. Obviuosly Burroughs's unblinking brutal disection of our darkest desires and addictions, whether it be drugs, sex, money or power over the mind of others was too much for the general public to handle when it was first published and it is a shame to see that even in this day and age there are still some who express those same small minded attitudes when they are confronted by the intensity of this writing. The best way I can think to express my opinion of Naked Lunch is to say that I feel it lives up to it's strange title completely, indeed contained within is the most 'naked' view, the most powerfull, raw, twisted and decidedly dark take on reality ever told. And when you read this book it's is as though you have sat down to 'lunch', the book is such a feast for the mind, evey page full of energy, heavy idea's and thick with creative genius. Not a book for everyone, but those open minded will find reading this book to be a genuinly enriching experience, indeed there is no other book quite like it, but squares should stay away.
Rating: 
Summary: no thanks
Review: I thought this book was an utter waste of time (and money.)
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