Rating: 
Summary: If you hate this book, you missed the point
Review: No book I have read has ever explained the skewed view of the junky's mind better than this one. It is a welcome escape into the surreal reality that lies behind the fascade of the middle American wasteland, where so many good people with good minds are wasting away, killing their dreams and aspirations for a bigger paycheck. If you hate this book, then THEY have already got to you.
Rating:
Summary: Who are you?
Review: From my observations of the reviews thus far on amazon I have noticed two polar sides. On side--open minded, and unfortunately somtimes excessively pretensious people, saying that it's a masterpiece. On the other side--More structured people, and unfortuanately somtimes excessively close minded people, claiming that they hated it. Now instead of espousing my opinion, or regurgitating others, I figured to give a sort of guide. The more open minded type, if they actually enjoyed it, liked the effect of chaos and poetry woven throughout the book. They like the idea of escaping from the boundaries of conventional plot and character development, and experienceing somthing new. On the other had, the more conservative group of people feel differently. They are bothered by a lack of plot structure, and they are confused by the meaning of the book. So who are you? Are you willing to read an esoteric dark comedy with a challanging plot line and grotesque descriptions... or would you rather read a Tom Clancy book? Their is no shame in either--just read what you enjoy...
Rating: 
Summary: Wow...
Review: amazingly, a junky can in fact pen a few words while high as a kite. My hat goes off to you, Burroughs. I wasted plenty of time plodding through this and advise all others avoid doing likewise.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly Disappointed
Review: This book is a big disaster in my opinion. I have read several books that deal with the same topics and are situated in similar eras and environments, and I must say that this is the worst one of them all (don't be confused here: I loved the other ones I have read, e.g. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).
Its unclear what exactly Burroughs was trying to do here. In the introduction he said that this book is a creation out of notes he took during his lengthy period of drug addiction--perhaps he should have reread them when the drugs lessened their toll on his mind. (Note: things that seem 'cool' when you're high, seldom remain that way the next morning). If the point was to illustrate the disgusting world of addiction then in my opinion he utterly failed.
Furthermore, its not clear why so much of the book concerns itself with the detailed description of little boys mutilating each other and their tales of sickening fornication. If this is a book on drug addiction (though I'm told it has several 'levels' of meaning that deal with all types of addiction) then why so much talk about twisted Freudian psychoanalysis-gone-Nazi bad psychology and condition techniques? Usually I can take intense detail but this book was too much. If you're interested in a good story about addication then rent the movie 'Requim for a dream'. That deals with everything Burroughs tries to write about (i.e. drug addiction, sex addiction, media control) including all the graphic detail and "unusual" storytelling, the only difference is that 'Requim' is done extremely well.The most dissapointing part is that the book fails to be a story. After reading 100 pages of the 225 paged book, I had no idea where there characters were, who the characters were, as well as having no idea where the story started and to where it is going. I gave me no desire to read on simply because I had no idea what the book was about. So read it if you like, there are many 5-star ratings on this review board, but in my opinion you shouldn't waste your time with this dissapointing book, there are many other wonderful books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Burroughs IS the line between insanity and ingenious
Review: With a natural talent for writing and a drug-fueled imagination, Burroughs is truly one of the greatest writers of all eras.
Naked Lunch is hilarious, as well as serious, and above all a great collection of "under-the-influence?" observations and notes that were put together to create an illusionary, unique, and thought-provoking novel of sorts. Greatly recommended to all.
Rating:
Summary: The Emperors New Clothes
Review: William Burrough's work reminds me of a tale I read as a child called the emperors new clothes. There was once a great ruler who wanted to have an exorbitant parade to display his grandiosity so he hired the finest taylors to design him a perfect suit to wear. The taylors took the money, and with the mind of theft created a birthday suit which was actually pure nakedness. The taylors convinced the emperor that the material was so fine that it was invisible to the eye. Well, the emperor bought it and he went to parade. Magnificence, brilliant new clothes and the public was dismayed at first but they eventually conceded that it was an utterly stunning costume. Well, the taylor's ran off with a good sum of money while the populace cheered. Burrough's work is the same. It is manuscript written on paper, cut into four, haphazardly reassembled and deemed pure genius. If you fall for this then you are with the throngs of those who thought the emperor's clothes were astounding. If you are considerably moved, you may want to check out his array of shotgun art....magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: THE BURROUGHS' POSE
Review: I am going to risk a less than one hundred percent positive review of Naked Lunch. I have never been a heroin addict, but I have had the electricity turned off in my house for a month. First, there's a CRASH; then NOTHING; the TV, OFF, lights, OFF, clock, MOTIONLESS. You can't bath, you can't cook, you feel too oppressed to eat, and worst of all from about five o'clock on you can't see. You wait for the dark to fall, the house like a dimmed cafe, knowing that there are hours of blindness ahead. This is depression. When even the TV soap operas don't want you . Then well before you are ready for bed STASIS; utter SHUT DOWN; DARKNESS, SIMULATED DEATH; A COMPLETE FEELING OF EMOTIONAL ISOLATION. This is the nearest approximation in my memory with the experience that you go through with Naked Lunch. The book is cold: ice cold: the frostiest literary experience I know of, a vision of the BIG SHUT DOWN. But after the SHUT DOWN the mind keeps going -- cause you ain't dead -- and, continuing the house analogy, as you lay in the darkness of AN UTTER LACK OF HEALTHY STIMULATION what tends to fill the void are images of sex and violence. Repetitive thinking, revenge fantasies, paranoia, mindlessly elaborate and vicious sexual combinations, warped logic and the twisted images of all the people you are going to get back when you get back on your feet again. Degradation this extreme doesn't make you thoughtful. You lose after awhile the need or desire to justify yourself; your body stinks, your mind stinks, and you sink to juvenile,narcissistic level of existence. Junk does all your thinking for you. And therein lies the rub. For all its flash, dazzle, and pop relevance, Naked Lunch has the emotional maturity of a fifties comic book. The style can't save the substance.The prose really does make sense, and follow a loose kind of narrative sequentiality. I thought of angular panels, big thought bubbles and exaggerated illustrations. It's beautifully effective: more like a comic than any other book: language in the pithy, violent and elliptical style that's usually associated with words accompanied by visuals. The visuals are absent. They are unnecessary. They are in our heads as a symptom of today's visual culture. Naked Lunch is the finest example I know of a book that follows more a visual, or cinematic than a traditional literary logic. Now for the part that will likely anger some of Burroughs more dedicated believers. The flaws of Naked Lunch are the same flaws of the hip culture that so admires it: a lack of seriousness, a superficialness. For all his interest in everything that influences junkies Burroughs doesn't know what self-reflection is. As he states in his previous novel Junkie, he "doesn't believe in psychotherapy." The question that ought to be at the center of his vision WHY SOMEONE BECOMES A JUNKIE? is shunted aside. Burroughs doesn't seem to really believe there is an emotional side to life. Burroughs loves to smirk, smirk at everything, including groups he belongs to. He offers a positive alternative to nothing. I think his popularity with hipsters is due to this hardboiled attitude. Everything is a joke; nothing can hurt me; I'm so cold and hard inside that I'm safe. Naked Lunch is hilarious but at its core it is a very defensive book, a flippant hard shell. Burroughs' cynicism and paranoia remain very much angry white male attitudes. He is too flippant, and heartless to write otherwise....-- every cliche about black and Asian sexual organs is pulled out at some point or another. Naked Lunch is particularly weak in its attempts at social commentary. The great enemy is the STATE. The Forces of CONTROL, THE MAN. This is a cool attitude, but a too simplistic one. Naked Lunch needs more sociology, more psychology, and more caring. More of the qualities that make 1984 and Animal Farm so much superior analyses of the state, class, and the human condition. For Burroughs the BIG SOLUTION is to form our own communities and get the STATE off our back. Maybe, except the idea that such a community, populated by Burroughs clones, would be happy place is a laughable one. His admirers should seriously consider that in his addiction Burroughs shot and killed his own wife: was the state at fault for that? Naked Lunch needs less vitriol, and acuter self-examination. As it is, Burroughs tells us more about the paranoia and defensive attitudes of addicts than anything else. A greater degree of self analysis would build a firmer basis for his social analysis, but that would also wipe the smirk off Burroughs' face, and above all else he wants to keep the smirk. The smirk provides some wonderful entertainment; verbal fireworks; wild, enticing language acrobatics, sick humor. He was a great trickster, a language gypsy. If no one can quite understand what you are saying, no one can accuse you of anything. Insofar as that goes, he was a master. So I don't mean all this to sound like Naked Lunch is "a bad book" Quite the opposite. In my opinion it remains a very good one. I don't however think it is a masterpiece on the level of Notes From the Underground . The core problem is that there is more pose here than substance. The clever, coded language disguises the contradictions in Burroughs' own thought and only secondarily assists mankind against its enemies. The junk world, try as he might, isn't an effective position from which to criticize the straight world, or really much of anything. Social commentary and the human condition are compromised by junkie con.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant? No. Fun? Yes
Review: I honestly had no idea what to expect when i opened this book and after reading a bit into it i still had no idea what was going on. But after a while i finally grasped onto the pace of the book and what was being written about, you can't attempt to make sense of what you are reading or you will be confused you have to just let the words grasp and play with your mind and you can try to make sense of it all later. The book is also very very funny at parts and very very graphic and distrubing at others, it is not for everyone, but i certainly enjoyed it
Rating: 
Summary: The Unreviewable Book
Review: I've been waiting to write my review of this book for six months now and I'm still not sure what I should write. As a fan of Hunter S. Thomson I'm used to spaced-out writing by drug addicts, but this one takes the cake. I enjoyed the unique prose style that Borroughs employs in this novel and I often found myself laughing out loud. The problem was that I often had to re-read a section several times before I could laugh. I hope I'm making you curious enough that you will read this book because I don't think that anyone can describe it and make any real sense. So here's what we're going to do. You're going to buy this book and read it and in six more months I'm going to come back here and edit this review. You can then read my review and we'll both see if we're making any sense at all.
Rating:
Summary: nude brunch
Review: most people seem to approach this novel as if it was anything other than what it is -- a collection of notes & sketches. that's all it is, folks. Burroughs himself said it. not that it makes this novel bad; it is an often-humourous, often-beautiful prose work. it is a collection of notes written during addiction and during withdrawal, and most parts of this novel were written as sketches created from the author's imagination in order to amuse himself. this book is semi-autobiographical, yes. but the main thing that Burroughs does here is blur the line between fantasy & reality and all that, because why should such a line have to exist in literature? so, if you're looking for a good story, try "Queer". or if you're interested in reading some really good fiction (in the form of short stories), try "Exterminator!" or the slim, hard-to-find volume "Tornado Alley".
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