Naked Lunch

Book, 1959

Premise - A self-proclaimed ex-"junkie," William S. Burroughs releases his semi-autobiographical, drug-induced streams of consciousness from his decades on heroin and various other drugs. A collection of loosely connected short stories of his horrid interactions with other junkies and fellow criminals.


Review - This was hard to read. I have a high tolerance for weird and disgusting, but this may have topped it. What concerns me is how this was loosely based on his own experiences, so how much of it had really happened? Because if it was real, he was witness for (and/or partook in) a number of truly violent and horrific crimes. I can't even dare to count how many rapes were in this book.

It was also difficult to read in the technical sense. All of the stories were incredibly repetitive, with a lot of similar phrases used over and over. I got the gist after the first three short stories or so, and had to power through the rest. However, I know that his colleagues are most famous for their poetry. I do not know if William Burroughs wrote poetry, but I do know this book was at least ten times more enjoyable if read aloud, or sounded out in one's mind. The book has value in how visceral it is.

This is known for being one of the most important books of the 20th century. Why? I suppose, for one thing, it does not hold back whatsoever. There is not one ounce of restraint on this man. He did not even want to fix certain typos, because they truly showed how far gone he was. Secondly, it teaches a few lessons. First, don't do drugs, kids. This does not romanticize drug use in the slightest. Second, the presence of a criminal subculture is real. Bad things happen on the street. Really bad things. Third, the relationship between criminality and homosexuality is a twisted one. We have three different kinds of crimes happening here - violent crimes, nonviolent crimes (i.e. drug use), and homosexuality, which should not be considered a crime. However, as it was a crime at the time, all of the homosexuals end up in the same crowd as the criminals, and that means homosexuals were subjected to a lot of violence (ESPECIALLY RAPE) that society really could have avoided.

I did not enjoy reading Naked Lunch itself. But you know what I did enjoy? All of the afterwords, letters additions, appendixes, etc., written by William Burroughs himself while SOBER. He was a far better writer when he was off the junk, and he had some profound things to say about classifications of drugs, addiction, withdrawal, and recovery. I admired William Burroughs a hundred times more after reading his additional material in the appendix. He confirmed much of what I understood already about drugs and addiction from an academic and scientific standpoint, but he had some incredible anecdotal insight (19/100).

Quote - "I am a ghost wanting what every ghost wants - a body"

If you liked this book, I'd recommend The Natural Mind!

Written by William Burroughs
Published by Grove Press