Naked Lunch (Harperperennial Classics): Amazon.co.uk: William S. Burroughs: Books

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The anarchic, phenomenally strong-selling classic from the godfather of the Beats: revitalised with a cool new jacket. WELCOME TO INTERZONE...Say hello to Bradley the Buyer, the best narcotics agent in the business. Attend international playboy A.J.'s annual party, where the punch is to be treated with extreme caution. Meet Dr 'Fingers' Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid and his giant centipede, 'The Complete American De-anxietized Man.' And enter the dark and infernal mind of Bill Lee as he pursues his daily quest for the ultimate merchandise...Provocative, influential, morbidly fascinating, Naked Lunch is an apocalyptic ride through the darker recesses of the human psyche.

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First Sentence
I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train ... Young, good looking, crew cut, Ivy League, advertising exec type fruit holds the door back for me. Read the first page

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28 Reviews

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

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3.9 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Small doses before bed may work best, 30 Dec 2003

By A Customer

Imagine you were able to recall all the weird dreams and nightmares you ever had in clear, vivid detail; taking in sights, smells, feelings, and those odd moments when the dream changes completely, but still - inconceivably, but somehow rationally - connected to the events of the moment before. Imagine you are a hopeless heroin addict, having sleeping and waking dreams compounded by an addict's hallucinations and paranoid excursions, often perceiving things through a trancelike psychosis. Imagine you have a pen in your hand. You've imagined William Burroughs disturbed, distorted and dreamlike prose. You've imagined what Naked Lunch would look and sound like.

That's my take on this almost impenetrable novel. It's fairly short by today's standards, but like old fashioned toffee - extremely chewy, time consuming and ultimately frustrating in all but small chunks. If the Naked Chef stripped down recipes to their bare essentials, then Naked Lunch is the complete opposite; a gorge-fest of dense, lyrical prose and vivid images melded together to form a collage around the subjects of addiction, sexual fascination and satire of the medical profession.

I gather this book doesn't employ the cut'n'paste narrative experiments of his later work, because with this book there is no coherent narrative. Yes, you could take any of these pages and put them pretty much anywhere and they would still make as much sense. But the cut up method implies a structured (but merely fragmented) narrative as many of us would know it. Naked Lunch is not like this. It is more random, flicking off onto tangents, as dreams do.

Does the sum of these Frankenstein parts add up to a meaningful whole? Well, that depends on what you enjoy in a book. If you enjoy prose loaded with lyrical dexterity, lurid images and simile; constant bemusement, and re-reading sentences because they seem unrelated to each other, with unconnected thoughts and images from one moment to the next - you may enjoy this book. Burroughs has a way with images, if nothing else. But if you are used to more conventional writing and narrative - a story even - then, like me, you may find it a frustrating experience. If James Joyce was a junkie, he would probably have written something like Naked Lunch first.

But I could not leave it alone, and persevered in small portions. The writing is intriguing and the images fascinating, but I was only 2-3 pages in when I wondered when the weirdness would stop and a book would begin. Maybe that is the triumph of Burroughs' work, that many will read it in spite of its avant garde nature. For those who find it heavy going, 'Junky', written earlier, may help. It foreshadows the style and experiences employed in Naked Lunch, but has a conventional narrative and gives some useful background to Burroughs' psyche, before he completely tripped out.

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A journey into paradox, 9 Sep 2007

By	Dr. Robert C. Hayward "robbyhayward" (Somerset, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Naked Lunch: The Restored Text (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) (Paperback)

It took me several weeks to get into this book: then I got to half-way and suddenly felt comfortable with the style and the remainder got gobbled up in a couple of days. It is a very different "novel", and one which certainly won't appeal to everyone - particularly unsuitable for immature readers or religious fundamentalists of any persuasion. There is extensive explicit reference to heroin use and homosexuality throughout, with an often sadomasochistic or twisted medical angle.

The book's plot is loose to say the least, and the stream of consciousness style caused me great difficulty in the early stages. Once I realised that this was the books strength and started going with the flow, it became much easier to read and was highly enjoyable. Although the subject matter is often disturbing and the characters generally frightening and detestable, the prose is beautiful and often very poetic. Loose concepts such as Interzone, Islam Corp, Dr Benway etc are intimated like pieces of exquisite modern art.

If you think you won't huff and puff due to the references to homosexuality, drugs, casual violence, and florid prose, give this dizzying journey into dark beatnik fantasy a go. And hope you never have a GP called Benway...

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary yet Fantastical, 29 Nov 2001

By	"gillongenk" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Naked Lunch (1960s A) (Paperback)

I read this book, not knowing much about the author. The cover just drew me to it, (I know, books, covers, you shouldn't judge, but I couldn't help it). When I started reading it I thought, 'what?', but then I just couldn't put it down. I think it's probably a very good insight into the mind of a heroine addict, I can't be 100% sure on that as I am not a heroine addict, and I have to say that this book makes me very glad that I'm not. It is exceptionally dark in places and very grusome, messy even, but there are some very funny bits too. Read it now!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Tasty lunch
Coruscating satire, impish humour allied with the darkest mulches of despair, unrelentingly intense poetic imagery, descriptions of truly back-of-brain sexual acts, and, of... Read more

Published 1 month ago by James Argles

5.0 out of 5 stars Transparent Red Pony
Transparent Red Pony

She asked me to write my name on her wrist but I pressed too hard and soon the ink was in her blood and in her eyes... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Michael Beijer

5.0 out of 5 stars Most important novel since Ulysses, and only gets more important
I read Burroughs first when I was in my teens. The homosexuality was just like reading about the sex-life of Martians or something; his whole world was so bizarre that it just... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Jm Leven

1.0 out of 5 stars Rubbish
This is a book for sad people who like to think they're cool and clever - like most of the `beat' texts. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Andrew

5.0 out of 5 stars ... and funny
OK, it's black, bleak, about control and the "algebra of need" ... and startlingly funny!

Published 23 months ago by Nicholas Lake

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing the score
You don't need me to tell you this is a great book. Writing has never been this good.

But are you ready for it?

The images are out there. Read more

Published on 25 Oct 2007 by calmly

1.0 out of 5 stars The emperors new clothes
I read Junky and really enjoyed it, it is written by a man in control of his thoughts, reflecting on times when he wasn't. Read more

Published on 13 Sep 2007 by D. Watson

1.0 out of 5 stars What is this?
'Read' this book as part of my Eng. degree and only managed to get to page 10 before I had to put it down and promised myself never pick it up again. It's too much. Read more

Published on 17 Jun 2007 by Peaches

2.0 out of 5 stars Strange
Very disjointed book - lots of text/words used that cannot be comprehended, homosexually explicit. I had great expectations after watching the film first..... I was let down. Read more

Published on 25 Sep 2006 by Ross Maccabee

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside the brain of Bill! It aint pretty!! But it is great!
For all of you that like pretty cultivated stories with a beginning, middle, and end,dont bother with this book. Read more

Published on 9 Feb 2006 by Ms. E. Morris

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	78% buy the item featured on this page: Naked Lunch (Harperperennial Classics) 3.9 out of 5 stars (28)
	9% buy On the Road (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.2 out of 5 stars (36) �5.07
	5% buy Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk' (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.4 out of 5 stars (16) �5.98
	5% buy The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test 4.5 out of 5 stars (11) �6.97

Naked Lunch (Harperperennial Classics) (Paperback)

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