Naked Lunch – DaneCobain.com

Title: Queer

Author: William Burroughs

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 122

Rating: 8/10

William Burroughs – Queer

Despite the negative connotations of the title, Queer is by no means homophobic – if anything, it’s a celebration of Burroughs’ sexuality. It’s effectively an extension of Junkie, another of Burroughs’ celebrated dystopian novels, written in the third person instead of in the first.

I actually enjoyed Queer more than the majority of Burroughs’ other work, and it’s certainly better than Naked Lunch in my opinion – it’s a good work to start with, and it’s slightly more lucid than a good deal of his most celebrated literature. If this is the first Burroughs book that you ever read, you won’t be scared away by his incoherence.

William Burroughs

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William Burroughs – Port of Saints | Review

Title: Port of Saints

Author: William Burroughs

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 174

Rating: 6/10

William Burroughs – Port of Saints

Port of Saints is one of Burroughs’ shorter, slightly less experimental stories – it’s easier on the brain than his other work, but it’s still not exactly light reading. Interestingly enough, Port of Saints is pivotal in that it’s the meeting point between many of his earlier characters and a whole host of new characters who were to reappear in later books.

Like many other Burroughs novels, the narrative is episodic, presented in the form of multiple plot-lines which coexist and shuffle together, so that half of the time you’re not even sure which story-line you’re dealing with. Not that that matters – Burroughs work is avant-garde and experimental, and the isolated chapters allow you a quick glimpse in to the hellish dystopia that plagued the writer’s junkie imagination.

While it’s short and sweet, Port of Saints probably isn’t the best starting point for someone that’s new to Burroughs – start with Naked Lunch instead, perhaps.