About this title: Reedited by Burroughs scholar Barry Miles and Burroughs' longtime editor James Grauerholz, "Naked Lunch: The Restored Text" includes many editorial corrections to errors present in previous editions, and incorporates Burroughs' notes on the text, several essays he wrote over the years about the book, and an appendix of 20 percent all-new material.
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Grove Pr
Date Published: 2004-02-01
ISBN-13:9780802140180ISBN:0802140181
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780802140180. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780802140180ISBN:0802140181
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word Compact Disc
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Date Published: 2009-02-01
ISBN-13:9781433259678ISBN:1433259672
Description: NEW. Spoken Word Compact Disc. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781433259678. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781433259678ISBN:1433259672
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word MP3-CD
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Date Published: 2009-02-01
ISBN-13:9781433259685ISBN:1433259680
Description: NEW. Spoken Word MP3-CD. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781433259685. read more
"I read this book because Burroughs shows up as Old Bull Lee in several of Kerouac's books, and I wanted to get a different perspective. What I got was a bombardment of the senses. I had to literally fight my way through this book, but by the end I started thinking of it like one big long joke, like "The Aristocrats" and I was able to stomach it much easier like that. To be honest, I am fascinated by this work, and I plan to read essays online and otherwise to find out more about this famous work of groundbreaking fiction that was once at war with our legal system, but I do not have a deep understanding of it after having read it. It is going to take a little more searching, and I like that in a book. But for now, back to Keourac I think, and it will be a breath of fresh air to read the once difficult language of ole Jacky boy from Lowell spouting about this and that, and changing directions in that New England drawl he delivers on paper. I had gotten used to it, even started thinking in it, and then I went and messed it all up by taking a break and picking up some other writers. Oh well, I'm broke right now, so I'm doomed to re-read a couple from the shelf, but I need to do some book reviews anyway, so se la vie..."
This book - what little I could stand reading of it - was a bewildering jumble of the undelineated thoughts and actions of the main character. Perhaps it is an accurate depiction of the mind under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, but (or so) it was annoying, confusing and poorly written.
It reminded me of jokes about "Beat" poetry in the 50s - "Dirt, flower bed rocking horse jello, fly bird. Die bird. Coffee grounds, stabbed river oil moon".
How this book has been accorded such high regard is beyond my ken.
I know this is sacrilegious to those who love the Beat Generation's writers. Perhaps I have no appreciation for what some consider edgy, brilliant writing. I had anticipated that I would enjoy this book. I have wanted to read it for a very long time and finally got to it, only to be sorely disappointed.
As the little boy said when the king walked by, "Naked!""
"i don't think that it's his best book by any stretch -- i think that title belongs to junky or queer which hang together better and just have something in the writing that marks them above this. but then i still think the writing is brilliant in this book. sure, it is not an easy book and i am not surprised that it defeats so many people. i had to teach myself to read burroughs and this was nothing compared to the later cut-up technique books like nova express and the ticket that exploded. it is one of those books where the genesis is as, if not more, interesting than the book itself. it is a book that shifts around and doesn't stay the same from one reading to the next, which i find is true of a lot of burroughs work. this is hugely influential but i don't rate it for that. i genuinely like it. i like the characters, the skits, the way he writes, his approach to structure, and the wealth of ideas on display. you have to wade in past the reef of hype accrued like guano around the book and really dig in to it. you have to work for what's there but it's worth it. sure the sex can get a bit tiresome but it never made me want to put the book down because even those scenes were interlaced with other themes. it really is an important book and deserves everyone's attention."
"Ugh. I'm sure this is very brilliant and all, but it's extremely unpleasant to read. Physically repulsive, it's enough to scare anyone away from heroin, and yet, in some ways, it glorifies the experience in a self-indulgent way. Mind you, the book has no plot, and is just one drug-induced hallucination after another. It gets pretty boring after a while. Even extreme disgust gets old after about 50 pages. You're so numb after a few pages that Burrough's attempts to get nastier and nastier and shock more and more are mostly lost.
I'm still trying to figure out the literary value of stuff like this. Any English profs out there care to explain why this made it into the canon? I ask this in all seriousness - I really can't figure it out. Maybe it does belong on the list - in which case, I want to know the purpose of such lists.
I don't feel like I read this so much as survived it. You can bet I will not be reading the other two Burroughs novels on the 1001 books list. What do they take me for, some kind of masochist? So that means I only have to read 999 books, which is fine by me. Though I have a feeling that a couple of others on the list are going to turn me off in the same way.
I guess this is one you're supposed to read in the interests of being engaged in pop and drug culture, but my rec? Stay away. You don't want to be this engaged."
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