Reviews

The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead by William S. Burroughs

kgbarreto's review against another edition

2.0

The first two chapters were kind of how I expected the whole book to be like — kinectic like a film montage, su(pe)rreal, full of interesting and odd characters, fast paced and with a distinct prose. But then it all derailed pretty fast. The randomness became unbearable at a point, the cut-up technique did more harm than good. I was sick of reading "rectal mucus", "Bowie knife", "phallus", and so on. In the middle section of the book there were at least a hundred subsequent sex scenes and while it holded my attention, it was like Burroughs was trying too hard while not trying at all. Junky being the only other book of his that I have read – and enjoyed – I expected more from The Wild Boys. Meh.

killeruncle5's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

thesevisionsofjohanna's review against another edition

challenging funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

maybeams's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

congratulations you’ve won the “how many times can you use the word rectum” award by a LANDSLIDE!

only insane people should be allowed to write books?

gabis2345's review against another edition

a mess of words in an endless disconnected/ disjointed ramble that somehow puts you in an atmospheric transe. absorb the words, don’t link them to a larger meaning. you start to think you might be following but then it makes no sense anymore and that is most certainly intentional. it feels like burroughs wrote it for himself not anyone else. it’s his way of expressing himself through his writing and for that it’s admirable. paragraphs read like chaotic thoughts. once you just accept that it can be a pleasant read. personally i consider it as an exploration on language and words and in that matter I appreciate it. in some lines I was impressed by his odd way of putting things into words and that made it somehow beautiful.
an incredibly unique reading experience. i’ve never been so confused in reviewing a book. but I guess that’s understandable since I was also confused while reading it.
i have really conflicting feelings towards it. i guess I’ll just accept it for what it is.
too much sex tho.

dalewahl's review against another edition

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I have no idea why. Burroughs is quite possibly insane. Which is a good thing. It's why I kept reading this book. He grabs you and drags you into his crazed psyche. Most of the book is spent trying to find your way out and make sense of it all. You want to know what the hell is going on.

The one thing that can be off-putting in Wild Boys is the vast amount of gay sex. Quite graphic male-male sex. Not always with consent. It makes the book hard to talk about. The sex was central and drives forward the theme, if you can say there is one, but it is almost too frequent. I either saw it coming or found myself sighing and putting up with it just to get to the next page. It was at least somewhat dynamic as it grew less associated with violence and death and more with... well at least all parties were consenting toward the end.

decadent_and_depraved's review against another edition

2.0

Hot as fuck, but much weaker than Burroughs' other work. As it turns out, the usual insanity of Burroughs is not as fun without it being balanced out by his genius!

art_cart_ron's review against another edition

3.0

I read The Wild Boys because I wanted to read some Burroughs, and it's noted by many to be his most comprehensible short novel. What I got was a stoned version of Mad Max, via Dr. Strangelove and... I dunno, Dr. Seuss level absurd artificially created variations of human creatures that literally just eat, sleep, and fuck (themselves, friends, and ghosts).

Some of the prose beats WSB lays down are tunes that stick in your head and make you see war (and society alike) in an uncomfortable and unfavorable light. There's also a blatant overlying rant of the hypocrisy that our culture will accept murder/war atrocity before it will accept sexual scenarios that make them uncomfortable. Depending on the victim status of those in the sexual scenarios (a valid argument, for sure) - that perspective is ass backwards.

eihawai's review against another edition

I give this book the honor of not rating it, as I feel like I do not understand fully Burroughs' vision. I believe this is the closest I've come to accidentally reading pornography.

yamil_buttwater's review against another edition

4.0

duran durans song was supposed to be used as the the theme song to a softcore dystopian gay porn adaptation but it never got made. i think ian curtis and david bowie loved this book which is cool too