Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Naked Lunch: The Restored Text by William S. Burroughs

9 reviews

ed_moore's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

0.5

Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ is an exploration of the drug addiction problem plaguing 1960’s America, written by an author recently recovered from 15 years of addiction. It is told primarily through a series of tangled vignettes which mixed with the nature of depicting addiction and hallucination the story is extremely difficult to follow. Instead you are just forced to take in snippets of extremely uncomfortable text to read. 

I came so close to DNF’ing this, and I never do let myself DNF books, that being the only reason I pushed through. Burroughs claimed in his afterword that the goal of the book alongside depicting the American junk scene was to criticise the capital punishment system in America and question why addiction is frowned upon more than such, though both are criticised. To me, it didn’t read like this. It was just constant exposure to awful scenes of rape, murder, gang rape, child rape, violent rape. It was just a horrific pornographic book on a drug high which had no sympathy or remorse for the topics it was describing, handled them crudely with no respect and didn’t even particularly condemn such. The scenes were persistent and quiet graphic too so it was just consistently uncomfortable and sickening to read. 

Rape being the prominent unsettling element of the book, it was not the only one. It was also extremely sexist, racist and would frequently discuss the concept of hypnotising the homosexuality out of someone and was blatantly crude and homophobic throughout. It really ticked every box on the type of person you don’t want to be.

I didn’t take anything positive from ‘Naked Lunch’ at all and hated it from the first chapter. If I was brave enough to DNF a book this would’ve absolutely been the first.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

resolvedpoem's review against another edition

It was for a book club, but everyone decided it wasn’t very fun and wouldn’t be a great time to talk about. A little too heavy for everyone. I was planning to finish it anyway but without the motivation from the club, I too moved onto more fun reads.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Its hard to describe exactly what is upsetting about Naked Lunch, and why, because theres simply so much of it. A very challenging read, at its best, and downright unfun at it’s worst.

tazch1701's review against another edition

This book leads me to leave the Beatnik culture was selfish. I know there is debauchery and filth in this world and to pretend it doesn't exist is naive and unhelpful. But, if I'm going to read or learn about the dark underside of society, I want to come away with some sense of having learned how to recognise or help people in those situations or how to avoid those situations or I want have expanded my empathy to a wider group of people. This book did none of that, while I understand that it was pivotal in pushback on literary censorship in the US, I find it insane that this work in particular is the one chosen to immemorial Burroughs. I also find it hard to stomach the fact that Burroughs was a trust fund baby who never had to work a day in his life, had he existed in the modern day I would say he's a spoilt champagne socialist who doesn't participate in any helpful activism and instead is part of the counter culture to fuel his perceived intelligence and as a means to indulge in his own selfish behaviour. If a person of colour had written this book it would not have achieved anywhere near this amount of praise or longevity, but for some reason a white man's drugg addled ramblings are worthy of being immortalised. In my opinion to be part of a true counter culture is to be part of a feasible alternative to the individualistic, capitalistic society of today that encompasses community, equity and kindness (which I think is the biggest thing we lack in the mainstream). 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kaitoro_walker13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I just didn't GET IT. They were good short stories, but I feel like if I got the book, it would have been so much better

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Murder

jblago's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A book to more absorbed than read. When I started I was understandably challenged just comprehending each sentence as I read it, sometimes rereading the same paragraph multiple times simply to understand the words themselves let alone any semblance of deeper meaning or overall plot. But as I read more I became more comfortable with the style of this book. A literal Diary of a Madman. Junk-sick and mostly disgusting, yet proud and satirical on a level I have yet to see in any other book, film, or other art piece. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Islamophobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

The satirical nature of the book makes it HEAVY with content warnings, but within context everything has its purpose. Each word serves its raison d’etre perfectly, in spite of its outward appearance.

nickreallylovestoread's review against another edition

I gave this book two chances and I just can’t do it. Read Junky before this and enjoyed the gritty realism mixed with Burroughs’ black comedy, but the vignettes in this book were jagged and incredibly hard to follow. Burroughs must have challenged himself to see how obnoxiously crude he could make depraved sex sequences. Enjoyed dark authors like Bret Easton Ellis, Martin Amis, and Hunter S. Thompson who I realize owe their writings and successes to Burroughs (Amis is debatable) but this goes on too far. I’ll read Queer or Junky if I go back to this author. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Murder

moranguinhos's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

even in the annotated version there were so many words i had to google. half were drugs & the other half were sex acts. wild vacation read

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Murder

lain_darko's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dig2deep's review against another edition

• 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? Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, and Murder