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unrealpunk's review
5.0
A number of performances are going on at the same time, in many rooms, on many levels. The spectators circulate from one stage to another, putting on costumes and makeup to join a performance and the performers all move from one stage to another. There are moving stages and floats, platforms that descend from the ceiling on pulleys, doors that pop open, and partitions that slide back.
It took me a while to come around to Cities of the Red Night. It's by no means a straightforward novel, but it's closer to a straightforward novel than anything Burroughs had put out in the two decades before its release, and the fairly substantial sections of linear narrative didn't fulfill my yen for the completely unhinged phantasmagoria of prosody and imagery that drew me so powerfully to works like Naked Lunch and Nova Express. But now I have come around and can appreciate Cities of the Red Night for what it is, and for the ways it succeeds on levels that his earlier works don't attempt. For one thing, the worldbuilding is more deliberate and coherent. Perhaps a better way to put it: the panorama is wider — it's easier to take everything in and see how it all fits together. And there's a degree of deliberation and elegance more Joycean than any of his previous work.
And don't worry, the unhinged phantasmagoria is still here, it's just a bit more contained.
Most people are never going to take the time to really dig into this book and take it seriously, but it would be nice in an alternate universe to get together a Cities of the Red Night reading group, because there is so much to ruminate on. Topics for potential discussion are endless, and there are no easy answers; the good, the evil, and the ambivalent are all cut-up and hybridized, spilling out in all directions: What are the roots of human trauma, of sex-fear, death-fear, and colonization? What are the means and value of transcendence? How do we identify and alter the script of reality? What is individual identity in light of a subject's capacity to dream, to reproduce, and to transmit infections? Can war and armament ever be justifiable or worthwhile? Is love worth the pain and suffering it brings?
All trigger warnings and disclaimers apply.
torjus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
colepsmith42's review
4.0
I used to call this my favorite Burroughs book but this time I found the more structural parts a hindrance to his style rather than elevating it. Love the private eye parts and the third part is great. Find his sort of proselytizing of anarchic pirate society a little off-putting, like a younger Burroughs might say that even this system of selective freedom is yet another form of control. Excited to check out the rest of the trilogy again.
puki's review against another edition
4.0
Read at your own risk. Go with an open mind and accept with graciousness that you will not understand the whole or even the parts, in one read. You must come back to it.
In fact, it will bring you back. If nothing else but to see if you read it right the first time.
In fact, it will bring you back. If nothing else but to see if you read it right the first time.
andyagv's review
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
urikastov's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
technomage's review
3.0
Well I have finished it. What can I say its William Burroughs. His cities of the red night is a pirate story, a detective story, a sci-fi story, its full of sex and drugs and madness and death. Its a book that is so intense a read that I had to pause at regular intervals. This is a book that smacks you about the head and demands you take it seriously while pumping you full of hallucinatory images that you may never forget.