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jarthur's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lorinoel's review against another edition
I probably would have ate this up (or at least the myth of it) as a teenager. At 31, it's nonsense.
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: Rape, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Sexism, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Addiction, Torture, Murder, and Homophobia
mrm4games's review against another edition
The writing style does not sit well with me. It reads like a fever dream, but not in a good way.
wpschlitz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
ragreynolds's review against another edition
challenging
2.5
This is one of the most challenging things things I've ever tried to review. I want to love it. I certainly love a lot of the ideas and style at play. There's no denying that this is a truly unique reading experience, and there's a lot of complex and meaningful material when you begin to make sense of the utter nonsense and depravity that litters almost every page. However, despite all that, no matter how much I tried, I simply found the book to be a chore to get through. I'd often find myself picking up the book and taking note of a few stand-out bizarre lines, but I'd quickly find myself zoning out as I tried to read more than a half-dozen pages at a time. There's a lot to admire here, but it's a book I'd struggle to recommend to most people.
artist_lace's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
notaturnip's review against another edition
4.0
Four stars is more like three and a half stars, but still. It’s not really a novel, nor did Burroughs ever intend for it to be, but it still takes a while to get going. As the third of the quintessential Beat texts (along with Howl and On the Road), it’s historically important, but more as a window into the mind of Burroughs. If you’re keen to finish it but you’re struggling, it does get better. I started marking quotes at page 100, and did so pretty regularly until the end of the book. Lots of ideas, lots of lovely turns of phrase. Also lots of cannibalism and unpleasant things happening to people and their genitals. I’m glad I read it but I wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone.
sunhat_cloudbelt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5