One of my finds at the Borders' going-out-of-business sales was the 50th anniversary version of Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. It is, of course, one very strange book. (I seem to be on a roll with strange books these days.) But it is not as daunting as I feared and I'm making good progress with it. I will review it in a few days.
Naked Lunch is a tale chock full of obscure references and thought provoking, off-the-wall ideas. A number of people have become enthralled with the book, and so there is "online help" in the form of web sites with prefaces, background info and footnotes. One site, Naked Lunch @ 50, provides contextual and background information about New York, Tangiers and Paris, identifies some of the characters and even provides pictures of a few. The Naked Lunch entry on Wikipedia has biographical material. There is even a study guide at Bookrags.com. Naked Lunch was made into a film and the online material about that very different "story" provides insight into the book. (The film has little content in common with the book except that both are composed of a series of autobiographical vignettes seen through Burroughs' drug-hazed eyes.)
As strange a book as Naked Lunch is, it deserves its place on the Time 100 list. The book draws on earlier books on the list such as Brave New World. (Burroughs was a fan of both Paul Bowles and Aldous Huxley.) Alan Ginsberg thought that Naked Lunch was a work of genius and helped Burroughs edit and find a publisher for it. Burroughs' other great friend, Jack Kerouac, (On the Road) looked up to him as a mentor and teacher. Burroughs' style and subject matter inspired great authors such as Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49) and David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest).
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