Naked Lunch

The Restored Text

De: William S. Burroughs

Narrado por: Mark Bramhall

Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, a book that redefined not just literature but American culture.

This is an unnerving tale of a narcotics addict unmoored in New York, Tangiers, and, ultimately, a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone. The restored text includes many editorial corrections and incorporates Burroughs's notes on the text and several essays he wrote over the years about the book. For the Burroughs enthusiast and neophyte alike, this is a valuable and fresh experience of this classic of our culture.

©2001 William S. Burroughs Trust (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"William was a Shootist. He shot like he wrote - with extreme precision and no fear." (Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone)
"A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire." ( Newsweek)

Poetic Filth

Disgusting and beautiful, this book is a collection of depraved thoughts set in prose and organized at random. Read with caution.

Awesome!

Don't look at it as a traditional linear Novel.
See it as a chronicling of debauchery, madness, and addiction.

Unfilmable book? Maybe but they shoulda left it be

I had the pleasure of reading this book for myself, hard copy, living alone and never heard the name William Burroughs before. But I had recently recovered from the H-life, and thank God this book was as honest and cathartic as a real life introspective. Imagine the over-sensitive Kerouac fan... comes home67[[
.to hear his oldest son reading "Naked Lunch" out loud to a couple of his siblings... Oh how that warms the cockles of my heart x)
Just knowing the story of Burroughs excruciating journey through the process of writing Naked Lunch and how it was conceived in dozens of countries through countless trips... of the mind, spirit and the reality of Earthen humanity itself! It really blew my wad (of course I'm referring to my mind-wad, or at least I would be if I were referencing the hatchet job Anti-Drug movie about people who are addicted to pow[ered bugs, goddammit!d) What in the actual...!?!? if Cronenberg was so worried about making a movie that could possibly make it seem as if drugs are a part of the real world; ugly, shameful, ..! deadly, life-saving, miraculous , sanity restoring (or the exact opposite), why do it? I loved the fly, and I had never read Naked Lunch when it came out then I was still a little young to even understand drug references yet, but now that I've been able to listen to this audiobook multiple times, and I was old enough to still remember what that movie was like , powderized bugs and talking anuses Etc . I would love to hear David Cronenberg defend this disaster piece. Or at least, admit he didn't quite understand that William, himself, was writing from HIS own soul, the one he experienced. It had many lenses in place that added something, possibly like pure cognitive distortions of his entire spirit, or removal of the filters which keep lesser men in their place, unable to reach out to the empty vacuum and pull back the veil of humanity... with all its glorious flaws, true evil, wildest loves and the nature of being honest with yourself, about yourself
End of story. The problem with drugs is that people get addicted to them and it changes their lives in irreparable ways! He could have made a movie Burroughs (may have) respected, without ever resorting to the utter absurdity of "Crone'd Lunch"
As an act of completely disparaging the author's wishes, his true intentions, decades of motivations and insights affording one hell of a contribution to the literature of contemporary, early-mid 20th century America... Good boy David x)
I'd say that even despite some of the pitiful moments of "joy" (¿no not quite joy? but anyway) that these characters were barely able to glean for mere moments. The descriptive taste chosen to bring these fleeting moments of dull, pale color... the tiniest bit of a spark to lives already so boring, ordinarily drab, grey... damn spectral lines forming a humanoid, even if only for a brief, sad moment.
Maybe everyone in America should have to read this book before they turn 21! At least they could gain somea small modicum of perspective.
Do yourself a favor, buy your ticket, & take the damn ride. Learn something if you can
For Christ's sake

Top 10 favorite books!!!

The narrator absolutely brings it in this audio version of the turn of the centuries beatnik classic by William S. Burroughs. A masterpiece.

Vivid! Tactile! Viseral!

I become as addicted to this audio book as much as the characters it was about! One of the most brilliant things I have listened to in a long time. The narration weaves an almost hallucinogenic series of vignettes that takes you to all these wacky places. It sucks you in and doesn't let up until is it over. I couldn't turn it off!!!! You could literally start with any chapter and play in any order. I am going to have fun with this one in a my library for a very long time. It was as prophetic today as when it was written in 1959. Predicting a sexual epidemic such as AIDS that would consume and ravish our culture. It's almost like you can feel it's throbbing pulse through every syllable uttered. Not for everyone has strong graphic episodes that become quite numbing!

I really don't know how to explain it

This was an incredible thing...and I still don't know if I love it or hate it. I know that I couldn't stop listening to it.

Burroughts is clearly an amazing writer and the book just flows from one area to the next but the story itself is hard to wrap your head around. I don't think that you can fully understand unless you have been trapped it the claws of addictions.

I am really glad I listened and I will probably listen to it again just to try to digest more of the shocking and often disgusting story.

Delightful rendition

Today I started listening to this again as I was re-organizing my audio library, couldn't shut it off, and was shocked to realize that I didn't review this when I first heard it. About the book: It will horrify a significant portion of the population. It is full of brutality, filth, pedophilia, profanity, etc. If you don't know what you are getting into, beware. At its best, it is brilliant satire. I give the story one star because there is no story, but there is not supposed to be. The book will more many of those readers that it doesn't offend. It contains some tedious repetition, and passages that could probably only be interesting if one is as wasted on drugs as the author was when he wrote it. It also contains many brilliantly inspired passages and images that have endured through the years.

The thing that kept me listening again today is the narration. Every narration is necessarily just one interpretation of a book, and Bramhall puts a unique stamp on this one. His voice is a drawl, I suppose spun off of Burroughs' own, but much more extreme. You might like it or you might not, but I found his style enjoyable when I got used to it. The best part of it is the voices that he gives to the various characters. These interpretations are brilliant and hilarious.

I do most of my reading at bedtime, and was unable to finish reading this book because it gave me nightmares (as it reportedly did to Jack Kerouac when he helped transcribe the original text). The audiobook let me get through it during my commute. It made me forget the work day.

The audiobook is highly recommended to those who understand what they are in for.

Great Narration, Excellent Novel

Granted, there will be people who object to the homophobia. Others will object to the drug addiction. Still others, to the utter amorality. Then, there will be those who object to all the profanity. I find Burroughs prose to be almost lyrical. The narration is dead on perfect for the main character and really pulled me into the novel. If you want a novel with a linear plot, you won't like The Naked Lunch. You could pull the chapters out and mix them up and read them in just about any order. Just as an addict losing focus and returning to reality, The Naked Lunch shifts through time and space. If you want some memorable vignettes about the human condition (in an R. Crumb comix kind of way), this novel will deliver.

OMG!

This book is like watching a high speed train wreck in slow motion! You want to turn away because of the suffering and depravity you witness but somehow this book being read to you force feeds you in a way that sight reading can't.

It struck me that if I read this book instead of listening to it, I would have missed the passion and message. The pictures Burroughs paints for us are so vivid and horrifying that if I were to read it I might turn away. But having it read to you, you have no choice but to sit there and take it though a few times I had to keep from running off the road!

It is not to be missed simply because you find out that the band Steely Dan took this book as inspiration for their name.

Terrible Reader

The reader for Burroughs’ work slurs all the words together. I get that he’s trying to sound like a junky, but he should still be trying to make the words comprehensible. His drawling style paired with Burroughs’ inventive syntaxes makes for an impossible listen. I turned off the audio ten minutes in and just stuck with the paperback.

Amendment: If you speed up the audio to 1.5x or so, it is much easier to listen to.