Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Book Review: The Wild Boys

The Wild BoysThe Wild Boys by William S. Burroughs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yet another Burroughs novel of drugs, poisonous insects, gay sex, weird weapons, weirder cults, and thumbing his nose at authority. This one has more plot than most but does slip into his trademark "cut up" method at times. I find that the cut up sections actually add to the atmosphere of the book.

Burroughs fans will be on familiar territory here. I've read a lot of his books and while his work gets repetitive after a while, I seem to find myself reading a new one every year or so. Can't get his guy out of my system! Those new to Burroughs should read Junky first, Naked Lunch second, and then see if they want to go for a third.

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1 comment:

D.G. Hudson said...

I've read Naked Lunch and saw the film which was also strange, and Junky is in our library (hubs read it), but I haven't read Junky yet. I tried to read Cities of the Red Night, but couldn't get into that one several years ago.

Hadn't heard of The Wild Boys. I admit he's not the first author I'd think of to read, but he was part of the Kerouac-Cassidy-Ginsberg group. That's why I'd read some of his work.

Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.

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