THE WESTERN LANDS - WILLIAM BURROUGHS

The final novel from my problematic fav, Burroughs, and the last in the trilogy that includes CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT and THE PLACE OF DEAD ROADS. I believe this is the 10th or so book of Burroughs’ I’ve read and will probably be the last for some time. It’s appropriately elegiac for a final novel. The Western Lands of the title refers to Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife and thoughts of death and souls and what lies beyond death preoccupy the whole book. Despite being episodic and strange as the other two books in the series, this one veres into a new territory for Burroughs, autobiography and memoir. He often writes about a figure called “The Writer” who is clearly Burroughs himself and goes on to give us episodes like him hiding prescription amphetamine bottles in a Florida swamp after his son lands in the hospital or what it was like to write something as popular as Naked Lunch then have to live with that notoriety the rest of is life. Don’t worry, it certianly isn’t a “real” memoir (though I’m sure Burroughs, given his long and scandalous life could have written an amazing one) and also contains lots of sex and murderous centipedes and assassins who can kill with putrid breath and cities obessed with dueling and all the other Burroughs’ craziness. Of the trilogy, I’d say I enjoyed this one more than TPODR and less than COTRN, though I really like the super-far out sex and death stuff that he gets into. It’s interesting to read him coming to grips with his own mortality after a very long life, thinking about the ancient egyptians and what they have to say about the afterlife (he seems especially taken with their concept of humans having seven souls), since he typically seems so far-out and avant-garde and beyond everyday human experiences. Typically he focuses on bug-men or pederastic death rituals or other Venusian control systems and the like. Death itself, his own death in particular, does seem to be both mundane in that it will happen to everyone as well as mystical in the sense that no one actually understands it so perhaps it makes the rare Burroughs subject that humanizes him (something one does not read Burroughs for). There’s a lot to think about with him as both a person and a writer. I remain convinced that he is both a very bad guy and the strongest writer of all the Beats. It's sad that Naked Lunch totally overshadows everything else he’s done, I’d put this trilogy up there with any number of far-out bug-shit sci-fi avant-garde stuff from the 20th century. 7 souls