Naked Lunch

"At the International Writers' Conference in Edinburgh...I said that in thinking over the novels of the last few years, I was struck by the fact that the only ones that had not simply given me pleasure but interested me had been those of Burroughs and Nabokov....I am quoted as saying that NAKED LUNCH is the most important novel of the age, of the epoch, of the century....The result, of course, is a disparagement of Burroughs, because if NAKED LUNCH is proclaimed as the masterpiece of the century, then it is easily found wanting....The phenomenon of repetition, gives rise to boredom; many readers complain that they cannot get through NAKED LUNCH. And/or that they find it disgusting. It IS disgusting and sometimes tiresome, often in the same places....Like Swift, Burroughs has irritable nerves and something of the crafty temperament of the inventor....Yet what saves NAKED LUNCH is not a literary ancestor but humour. Burroughs' humour is peculiarly American, at once broad and sly.Burroughs, William S. is the author of 'Naked Lunch' with ISBN 9780802132956 and ISBN 0802132952.