Tosh's review
The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs
The one book by Burroughs that separates the fans from the curious. The curious usually think 'no, I am not going there.' Relentless sexual assault mixed with very experimental writing makes this book... Charming! I love Burroughs' voice. I also think he's one of the great satire writers of all time. A true American (drug addict) original!
I haven't read Burroughs since I bewildered my way through Naked Lunch in high school. As it looks like you've been through his whole oevre, which book would you recommend starting with, if I wanted to give him another shot now?
Junkie, because it is very much a straight (no pun intended) narrative - then hop on to The Naked Lunch. Soft Machine, although great, is not a good first novel to get into.I would also get into his essays, and correspondence, which are great.
Done and done. I'll put Junkie on my short list, although I have to admit that said list is actually dauntingly long...
The Soft Machine is actually a lot of stuff that was originally part of Naked Lunch, but Burroughs decided should be made a separate volume.
Someone new to Burroughs would get a good entree by reading Junkie first as you suggested, but instead of jumping straight to Naked Lunch I think the next one to read is Queer (another "straight" narrative) because in certain ways Naked Lunch draws on material from both Junkie and Queer re-concieved as routines, and Queer is the sequel to Junkie.
I think that is a good suggestion Richard! In the early books you get the Burroughs 'voice' as well. Once you got that down, then one can go on to Naked Lunch and so forth. So future readers out there, start with Queer/Junkie first then the others!
