false 33 277 152 true 5650132 read 3 true 1755673 currently-reading 122 true 1755672 to-read 22 false 3651934 2nd-wednesday-book-club 17 false 3161490 all-time-fav-novels 9 false 3651941 experimental-literature-book-club 8 false 3699451 great-books-discussion-group 3 false 3922181 must-finish-before-i-die http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80133680 to: Weetzie Bat (Library Binding) by Francesca Lia Block
A wonderful coming of age tale reminding us that life is what what you make it, and more often than not you have be to brave to make it, period. What is most interesting is the prose style which is kind of a mash-up of children's lit and Donald Barthelme. And I like that punk-surreal cover.

I read this book after it was recommended by a friend, and simultaneously one of Block's other books was aggressively challenged at a public library. Had to see what all the fuss was about. Not sure what the fuss was about other than Block being an innovative engaging writer. A deserving fuss indeed. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41854833 to: Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible and Fried: My Life As a Revolting Cock (Paperback) by Chris Connelly
Not much new here, per the maximum drugs per 24 period between gigs rock touring formula. It's seems to reworked from journals he kept while being member of the Ministry / Revolting Cocks family. Though Connelly is a published poet, it felt he was keeping any literary intentions to a minimum opting for a "just the facts ma'am" recount of five years of debauch-rock-choas.

Though it hardly reinvents the wheel, I can't help but to be enthralled as it details the creation of some of my favorite teenage albums. For more academic pop-cultural anthropologists its a first hand account of the minor phenomenon that was Wax Trax records. At points Connelly seems unduly harsh on personalities that made it all possible for him in the first place. The fateful events that lead him to be lead singer of the Revolting Cocks are one step up from Ripper Owens territory. To his credit he doesn't use the book as an advertisement for his subsequent solo work which is very different from his Wax Trax period but not as commercially successful.

Were the Revolting Cocks ever commercially or artistically successful? ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79152023 The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies (Hardcover) by Mark Booth
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79151827 Infinite Jest (Paperback) by David Foster Wallace
bookshelves: currently-reading, experimental-literature-book-club
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72120717 to: If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (Paperback) by Italo Calvino
bookshelves: experimental-literature-book-club
A lot of style and not a lot of substance. Or at least not enough for me. Calvino's craftsmanship earns a positive review.

I would recommend Pale Fire over this one. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75172370 to: Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. 1 (Unknown Binding) by Philip K. Dick
Spotty. "The Exit Door Leads In" and "The Electric Ant" are classic. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77466304 Home: A Novel (Hardcover) by Marilynne Robinson
bookshelves: 2nd-wednesday-book-club, currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71823894 to: Naked Lunch: Modern Classic Collection (The Restored Text) by William S. Burroughs
bookshelves: all-time-fav-novels

I've said that Naked Lunch is the Rosetta Stone work by my favorite author for so long now its hard for me to know if either proposition is true anymore. It's been a number of years since I'd had read any of his works. The release of the first ever audio edition of his most famous, if not his finest, artistic artifact seemed the perfect opportunity for re-visitation.

William Lee is a junky running West from the law. His consciousness slowly segues itself into a nightmare world called the Interzone. The chapters are in random order so the reader is constantly navigating shades of gray between “reality” so called and the Interzone. Burroughs calls upon his life long struggles with heroin addiction illustrate how all of are addicted and controlled by something, most importantly the controllers are addicted to controlling and the controlled addicted to being controlled. The majority of the scenarios Burroughs envisions are too horrific or obscene for me to mention here. They also are terribly funny. You'll be laughing your way past the graveyard and needle filled garbage dump. Like when “all American deanxietized man” is brought before the “international conference of technological psychiatry” and reduced to the ectoplasmic homicidal centipede he really is. As most critics have argued, Naked Lunch is a satire and Interzone is actually represents a place for more real than any of us would like to admit. It's the place were all our fears and most cynical assumptions about medicine, government, sex, and law are painfully true.

The book is not some much pornographic as it is grotesque and it is not without good reason that Burroughs work is often compared with that of the painter Hieronymous Bosch. There is surrealism and there is horror but there is not sexual arousal. If it is pornography, it is pornography for psychopaths. Personally, I encountered this work as a teenager and after reading it any possibility of abusing opiate drugs was out the window. Since then I've only had to laugh/grimace at the thin veiled glamorization of heroin addiction that blossoms in the media every few years. Burroughs taught me early about the black putrid zombie death world addiction will transport you to. It won't transport you to hipster cruising with Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto.

Praise be to Blackstone Audio for hiring Mark Bramhall, a reader who understands the tone of the work and brings enough verve to enliven material that can be very difficult. In a lot of ways, it is a work that is meant to be read aloud. The most psychotic chapters are prose poem rants that need a certain umph in the delivery. Bramhall knows when to turn it on and off. His interpretation of some of my most beloved denizens grated me a bit (why give Dr. Benway a Texas accent), but this probably due to my being overly familiar with the material. Blackstone also did right releasing an audio edition of the so-called “restored text” which puts the novel itself first, and all the various introductions and appendices that have appeared over the years as supplemental materials in the back. For concerned parties this supplemental material will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the writing and publication of this singular work.

My final verdict: Naked Lunch remains the bug bomb of 20th century America. If your house has yet to fumigated, it's time to call the exterminator. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73553503 Strange Empire: A Narrative of the Northwest (Borealis Books) by Joseph Kinsey Howard
bookshelves: must-finish-before-i-die, to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72070583 to: The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (Hardcover) by William S. Burroughs
I've started revisiting Burroughs after years of neglect.

Based on the real life last words of gangster Dutch Schultz, Burroughs presents Schultz' life as experimental film. Burroughs' nightmarish surrealism only appears in controlled bursts. (Many argue this when his work his most effective. See my review of the new audio version of Naked Lunch I'll be writing soon.)

I recommend this book to anyone interest in old school gangsters or experimental film. It's a shame this was never shot by a good director with a proper budget.

The Viking Press hardback is littered with great period photographs and art deco design work. ]]>