Finished reading in February 2015
This was a fascinating biography of the cult figure of the Beat Movement. I seem to always have been somewhat familiar with William Burroughs as a novelist but I really had no idea about all his other activities such as making all sort of media, poetry, photography, paintings, collages, experimental films, acted in movies, and made dozens of CDs. This was an amazingly well researched biography that explored the many sides of Burroughs and thoroughly documented his cultural legacy.
It also went into great detail about his heroin addiction, his homosexuality and his cut-ups. It many ways he was not a very likable character but was revered as a outlaw beat culture icon.
It took me a long time to get through this book. I started reading in in May 2014 and finished it eight months later. I was also reading his Word Virus collection at this time so I was getting a full dose of Burroughs. My year of Burroughs was exhausting.
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