Interzone (2004)

By William S. Burroughs
I'm really not sure what kind of review to give this book; I found it kind of patchy. I’ve only read one other work by Burroughs: “Junky”, an autobiographical account of his life as a heroin addict, which I thought was excellent. (Other MS Readathoners take note: it’s also very short). Burroughs has a bright, sharp way of writing that can’t help but hold your attention, and his ruthlessness in his descriptions of people can make you breathless on occasions.

Interzone is made up of short pieces or sketches, diary-like accounts and ends with a stream-of-consciousness-like part called “Word” – so, patchy in nature but also in quality. Parts here and there I thought were brilliant, like “Twilight’s Last Gleamings”, “International Zone” and “Antonio the Portuguese Mooch”. Other parts I found tough going, particularly “Word”, which I was tempted not to finish and in all honesty didn’t read terribly carefully anyway.

For those who haven’t read Burroughs before, he writes a lot about taking drugs and being queer, and the inevitable seamier side of life that went along with these in the middle of the twentieth century. Don’t read his books unless you are willing to read bits about shooting up, gay sex and lots of talk about cocks and so on. In particular, “Word” is about 60 pages worth of Burroughs being as confronting and as offensive as he can be, without any particular story to it that I could find, and was all a bit much for a prude like me. Even so, I would still encourage you to read Burroughs – maybe don’t start with this one, though.

Interzone feels less like a novel and more like a writer’s journal, about Burroughs trying to figure out how to write, which is weird because he’d already written two books, “Junky” and “Queer”, by the time he wrote this one. His next was “Naked Lunch”, his most famous – his previous works were autobiographical, so perhaps Interzone was Burroughs trying to figure out where to go next; how to step away from writing as “I”. I’d better read “Naked Lunch” so I can see where Burroughs went next.

Rating: Averaged out, 6 out of 10. Some bits I’d give a 10, others a 2, others somewhere in between.