Items related to The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico
William S. Burroughs arrived in Mexico City in 1949, having slipped out of New Orleans while awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges that would almost certainly have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. Still uncertain about being a writer, he had left behind a series of failed business ventures—including a scheme to grow marijuana in Texas and sell it in New York—and an already long history of drug use and arrests. He would remain in Mexico for three years, a period that culminated in the defining incident of his life: Burroughs shot his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, while playing William Tell with a loaded pistol. (He would be tried and convicted of murder in absentia after fleeing Mexico.)
First published in 1995 in Mexico, where it received the Malcolm Lowry literary essay award, The Stray Bullet is an imaginative and riveting account of Burroughs’s formative experiences in Mexico, his fascination with Mexico City’s demimonde, his acquaintances and friendships there, and his contradictory attitudes toward the country and its culture. Mexico, Jorge García-Robles makes clear, was the place in which Burroughs embarked on his “fatal vocation as a writer.”
Through meticulous research and interviews with those who knew Burroughs and his circle in Mexico City, García-Robles brilliantly portrays a time in Burroughs’s life that has been overshadowed by the tragedy of Joan Vollmer’s death. He re-creates the bohemian Roma neighborhood where Burroughs resided with Joan and their children, the streets of postwar Mexico City that Burroughs explored, and such infamous figures as Lola la Chata, queen of the city’s drug trade. This compelling book also offers a contribution by Burroughs himself—an evocative sketch of his shady Mexican attorney, Bernabé Jurado.
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About the Author:
From Publishers Weekly:
Jorge García-Robles is a Mexican novelist, critic, and translator; he is considered the leading authority on the Beats in Mexico. He translated Jack Kerouac’s Lonesome Traveler, Tristessa, Mexico City Blues, and “Cerrada Medellín Blues” and William Burroughs’s The Yage Letters into Spanish.
Mexican novelist, critic, and translator García-Roble's account of Burroughs's time in Mexico from 1949 to 1952, which included the accidental shooting of his common-law wife Joan Vollmer, proves absorbing, but ultimately unsatisfying. García-Robles first introduces Burroughs's relationships to fellow Beats Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Vollmer, among others, before attempting, with varying degrees of success, to differentiate Burroughs's Mexican experience from the Mexican experience of other authors. The book is less about the "stray bullet," and more about how the shooting of Vollmer influenced Burroughs's writing. Depending on the reader, the majority of the book may prove unpleasant because of its depiction of Vollmer, with her death painted as something she wanted, without giving her much of a voice in a voice-filled text. Burroughs fans may enjoy this look at his experience in Mexico (first published in Mexico in 1995), but others will be troubled by the portrayal of Vollmer's death as a fated part of Burroughs's evolution as a writer. 7 b&w photos.
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- PublisherUniv Of Minnesota Press
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 0816680620
- ISBN 13 9780816680627
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages176
- Rating
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