William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible: A Portrait

Summarizes the life of the acclaimed author of Naked Lunch, including his open homosexuality, his drug addiction, and his career as a novelist. By the author of Allen Ginsberg: A Biography.

In this affable and affectionate biography, Miles ( Allen Ginsberg ), a friend of Burroughs since 1964, covers the controversial writer's addictions, idiosyncrasies and personal relationships, as well as his writings. Drawing on Burroughs's correspondences and on his own experiences with him, Miles gives only a cursory account of Burroughs's early life in St. Louis, where he was born in 1914, and his years in Latin America, Paris, Tangiers and London. But he updates other biographies with a chapter on Burroughs's life in Lawrence, Kansas, where he settled in 1984, and with a discussion of his impact on modern culture. Miles is best when considering the genesis and intermingling of Burroughs's fiction and nonfiction. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fawning and klutzy, with the critical and grammatical skills of the average college sophomore book report (``Just because Burroughs appropriates characters or even chunks of text from someone else's book, this does not mean they are an influence on him, though it probably does mean that he likes their work''), Miles (Allen Ginsberg, 1989) slaps Burroughs's life and spotty works down into a sandwich of no-brainer Zeitgeist-y approval (``Lauren Hutton introduced him on Saturday Night Live in December 1981 as `in my opinion the greatest living writer' ''), buying-in wholesale to Burroughs's off-the-cuff and self-resolving ``theories'' (``legal cannabis was prescribed for paranoia: cannabis is illegal, therefore users suffer from the paranoia that they will get busted. The paranoia is cured by prescribing it legally'') and serving up bare-bones facts about his grotesque and slavishly addicted life that can be more intelligibly constellated from Oliver Harris's volume of Burroughs's early letters (p. 566). More an extended and semiliterate fan-gush than a biography; for a far more satisfying look at Burroughs's life, see Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw (1988). (B&w photographs) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In his latest work, Miles ( Ginsberg: A Biography , Simon & Schuster, 1989) turns his attention to William Burroughs. His book falls somewhere between Ted Morgan's comprehensive biography, Literary Outlaw ( LJ 10/15/88), and Jennie Skerl's introductory volume, William Burroughs (Twayne, 1985). Miles traces autobiographical parallels in Burroughs's work and examines his friendships with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Brion Gysin, among others. He details Burroughs's influence in rock and film circles within the general framework of his growing critical acclaim. Miles's book is especially valuable for its coverage of the complex textual history of Burroughs's work. The final chapter includes an evaluation of his "shotgun art." Recommended for contemporary literature collections.
- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.