Book Review: "The Wild Boys" by William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs is known as one of the greatest minds of the beat generation for a reason. In the past, I have read his books "Naked Lunch", "Junkie", "Queer" and "Cities of Red Night". I am re-reading some Burroughs because at the moment, a friend of mine is getting more into the author as well. I feel like the appropriate place to begin though would be with a book by him that I haven't read before (well, before I re-read my personal favourites) - this book is "The Wild Boys".

"The Wild Boys" seriously surprised me because of its writing style. William S Burroughs I know is experimental through the reading of his other works, but I think that this one was more experimental than others he has written purely because it is these snippets of shorter fictions put together to make a larger narrative. The lanaguage use is often crude, or rather graphic with gruesome deviation at its centre. This quotation seems to show this in a way that shows none of the graphic content, but still produces the image of what might come:

“I am not a person and I am not an animal. There is something I am here for something I must do before I can go.”

From the get-go, the book is an oozing pot of sex and violence, the images are obviously not for the faint-hearted and when it comes to language, the problem is that it must be read slowly and thus, you probably don't want to eat before taking this in. Some of the scenes are a bit heavy, including a scene in the Penguin Modern Classics edition which is roughly on page 21 through to 22.

The scene is about a caterpillar that seemingly eats a human being (from what I gathered) from the inside out. I think that this is supposed to be some sort of metaphor but I couldn't find it. A form of sexuality maybe? A peverse symbolism for animalistic impulses? I don't know. What I do know is that this is one of the first times I have had to put a book down before I have reached the end of the first twenty-five pages. I'm not saying I was unimpressed, I'm saying I was horrified.

William S. Burroughs tends to leave a lasting impression whether that be good or bad. This book especially, is considered to be one of his best and, the book was the inspiration behind a song by Duran Duran and the image of the famed Ziggy Stardust character by David Bowie. The homosexual imagery of this book is a sort of breakthrough for the era since I can imagine the publishers being not so happy about the fact that something that was still criminal in most parts of the world is being published as an act of righteousness in this book. This, I can admire.

However, the depiction of graphic violence and graphic sexual situations makes me wonder whether this is a required trait of the novel since every few pages there is a mention of something along those lines. I wonder whether it is part and parcel of the imagery that comes along with the nature of a book by a beat writer or whether it is there for shock value. If it is the latter, I have to disagree with the book's idea of itself. The thought that homosexual violence should be a part of the 'shock' of the novel sort of disgusts me. Yes, it may have been a different time - but the idea of violence of this kind inflicted upon anyone at all does not give it that right.