Customer Reviews

Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs, Jr.

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Billy was a friend of mine.I knew him at Green Valley School in Orange City, Fla. in 1972 and afterwards until his death in 1981. I think this book tells his story the way he would like. Literary Outlaw is the other good bio of Bill Burroughs, Sr. in which Billy's life is well told. Read both of these books and you will know the Burroughs. The old man was a genius and a great writer but a lousy father. The son was cursed from birth(that title is something Billy wrote himself and signed a letter with to his father).
I tried to tell Billy to change his name in 1972. I thought that would be his only chance of surviving the Burroughs name. But of course his course was set. He was and would always be a Burroughs. To have your father kill your mother when you are 4 and then to be sent to grow up with your grandparents(abandoned by your father)and then to learn in your teens that your father is the notorious junkie homosexual genius author of NAKED LUNCH well how would you handle that? So self destruction was Billy's fate. This is an excellent book and anyone who is interested in either father or the son should enjoy and learn from it. One thing though. Billy enjoyed his life VERY MUCH until he got sick. So his life was not that short and was certainly not all unhappy. Just the last 10 years of it.

After what seemed to be an amazingly long wait, Cursed From Birth, the sort of biography, sort of last lost novel of William Burroughs Jr has finally been published by those saviours at Soft Skull. And...it was well worth the wait. I am 3/4 way through and the book does not disappoint. Billy's story was alway one of tragedy, self-loathing, self-pity and probably inherited addictive behaviours. However, his writing, when he was relatively sobre, is always witty, concise and truthful, more so than his fathers. It is a sad testament to a great biography of a dead person that you want the ending to be anything but their demise. And this book is no different. Highly recommend for all lovers of beat literature.

As his contemporary, I never met Billy, but now I feel as I have. I grew up in the same circles and understand the difficulty of being surrounded by famous writers. He tells what it was like growing up beat. All beat aficiandos need to read this. Put it in the highschool library. I wish I had published it.

"Cursed from birth" is incredibly sad and brilliantly written.
David Ohle did a great job editing and compiling Billy's letters and manuscript pages into a coherent narrative that deals with the second half of Burroughs Jr's tragically short life (marriage, constant travel, alcoholism, transplant surgery)
The events described by Billy are often supplimented by testimonials from Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs Sr. that sometimes provide a contrast to Billy's take but always enhance perspective for the reader.
The final third of the book describes Billy's liver failure and subsequent transplant and agonizing attempt at recovery in Denver. This section is brutal and draining to read but fascinating in its glimpse into the mind of a broken, nearly abandoned man
Included in this section is a devastating, put-down letter adressed to his father but apparently never sent even though WSB comments on it in the text.
Also, of particular interest is Billy's medical profile which details the mental side effects of transplant surgery.
All in all a very well done book that should be read by any serious Beat scholar

I read all of William S. Burroughs' work growing up and I always wondered what must have happened to his poor son. Until now. This book literally brought me to tears the first time I read it. Billy's take on his childhood and adolescence was revolting. He writes beautifully, probably better than his father, but you can tell he was so emotionally stunted that he was incapable of really getting it together. I feel for him, I really do, and I can't believe people die in such a way that he did.

I was really disgusted at many of the letters between Billy and Bill Sr. There is such a lack of communication between them--an awkwardness, void of warmth--that they don't seem like father and son. Billy's recollection of his mother's death, his childhood, and his visits to Tangiers as a teenager are confusing. He contradicts himself and glazes over things (sex with older men?) so quickly that I wondered how much of it was true. I wondered if Billy wrote the truth or Bill Sr., or some combination of the two.

My favorite part of the book is at the end--Bill Sr.'s letter to Brion Gysin I believe. He starts with: "Billy died this morning." And that's that. Bill then goes on for another paragraph or two to whine about how little money he's making from his latest book.

Anyway, I really recommend Cursed From Birth. I have read it over and over and it stirs up a lot in me. Part of me really feels for Billy and part of me gets mad as I read because he is stuck believing he is a victim--everything and everyone has done him wrong. The last third of the book is really moving, what with Billy and his psychosis from the steroids.

Get the book. It's really something.

"Speed" is this writer's best book in my opinion. But anything from Burroughs Jr. is worth waiting for.