My Education: A Book of Dreams [Hardcover]

William S. Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A provocative, intensely personal novel by the author of The Western Lands interweaves a world of vivid and visionary dreams into a direct and powerful force in human life. 15,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The noted Burroughs himself is the central character of his first novel in seven years, revisiting the site of hundreds of his dreams, a landscape "where I get my best sets and characters." Numerous family members, friends and celebrities from the author's past appear-Mick Jagger, L. Ron Hubbard, Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac-and locales vary wildly, from Manhattan to Panama, ancient Rome to the planet Venus. Several types of dreams recur: "flying" dreams, "packaging" dreams, "breakfast dreams" about "difficulty in obtaining any sort of food." Images, too, recur-cats, pale young men, aliens, various doctors-though Burroughs fails to infuse them with any metaphorical meaning, thus bequeathing a tediousness to his terrain. Several graphic scenes, however, haunt this plotless book, such as one in which a man's face is bloodied by a broken bottle. Those familiar with the Burroughs canon will notice that the author's disjointed prose remains, but the satire has been replaced by a more plaintive voice. The strength of this memoir-like story comes from its 72-year-old narrator's struggles with grief, having outlived many of the people and events he so vividly recalls. "Remembering," says Burroughs, "brings the emptiness, the acutely painful awareness of irreparable loss."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Similar in format to Jack Kerouac's Book of Dreams (1961), Burroughs's latest offering is a simple dream diary, interspersed with brief interpretive comments and presented in clear, accessible prose. Most of the dreams involve visits to the Land of the Dead, where nearly all of Burroughs's friends and enemies have long since vanished. Kerouac, Brion Gysin, Jean Genet, and hostile critic Anatole Broyard make frequent appearances, along with the author's parents; his wife, Joan; and his son, Billy. Burroughs himself has mellowed considerably. He avoids sex, deplores thievery, rails against gun fanatics, and shares his home with several pampered cats. Because the author's best work incorporates nightmares and hallucinations, his dream record is of genuine literary interest. However, readers unschooled in Beat lore will struggle with cryptic allusions to obscure people and events. This important work for fans will likely win few new converts. Recommended for larger fiction collections.
Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 193 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670813508
• ISBN-13: 978-0670813506
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Book of Dreams, July 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: My Education: A Book of Dreams (Hardcover)

The criticisms of this book commonly state that it is disjointed and detached. Finally, a book of dreams that doesn't pursue some interconnection of the dreams or a relation of them to reality. There are recurring themes, but as in the dreams every person has, they are recurring dreams, and they do not suppose a greater meaning than being dreams. This book let's your mind dream along with Burroughs. Some parts are detailed, and others are totally vague... so much like a dream, you feel a little hazy when you put it down..

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tourbook of the Land of the Dead, June 5, 2003

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: My Education: A Book of Dreams (Mass Market Paperback)

This really isn't a novel. It is much more than that. This is where Burroughs got so many of the images for his life time of work. You see, this is a tour book of The Land of the Dead, or as he also called it, The Place of Dead Roads. While he subtitles this work _A Book of Dreams_ he is careful to point out that these are a very special sort of dream. They are dreams that are more real than waking life. Indeed, the author speculates if the dreaming city isn't really his true home, his true life- far more real than Lawrence, Kansas.

You can't expect to read a book like this in the same way that you would read an ordinary book. You must unfocus your mind, in the same way that you must unfocus your eyes to truly SEE some abstract art. Only then will the images begin to flow and transport you. That is because this book is a conscious act of magic, as the old magician knew when he crafted it....

See if the Land of the Dead doesn't start to seem very familiar to you. I know I immediately recognised the place he was describing. It is a place where the dead, the sleeping, the magical travellers all meet. That is why the landscape and architecture are such a tangle, why there are no clear distinctions between public and private places. It is a mad, mixed, consensus "reality." That is also why flight is possible there. You see, in such a place gravity isn't a law- it is an opinion....

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best novels., August 10, 2002

By 

K. Bentley "amateur critic" (Stratford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Education: A Book of Dreams (Mass Market Paperback)

I think this was a very interesting concept to record 5 years worth of dreams and then put them into a book. Some of the images and characters Burroughs comes up with are so vivid and so realistic that when I read this I actually felt like I was with Burroughs during this subconcious journey.

I liked how he used his dreams as education, and how he realized the importance of his dreams; a very Freudian quality. I think that this book represented finally coming to terms with your past, and accepting vicissitude (or change) that others tend to shy away from. This book is a very important addition to Burroughs' extensive body of work, and undoubtedly one of his best books. And often times it's overlooked because it's in the shadow of the Naked Lunch and the Soft Machine.