Customer Reviews

Speed: AND Kentucky Ham

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a close friend of Billy Jr. for many years, and knew his father, the immortal William S. Burroughs, when I founded the Santa Cruz Poetry Festival in the 1970's. The son was no mere imitation of the father, though the subject of these books, drug addiction, would lead you toward that conclusion. Billy was one of the saddest, most tragic figures I had ever known, and also one of the kindest, most entertaining and charming. He is testimony to the "offspring of greatness", syndrome: the curse of trying to emulate and duplicate the father. These are remarkable books, perhaps as relevent to the insanity of the 60's and 70's, the self indulgent, self-destructive underbelly of all that hope and optimism and freedom that Naked Lunch and Howl and Dharma Bums had represented to the 50's. Billy Jr. could write, Billy was a human yo-yo, full of pain and rage, resistant to society's conventions and ultimately his own worst enemey. I belive he had two liver transplants before he was 32. He told us on numerous occasions that he was present when his father shot his mother during an infamous, abortive game of "William Tell" in Mexico. I have never been able to verify that, as I never had the courage to ask Wiliam Sr. on the rare occasions I was with him. Anyway, very few writers are inseparable from their work. There was nothing fabricated in either Speed or Kentucky Ham: this is Billy Burroughs, Jr., son of a legend, a modest legend in his own right, and I don't think a study of the 60's would be complete without seeing this dark, painful, resilient, hopeful, despairing, all-too-brief mini-body of work left behind by Billy. It is almost a litmus test for which path you took at a very young age. If life was too painful to be lived, Billy took the right one. I"m not sure that's what he wanted, he just didn't know how to step outside himself for very long. I loved these books, and I loved Billy JR. James Dalessandro, author, Canary In A Coal Mine, Citizen Jane, Bohemian Heart and 1906

I never tire of reading these books and have read them over and over again. This book touches you especially if you have had an addiction to anything like drugs. William Jr can make you laugh and weep in the same chapter. These books leave you with a profound sadness but they stay with you even after you are done reading them. The thing is you are never done because I have returned to them over and over again. This is an honest look into the world of addiction. It's not a pretty picture but it is not a preachy book on the " evils " of drugs. It just describes the author's experience with speed. A terrific read. I know it will touch you as it has touched me. It is a shame that William Jr left us so early.

Two books by the son of William S. Burroughs. Soul crushing sadness. While the Elder Burroughs' writing has an almost scriptural cadence to it, (Bill Jr, says "Naked Lunch" was transcribed), the Junior Burroughs writing is page after page of unrelenting despair and self-pity; well-written, yes, but Darker-than-Dark...In his afterword to the book the Elder Burroughs' describes his son's writing as illustrative of the Cultural Revolution and Dream that was the 60's. Bill Jr's writing shows the 60's as a nightmare and you may feel fortunate to wake from it after finishing the book. And, as so many "Revolutions" of the 20th century abysmally failed, perhaps this was one more revolution we can thankfully see fizzle and fade. In "Speed" Bill Jr. confidently predicts that the long-hair revolutionaries he sees are gonna shake up the world and never sell out...well... Fascinating book, well-written, haunting and exasperating, important addition for folks who collect the Elder Burroughs stuff. Just don't read this book with any sharp objects nearby...

Billy Jr. is not the writer that his father is, but who is? If you are looking for the ... style(?) of the father forget it. Billy Jr. has his own style and it reads as something from the 60's drug culture instead of the 40' & 50's. Jr. is swift with his words and exceedingly hip with the lines: "People who live in glass houses shouldn't get stoned." So-o-o-o many of the lines in this book can easily be turned into book titles. It is a factual account of his depressing life addicted to drugs. Speed, is about his drug hustling in NYC and being bailed out twice by uncle Allen Ginsburg.
Kentucky Ham, is his experiences coming back to Florida and then the Lexington Rehab Center. Of the two Speed is the better and quicker read. Ham has a tendency to drag toward the end and his life in Alaska fishing is downright boring. Overall both are a good read for a writer that was cursed from birth.

truly an amazing work of art, the son of william s burroughs tells the tale of his life as a speed-addict. i've read it some times now, and it is still as releasing to read it now as it was the first time. i'm also a fan of his father's work, but i must say that his son really makes burroughs senior's books rather boring and non-animate.

especially one sentence touched me: "the tree showed the shape of the winds"

oh how right he was

These two novels are powerful, humorous, masterful...I can't say enough good things about them. The characteristic matter-of-fact Burroughs bite is there, but Billy Jr. handles the emotions and hopelessness of his lifestyle with more empathy than his father...a must-read for anyone who is a fan of Burroughs or his brand of drug culture. Even though the novels were written decades ago, it is easy to identify and fall in love with the late Burroughs Jr.

Yes, Billy Junior was not his father: read this thinking of him as his own person with his own habit. That said, I was surprised how much impression this duo-novel had on me. For one thing, it's authentic. This guy knew his drugs and how to talk candidly about them. I found myself laughing with him, rooting for him when he started to get in trouble.

Another value this book has, especially the Kentucky Ham segment, is a crash course (no pun intended) on what can make a drug rehabilitation program actually have the effect that such things so seldom do: Bill Jr. suggests that addicts need the chance to "put in a new brain" and do it for themselves, without all the BS and indoctriation that come with most drug treatment facilities. The program Billy was involved with helped small groups of addicts to travel to Alaska and join fishing crews. While playing Eskimo for months he learned to re-acquaint himself with the rhythms of his body, the demands of surviving, and learn what the unpretentious life close to nature can often offer people who have forgotten the basics. (I wonder if programs like this still exist sometimes, ones without any of that "faith based" nonsense.) All told, a great book that any lover of drugs should have a gander at. It is, to my great delight, completely unjudgmental about drugs and their users: he simply decided enough was enough when it was time to.

WSB Jr. is no knock-off or imitation of his father. Equally talented, their styles are vastly different. While I enjoy the work of WSB Sr., his style can be difficult to follow at times. WSB Jr. on the other hand is so direct and matter of fact, it's refreshing. No romanticism, or overt drama. No intellectual or philosophical debates. He just starts to tell his story and does a great job of keeping you engaged and along for the ride. And what a wild ride, albeit tragic, it is.

I love this book and recommend it to everyone. I bought it at an Allen Ginsberg book signing and I had him sign it. What an awesome writer, and how sad these were his only books. Imagine what we've lost. William jr's writing was beautifully poetic and very identifiable. I wanted to find it here to get Xmas presents for all my friends----bah humbug it's not here.

If you like William S. Sr. stories of the streets of NYC you will really dig, Burroughs Jr's tales of living life as a speed junky. The story is real and reads well. Kentucky Ham is a triumph. Perhaps one of the best under rated books I have ever read.