Customer Reviews

William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible : A Portrait

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Miles' biography is intended for the general reader. There is good background on Burroughs' childhood, a good bit of biographical detail throughout, and the book doesn't delve into the written works all too deeply. Being one of three general biographies written about Burroughs, it bears comparing to the books by Ted Morgan and Graham Caveney. Miles' book is not as scholarly or exhaustive as Morgan's book, Literary Outlaw, but is both more scholarly and more exhaustive than Caveney's, Gentleman Junkie. It was written after Literary Outlaw, so there is more information on the Kansas years here, including a chapter entitled "Shotgun Art".

This is a biography intended for a general readership. Miles' familiarity with his subject may make this of interest even to the Burroughs beginner. There is a bibliography of works written by Burroughs (but none about him), and an index.

Miles seems to be Burroughs' biggest fan. This is not a critical appraisal of Burroughs OR his works. At times the writing is very bad. Still, Miles had the advantage of a fascinating subject.

If you haven't read a book about Burroughs before, read Literary Outlaw, by Ted Morgan, and pass this one up.

ken32

This was the first biography of Burroughs I read; I also have the Ted Morgan biography, but I don't think a direct qualitative comparison is possible. While Morgan goes into enormous biographical detail, Miles puts Burroughs' work in central position, and his analyses are really perceptive and thorough, with demonstrative use of passages from the text as well as references to relevant events in Burroughs' life. It is, as other reviewers have said, really the best existing introduction to Burroughs' work - I don't know if I could have made it through the cut-up trilogy without the preparation of reading this book first.

I should also point out that some biographical details are here which are not in Morgan, e.g. the use of real names where Morgan substituted pseudonyms.

This seems to be a good introduction to the life and times of Bill Burroughs. I've read little of Burroughs' works, so I am not one to judge his overall literary merits. I have only read two-thirds of "Cities of the Red Night," which I found to be confusing to the point of being unreadable. I realize, however, that this only touches a tiny bit of Burroughs' output. With difficult authors like Burroughs, I sometimes become more interested in the life of the author, and less interested in his/her works. If this is you, then this book is for you. Here, Miles (Allen Ginsberg) covers Bill Burroughs from birth to death. There's plenty of interesting detail on Burroughs as the sensitive, withdrawn, homosexual youth, more on his years overseas with Ginsberg, Gysin, Kerouac, Bowles, and others, plus a nice wrap up with Burroughs in Kansas. Miles pulls no punches, at once painting Burroughs as a genius, and again as a serious drug addict who would spend hours doing nothing but staring at the tips of his shoes. Miles does a good job of explaining the genesis of many of Burroughs' works, and the odd ways in which they were assembled. Recommended.