With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker (Paperback)

~ Victor Bockris (Author)
Key Phrases: New York, William Burroughs, Naked Lunch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Burroughs, the eccentric, brilliant artist who burned the bridge with logic and wrote the classic Naked Lunch, has a court recorder in Victor Bockris. Bockris has collected into a cogent whole the man's most brilliant moments of conversation, thinking, and interview repartee. This fascinating material, gleaned from the fertile time at Burroughs's New York headquarters, the Bunker (which was located on the Bowery, three blocks from CBGB), encompasses the years 1974 to 1980, and also includes a 1991 Burroughs interview from Interview magazine. The Beats' devotion to subjective experience has left readers with a profound amount of objective material to analyze and debate. Choice public and private utterances, hallucinatory and prescient diatribes such as these, remain rich sources of literary history. As Americans we find the Beats' approach to life romantic, even heroic. Tearing the walls down in the name of freedom and spirituality strikes a particularly pilgrimesque chord. With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker is a fascinating compendium of Burroughs-speak, so complete it can be considered a credo.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Rev Sub edition (November 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312147678
• ISBN-13: 978-0312147679
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,002,729 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The New York years, May 13, 2004

By	SPM "scott_maykrantz" (Eugene, Oregon) - See all my reviews

In the second half of the 1970s, William Burroughs lived in a converted gymnasium in New York City. Dubbed 'the Bunker' (because it had no windows), he lived comfortably, working on Cities of the Red Night with his assistant, James. Victor Bockris was one of many people in Burroughs' social circle at the time, and he decided to document the Bunker years with this book of interviews.

The results are interesting only if you are a Burroughs fan. This is a portrait of a genius surrounded by his not-so-smart celebrity friends. Burroughs spends his time politely tolerating the presence of these people. His friends don't really get it, however --- they think "Bill" is here to have a big party, and they go on and on about their lives, asking him inane questions, while he waits for his chance to say something intelligent. He always comes across as thoughtful, someone who knows more than anyone else in the room. That's the best part of the book, when Burroughs gets an extended monologue on any subject.

But those monologues are too rare to justify reading this book. The interviews just don't dig very deep. You'll learn a lot more about Burroughs' cooking habits and his hobby of collecting canes (for self-defense against muggers) than you do about his ideas. If you've read everything else by --- and about --- Burroughs, you might enjoy this. But you would do better reading Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine, and Ted Morgan's biography..

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars rediscover burroughs, May 15, 1999

By A Customer

I picked this book up after reading a few other biograpies by Bockris, and, although I can say that I am bored by Burroughs the writer, I am facinated by Burroughs the man. Always interesting and funny, you don't have to be a fan of William Burroughs' writing to be intrigued by his personality and intelligence.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the man who is the sharpest knife in the drawer..., January 28, 1997

By A Customer

The usual cold-fish attitude so closely associated with Burroughs is bowled over by a brilliant, funny-funny man who, through some divine intervention is seemingly unaffected by his "habits". This book is far better than a biography written by some wanna-be author who ran out the day before the interview and bought Naked Lunch. Observe the happenings and processes Burroughs goes through during his creative process and revel in the true glory of Bill Burroughs