The Western Lands, William S. Burroughs
The Western Lands, William S. Burroughs
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The Western Lands

Author: William S. Burroughs

Narrator: Ray Porter

Unabridged: 8 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/27/2016

Synopsis

Here is the final novel of Burroughs’ Red Night trilogy, available in audio for the first time.A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs’ final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, The Western Lands confirms Burroughs’ status as one of America’s greatest writers. The final novel of the trilogy begun with Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads is a Book of the Dead for the nuclear age, an astonishing, profound, and revealing meditation on morality, loneliness, life, and death.

About William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) was an American author, painter, and spoken-word performer who has had a wide-ranging influence on American culture. Jack Kerouac called him the “greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift.” Norman Mailer declared him “the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius.” A postmodernist and a key figure of the beat generation, he focused his art on a relentless subversion of the moral, political, and economic conventions of modern American society, as reflected in his often darkly humorous and sardonic satire. He wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six short-story collections, and four collections of essays. No fewer than five books of his interviews and correspondence have been published. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. He was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 and in the following year was appointed to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

About Ray Porter

Ray Porter is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator and fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Almost Famous, ER, and Frasier.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Arthur

The Western Lands wraps up the Red Night trilogy with a more involved look at the pilgrimage thereto, intercut with crosscurrents from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and remembrances from the author’s own life, the mass of which merges into a hallucinogenic exploration of the potentialities inherent......more

Goodreads review by John

The final book in the wild and crazy Red Night trilogy by one of America's greatest avant-garde authors. Here are just two quotes from a brilliant book that is full of such musings: “It is inconceivable that Homo sapiens could last another thousand years in present form. People of such great stupidit......more

Goodreads review by Jonfaith

All the filth and horror, fear, hate, disease and death of human history flows between you and the Western Lands. Let it flow! Behind the gonzo is the Menippean and behind that is something earnest. Confessional and deprecating, Burroughs succeeds when he isn't overburdened with toxicology and endles......more

Goodreads review by Mat

Sheer genius. As other reviewers have pointed out, the conclusion to the trilogy is not as sex-charged as the other novels. This is a real masterpiece. The narrative structure uses a blend of Egyptian mythology (Book of the Dead) and the craziness of a not-too-far-off world. Well, let's not hope not......more

Goodreads review by Phillip

William S. Burroughs is one of my visionary writers. That means I believe he did something like what the prophets did at one time. They saw and wrote things that were not entirely comprehensible, but those writings reveal things about life and were usually a critique of society. Other writers I cons......more

Quotes

“Like nothing else being published in the United States today…Burroughs is one of the most ambitious and original novelists working in America…A remarkable piece of sustained narrative invention, a comic meditation on death in the guise of a novel.” New York Times Book Review

“The Western Lands illuminates and puts into perspective the whole body of work of the Grand Iconoclast, who has altered the concept of the novel more powerfully—some would say ‘violently’—than any other writer of his time.” Los Angeles Times

“Burroughs’ visionary power, his comic genius, and his unerring ability to crack the codes that make up the life of this century are undiminished.” Washington Post Book World

“The trilogy…is completed here, and the result is a divine comedy….A significant work on its own merits…Burroughs speaks more directly than usual, sometimes in the guise of old, forgotten novelist William Seward Hall, sometimes forthrightly and freely in his authorial voice. As a result, Burroughs fans will find this narrative vivid, horrifying, beautiful, and sad.” Publishers Weekly

“The title refers to the place in ancient Egyptian mythology where souls journeyed in search of immortality. Characters from Burroughs’ earlier works reappear; the dreamlike prose stylistically a mixture of straight-forward and surrealistic narrative…as Burroughs explores such themes as addiction, mortality, the survival of the species, and the quest for eternal life. Essential for all serious literature collections.” Library Journal

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