Book description
A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary
Egyptian theology, Burroughs's final novel is poignant and melancholic.
Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer,
The Western Lands
confirms his status as one of America's greatest writers. The final
novel of the trilogy containing Cities of the Red Night
and The Place of Dead Roads
, this is a profound meditation on morality, loneliness, life and death.
William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis. In work
and in life Burroughs expressed a lifelong subversion of the morality,
politics and economics of modern America. To escape those conditions,
and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user,
Burroughs left his homeland in 1950, and soon after began writing. By
the time of his death he was widely recognised as one of the most
politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of
the twentieth century. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky,
Queer, Nova Express, Interzone, The Wild Boys, The Ticket That
Exploded and The Soft Machine
. After living in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London, Burroughs
finally returned to America in 1974. He died in 1997.
