Speed

by William S. Burroughs Jr., John Steinbeck Jr. (Foreword)

Book by Burroughs, William S.

Genres: Fiction, Drugs, Novels

170 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

William S. Burroughs III, a.k.a. William S. Burroughs Jr. or Billy Burroughs, was the son of author William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, okay. rarely do the great writers bear children that can muster their handle at the typer. Yes, you have your Amis boys, Dan Fante is making some moves, etc., and maybe maybe William Burroughs, Jr. died leaving just enough behind that we might not discredit it--and, no, he is not his father, but indeed is his father's son (AND his mother's, whom before Bill Sr. put a bullet in her head was shooting the benz out of the old script inhalers WHILE she was pregnant with Bill Jr.--check John Steinbeck, Jr.s afterward to SPEED to get an eclipse of what it might be like to live in the shadow of legacy of the big boys)--but this fucking book left me pleasantly rattled with the nub of a pencil wired down like so much gnawing of the midnight lip from underlining passage after passage after passage--my first impulse was to find out who had the rights so I could bring it back into print, but alas--it is in print as a double w/'Kentucky Ham'. This is one of the few books about the madness of speed that both revels in the manic joys and the worming despairs of the chemical tightrope walker--never falling into the trappings of sentimentality or pity, just like the drug it's a snort of go fast live crazy yes it will be bad but then again just good enough until...

[Wilfriedhoujebek · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the circumstances of his life William Burroughs Jr was 'cursed from birth' and in his first book he details a period in his life. Speed is his drugs and the book has all the emotional emptiness that the drugs brings you. It's a just bit of pulp and Allen Ginsberg's introduction is patriarchal rather than helpful or even with interest. To conservatives 'Speed' is what all the beats were like: empty headed junkies with more dirt than brains. In reality it's almost a parody of beat life. Skid row without redemption.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent, L.E.S drug coming of age book. well written page turner

[Djordy Van Bruwaene · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3,5

Een doodseerlijk, best wel objectief relaas van een speed junkie. Geschreven door de zoon van Burroughs Sr. waardoor ik toch wat schrik had om een flauw afkooksel van zijn schrijfstijl te moeten aanschouwen, wat niet het geval was.

Het is een beetje een nagel in de doodskist voor de "Beat" generatie dit boek, niks wordt verheerlijkt en de afkicks en come-downs, zelfverwaarlozing en losse vriendschappen staan meer in de kijker dan de poëtische elementen van de marginaliteit.

Ik vond wel dat er af en toe wat tè veel personages in het boek voorkwamen en sommige zaken voelden net iets te geforceerd aan wanneer het over het 'toen' ging in plaats van het heden (gebeurde niet zo vaak tho)

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Jr. has his dad's eye for bizarre detail in this Kerouac-y, gritty, stream-of-consciousness account of speed freak life in the time of the hippies.

[Mike Del Vecchio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't great. Writing style is decent. Author admits he lacks identity and a unique voice, throughout-- which makes for a thin read in terms of meaning. This book doesn't make you think, at all.

Drugs are just an escape for the author-- from himself... and this book suffers from endless drug abuse that gets the author and reader nowhere fast. Burroughs Jr. has moments of honesty/humor that are redeeming, but much too sparse compared to the meat of the text-- This book is just a meaningless chase of drugs and description of a self-imposed lifestyle of poverty/abuse.

Kind of reads like a journal a somewhat talented NYU student might write about his exploits. Some pretty good descriptive text at times.

[Hector Camposano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a sort of Catcher in the Rye experience for me. The things you’re driven to when you feel out of place… I have never tried any of the substances mentioned in this novel but you can connect those feelings to just about any other vice, including people. How can something make you feel so horrible and yet serve as an escape? If you know how it’s going to make you feel, why keep coming back? Our identities are a strange things. It would be easier if we were cats.
Burroughs Jr.’s style is incredible. It flows and flows and champions at making you see the world as he witnessed it.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a drug memoir by the son of the legendary William S Burroughs. Burroughs Jr reminds me quite a bit of Dan Fante, himself the son of a famous writer (John Fante). Both sons are wayward and both end up in New York and off their face. Burroughs Jr had an awful life, which is chronicled in the biography Cursed from Birth, and having read this it's easy to see why he died at the age of 34. This isn't bad, but not quite up to the standard of Dan Fante or Charles Bukowski.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Narrative fueled by amphetamines, Burroughs delights in his drug driven depravity -- he rises out of it at the end, as if it were just a walk, an interlude. That the work signifies a sub-culture considered so casually and with such nonchalance frightens me.

[Documentally · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bleak, chaotic ride headlong into addiction and self-destruction.

Outside, a slither of hope at the beginning and the end; it's a harrowing and yet still gripping read. I was waiting for some cathartic lesson highlighting a poignant realization, but it might just be: "Don't do drugs, kids."

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a 3.5. Solid but not exceptional. I enjoyed reading but did it go farther than? Perhaps at times.

[Carl Lavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read, tales of the Village (East and West) before “Rent,” before crack, before AIDS. A dose of Florida, at the start and finish.

[Marius Braunsdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like father like son

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shiver me timbers!I got the shudders after reading this book! Before picking this novel up I was mildly familiar with William S. Burroughs, Jr. but I really only wanted to read it because it was on Buzzfeed's 20 Junkiest Books about Drugs list. And boy oh boy was it junky!

Obviously this book is not for the faint of heart. It is nothing but drugs, drugs, drugs. It is told in the stream of consciousness style that beatnik authors and poets were so fond of and explores a summer spent in New York, bumming around and shooting up whatever could be found cheap. Nothing really matters, not friends, family, food, living quarters, just the drugs. That's what's needed to keep going for days at a time with no sleep or real thoughts. I've read other books on drug use, but this one in particular made me want to take a shower and steer as far away from drugs as humanly possible (not that I ever have any urge to do them, but this is a real reminder and ridiculous badness of them).

For fans of beatnik writing or drug memoirs.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

I, probably like most people who've read this bk, read it b/c it was written by William S. Burroughs' son about drugs & their use & culture, etc. Like father, like son? I remember thinking it was fairly well written. Perhaps he cd've gone on to write many bks. But he didn't, only one more. What did he die of? Liver failure or some such, perhaps - a failure probably related to speed use. What kind of a person names their child after themselves? IMO, an asshole. That's like dooming yr child to being the next version of yrself. & it seems that that's somewhat what the more famous of the Burroughs father & son duo did. Doomed his son to being a drug reporter like himself. But not everybody's cut out for surviving such a lifestyle & Jr. died before his old man did. Still, reading "Speed" is probably just as important as reading his father's "Junkie". Let it be that he lived as intensely as he did so that post-mortem he can be appreciated.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

The son of William Burroughs. He is a better writer, and his drug of choice is not quite as dark as his father's

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing tale of a speed freak and visions of the future.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

He didn't stand a chance, poor guy.

[Tarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way better than his dad.

[Frankie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

fast paced.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colección Narradores de hoy, libro 16.

[Jason Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than a lot of his father's work.