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Speed and Kentucky Ham
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA
381 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
39 people are currently reading
746 people want to read
About the author
William S. Burroughs
449 books7,027 followersWilliam Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
May 2, 2024
Two short novels under one cover - that's almost the entirety of Billy Burroughs Jr.'s legacy. It's autobiographical prose - a snapshot of the time following the Beat Generation.
The story of Billy Burroughs Jr.'s life is tragic. He is the son of William Burroughs and Joan Vollmer. About three years before Billy Jr.'s birth, Burroughs Sr. first tried morphine and soon became addicted to heroin; at the same time, Joan became addicted to Benzedrine. During a party, Burroughs Sr. announced to guests that he would shoot a gun "in the style of William Tell," his wife placed a glass on her head, and the writer, in a state of severe alcohol intoxication, accidentally killed her. Many years later, Billy Jr. would say that he witnessed what happened...
After this incident, Billy was sent to live with his grandmother indefinitely. Once, along with one of his school friends, Billy hitchhiked to New York. He recounted this trip in his first book Speed (1970) , alternating descriptions of city movements with drug adventures. It's a very personal, almost diary-like letter, which I love for its simplicity and honesty. Eventually, Billy found himself in a Brooklyn juvenile detention center for the first time.
After another arrest, instead of prison, Billy was sent to compulsory treatment at the Federal Medical Center in Kentucky. A significant part of his second novel Kentucky Ham (1973) is dedicated to his time in this correctional facility.
Billy lived only 33 years, writing two completed novels. Both works are based solely on his memories, thoughts, and reflections. And that's the most valuable aspect of his books.
The story of Billy Burroughs Jr.'s life is tragic. He is the son of William Burroughs and Joan Vollmer. About three years before Billy Jr.'s birth, Burroughs Sr. first tried morphine and soon became addicted to heroin; at the same time, Joan became addicted to Benzedrine. During a party, Burroughs Sr. announced to guests that he would shoot a gun "in the style of William Tell," his wife placed a glass on her head, and the writer, in a state of severe alcohol intoxication, accidentally killed her. Many years later, Billy Jr. would say that he witnessed what happened...
After this incident, Billy was sent to live with his grandmother indefinitely. Once, along with one of his school friends, Billy hitchhiked to New York. He recounted this trip in his first book Speed (1970) , alternating descriptions of city movements with drug adventures. It's a very personal, almost diary-like letter, which I love for its simplicity and honesty. Eventually, Billy found himself in a Brooklyn juvenile detention center for the first time.
After another arrest, instead of prison, Billy was sent to compulsory treatment at the Federal Medical Center in Kentucky. A significant part of his second novel Kentucky Ham (1973) is dedicated to his time in this correctional facility.
Billy lived only 33 years, writing two completed novels. Both works are based solely on his memories, thoughts, and reflections. And that's the most valuable aspect of his books.
July 16, 2007
On most days, I consider this my favorite book of all time. It's actually two short novels published together--the only complete works of William S. Burroughs Jr., son of the late great grandaddy of the Beat generation, who only lived 31 years, much of it in a great deal of pain. They're autobiographical, simultaneously hilarious, tragic, sweet and horrible, mainly about narcotic addiction and withdrawal and re-addiction and more withdrawal and jail and more withdrawal and, eventually, the ultimate withdrawal. I first purchased it because he talks a lot of very personal detail about his famous father, who was my favorite Beat author, but it took less than a chapter for me to fall head-over-heels for Billy Jr. It's very personal, journal-style writing which, if done well, is my favorite kind of writing...and this is, hands down, the best I've ever read.
January 9, 2013
Billy Burroughs Jr's life was tragic and frantic, but he certainly inherited his dad's writing skills. Burroughs Jr. only completed two full novels in his short lifetime and was working on his third when he passed. What he had written for Prakriti Junction, his third novel, was used to put together a book called 'Cursed from Birth'.
In Speed, Burroughs Jr. describes in harrowing detail his 'descent' into full-fledge amphetamine addiction in New York. It's amazing the lengths that he would go to just to score. When I read sections about him shooting up speed, it reminded me of a good friend from university who used to snort the stuff before heading off to a nightclub to a salsa dance lesson. There is something incredibly raw and enticing about his first novel and it is a real page-turner.
His second novel, Kentucky Ham, more or less picks up from where he left off, but sometime later down the track. Although the narrative flow of Speed is more consistent, what immediately strikes the reader when you read Kentucky Ham is a more mature, deep-thinking writer. There are many 'tangents' throughout the story (for example, at one point Billy has to stop typing to squash a tarantula crawling around in his hut or something!) and while some may find that this interrupts from the flow of the story, I actually found it interesting. There is much more philosophy and words of caution from Billy, especially towards the end of the book, which never comes across as 'preachy' thank God.
His vignettes (characters sketches) of people he met at the drug rehab hospital in Lexington, Kentucky do remind you to some degree of his father's sketches of heroin addicts in Junky. And both father and son both seem interested in the macabre, although senior was obsessed with it.
So in the end I actually enjoyed Kentucky Ham more as I thought it was a more mature work from a 'wiser' (?) writer who already sounded a bit world-weary even in his early 30s.
It is quite sad that he passed away so young because he obviously had immense talent. One cannot help but wonder how things might have turned out had he had a more 'normal' upbringing by his mother and father which was not possible because his mother was dead (killed in the infamous William Tell incident in Mexico) and his father was a junky busy working on his masterpiece Nake Lunch over in Tangiers.
Incidentally, I found the sections in Kentucky Ham about Tangiers very interesting, especially the story about Gregory Corso who ran around calling Burroughs' love Ian Sommerville a 'poisoner' after consuming some bad majoun which made everyone sick.
I read one review on this book which stated that his dad's friends tried to 'rape' him - this is not true, although they were definitely trying to seduce him.
The last third of the book is brilliant beginning with his trip to Alaska to clean up a boat and work on a skiff trying to catch salmon. During this period Billy is 'clean' (i.e. not doing any drugs) and if you didn't know what happened to him later you might believe that he is going to escape his addictions and clean up and get better. But alas, as he points out, the only way to cure a junk addict is to "put in a new brain" because the chemicals become so hard-wired into the system they irrevocably become part of his physiology.
Overall, a fantastic read. I actually want to give this book 4.5 stars - 4 stars for Speed and 5 stars for Kentucky Ham. These books along with Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch and the Cities of the Red Night Trilogy by Burroughs Sr. are some of the rawest, most honest and painfully real accounts of drug affliction in the 20th Century. Highly recommended for fans of Burroughs Sr. or for anyone who likes to read raw, gripping prose.
In Speed, Burroughs Jr. describes in harrowing detail his 'descent' into full-fledge amphetamine addiction in New York. It's amazing the lengths that he would go to just to score. When I read sections about him shooting up speed, it reminded me of a good friend from university who used to snort the stuff before heading off to a nightclub to a salsa dance lesson. There is something incredibly raw and enticing about his first novel and it is a real page-turner.
His second novel, Kentucky Ham, more or less picks up from where he left off, but sometime later down the track. Although the narrative flow of Speed is more consistent, what immediately strikes the reader when you read Kentucky Ham is a more mature, deep-thinking writer. There are many 'tangents' throughout the story (for example, at one point Billy has to stop typing to squash a tarantula crawling around in his hut or something!) and while some may find that this interrupts from the flow of the story, I actually found it interesting. There is much more philosophy and words of caution from Billy, especially towards the end of the book, which never comes across as 'preachy' thank God.
His vignettes (characters sketches) of people he met at the drug rehab hospital in Lexington, Kentucky do remind you to some degree of his father's sketches of heroin addicts in Junky. And both father and son both seem interested in the macabre, although senior was obsessed with it.
So in the end I actually enjoyed Kentucky Ham more as I thought it was a more mature work from a 'wiser' (?) writer who already sounded a bit world-weary even in his early 30s.
It is quite sad that he passed away so young because he obviously had immense talent. One cannot help but wonder how things might have turned out had he had a more 'normal' upbringing by his mother and father which was not possible because his mother was dead (killed in the infamous William Tell incident in Mexico) and his father was a junky busy working on his masterpiece Nake Lunch over in Tangiers.
Incidentally, I found the sections in Kentucky Ham about Tangiers very interesting, especially the story about Gregory Corso who ran around calling Burroughs' love Ian Sommerville a 'poisoner' after consuming some bad majoun which made everyone sick.
I read one review on this book which stated that his dad's friends tried to 'rape' him - this is not true, although they were definitely trying to seduce him.
The last third of the book is brilliant beginning with his trip to Alaska to clean up a boat and work on a skiff trying to catch salmon. During this period Billy is 'clean' (i.e. not doing any drugs) and if you didn't know what happened to him later you might believe that he is going to escape his addictions and clean up and get better. But alas, as he points out, the only way to cure a junk addict is to "put in a new brain" because the chemicals become so hard-wired into the system they irrevocably become part of his physiology.
Overall, a fantastic read. I actually want to give this book 4.5 stars - 4 stars for Speed and 5 stars for Kentucky Ham. These books along with Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch and the Cities of the Red Night Trilogy by Burroughs Sr. are some of the rawest, most honest and painfully real accounts of drug affliction in the 20th Century. Highly recommended for fans of Burroughs Sr. or for anyone who likes to read raw, gripping prose.
July 24, 2009
Speed is a smartly-worded novel about psychic frontiers. Kentucky Ham is great in places too, begins really well but suffers from the imposition of a diary-entries style in the Alaska part. But that's alright. Billy Burroughs' reputation as a writer is unfortunately eclipsed by the extent of his father's fame as Ur-Beat. I'll admit Burroughs Sr. is an excellent essayist, but I never really dug the cut-up method, speaking as a reader. After Burroughs Sr. shoots Billy's mother in a game of William Tell when he's three, he is sent to live with his grandparents in Florida and separated from his father for most of his formative years. After becoming addicted to speed as a teen in the late 1960s, he goes to Lexington, KY for rehab then to Alaska on a therapeutic expedition as part of an experimental school. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
August 30, 2013
I still have mixed feelings about this one. Speed was fun to read, perhaps because the author was in the thralls of drug use while writing it. Kentucky Ham? It was clear the author was sober when he wrote it, if anything because of his sudden coherency.
Not to say that's bad.. it was just different.
In Kentucky Ham I enjoyed everything up until the author left the rehab facility. I didn't even fully understand how the transition from rehab center to Alaskan fisherman happened so quickly... Suddenly I found myself reading about day to day tasks on a fishing boat, which was boring compared to life inside a rehabilitation prison.
I found myself drawn more to Speed because of it's romantic adolescent idealizations than I did Kentucky Ham.
Either way, I can see how Ginsberg labeled the author as the last of the Beat writers. I would recommend if you enjoy the Beat Generation, William Burroughs Sr, Alan Ginsberg, or Jack Kerouac.
Not to say that's bad.. it was just different.
In Kentucky Ham I enjoyed everything up until the author left the rehab facility. I didn't even fully understand how the transition from rehab center to Alaskan fisherman happened so quickly... Suddenly I found myself reading about day to day tasks on a fishing boat, which was boring compared to life inside a rehabilitation prison.
I found myself drawn more to Speed because of it's romantic adolescent idealizations than I did Kentucky Ham.
Either way, I can see how Ginsberg labeled the author as the last of the Beat writers. I would recommend if you enjoy the Beat Generation, William Burroughs Sr, Alan Ginsberg, or Jack Kerouac.
July 18, 2007
This is one of my favorite books. It was introduced to me by beautiful Kerstin on a hot summer day in Naples, Italy. I remember her reading me snippets and me being glued to them. I stopped by a Barnes and Noble upon returning to the U.S., I read it, and I reread it, and then reread it some more. It's all that Kerstin says it is. I love it because it reminds me of Kerstin too. You kind of get a contact high off of reading it though, so don't read it in church or anything like that because people will think you're coming down off some hard shit.
September 7, 2008
SPEED is by far the preferred work here, although KH contains some wild sentences. This really does read like Holden Caulfield on crystal meth, and I'm pretty sure WSB Jr. knew that. His life story is absolutely tragic, but the writing here shows a truly original flair for humor, observation, syntax, and persona. It is erroneous to consider his life, as it so often has been, as a miserable waste and one of the blackest marks in the saga of the Burroughs name. It certainly was not a bright spot, but "the kid had it," and this is just about the sole document.
September 6, 2007
ugh. Not cool, and definitely not deep. Maybe I would have gotten a sick pleasure from reading these books when I was a teenager, but now they just seem dirty, gross, and unenlightened.
January 29, 2008
If you think Britney Spears is having a bad day/week/month/year/life… take a bite into this memoir and you’ll think Britney is living on easy street. This is gritty and powerful.
June 16, 2012
Speed is a seemingly honest account of Burroughs autobiographical characters descent into drug abuse. Fast paced prose make for a quick and entertaining read. The narrative is consistent in its pace and tone. Kentucky Ham is written in a more standard style consistent with the authors more "normal" state of mind while recovering (presumably).Though towards the end it seems that the author is struggling to fill pages. At one point he is in AK fishing then he is in Georgia and married after AK then he jumps back to the AK experience. A little confusing but enjoyable nonetheless.
He also starts preaching a bit about his world views , dropping "truth bombs" and doing a little finger pointing. His tone would have bugged me had I not agreed with him.
Overall an interesting view into one mans world. Even if the reader can't relate to drug abuse and it's physical perils, everyone can relate to the feeling it creates. Loneliness. Painful agonizing loneliness. A pain the author seems to learn to overcome at the end of the story, too bad that was probably the only part that was fiction.
He also starts preaching a bit about his world views , dropping "truth bombs" and doing a little finger pointing. His tone would have bugged me had I not agreed with him.
Overall an interesting view into one mans world. Even if the reader can't relate to drug abuse and it's physical perils, everyone can relate to the feeling it creates. Loneliness. Painful agonizing loneliness. A pain the author seems to learn to overcome at the end of the story, too bad that was probably the only part that was fiction.
February 23, 2008
Jr does it almost as well as his father. Drug addiction is the center of the story. Scoring, rehab, dread, shit life, arrests, court, crying women. Jr thinks subway tracks and trees are trying to attack him, just like his father with his typewriter. This is one of those books where the persons life is so bad it makes me proud of mine. There's a lot of dread - waiting for the next bad thing to happen - Then when it does, it's not so bad. Just another bump in the road. Nothing matters anyways - it's just life.
August 11, 2008
Easy to read. Which, having slight brain damage, is always important for me. Writes like his dad did in his "autobiographical" novels ("Junky" and "Queer") and, for us Gen-X wasters, there are plenty of recognisable sign-posts along his drug-addled, washed out motorway. A touch too much like reading his diary sometimes, but worth a look, if only for the genetic antecedent curiosity value of seeing if he got any of Bill Lee's wonky talent.
April 15, 2008
poor billy....probably murdered by Burroughs' conman assistant.
June 6, 2009
a great read, loved every page, different than his brilliant father, but a wonderful writer in his own right, shame he died not knowing...
March 17, 2018
Written by the son of the illustrious author of Naked Lunch, this is a foray into his personal experiences in speed addiction and various other criminal activities. His father, Burroughs Sr., famously shot his wife in the head in Mexico, during the drunken game of William Tell. The author, four at the time, was in the room. This is a collection of two book, written in the 60s and 70s, repackaged here after his death in 1981 from liver failure, caused by (surprise surprise) drug and alcohol abuse. They are not bad reads, but you have to ask yourself if you want to commit to 363 straight pages of drug talk.
In Speed we see him trying to follow in his father’s footsteps style wise. It is reminiscent of Burroughs’s own drug autobiography Junkie, however he might have been too influenced by the book as he hasn’t quite found his own voice here. He attempts to create a speed-freak atmosphere about the entire novel. It is very fast, with the world a whirlwind of drugs, being busted, shooting up, half remembered people, shooting galleries, not eating, not sleeping for weeks, filth everywhere and brutal cops.
With this last one I relate to the police having spent too much of my personal life around chronic alcoholics and junkies, I can certainly understand any cop’s no-bullshit attitude towards them. The author doesn’t take my view. Writing about a narcotic detective, he states about the cop’s attitude “does this sound like the kind of man who is dedicating his life to alleviating the self-destruction of others?” This is wracked with irony, considering how he died and I couldn’t help but reflect, “Junkie alleviate thyself.”
The story revolves around his trip from Florida to New York to visit some friends and explore the drug scene which was thriving in the late 1960s at the time. Unlike his father, who tended to shy away from personal autobiographical accounts, Burroughs Jr. seems to be one of those writers who can only talk about themselves. Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s done well. He doesn’t talk himself up, occasionally castigates himself, but shrugs it off with a “this is how is was” attitude.
Alan Ginsberg shows up in here, simply referred to as Alan, to bail him out of prison several times (3 arrests, no convictions). He didn’t seem to make much of an impression on the author. Appearing in the periphery, chastising the author on his decisions (not unwisely), and offering much unheeded advice on life, politics, and philosophy- which the writer promptly forgot. One odd snippet dealing with Ginsburg is apparently he offered to show the author a morgue picture of his mother with the bullet hole prominently showing. The author declined.
With Kentucky Ham he tries to take on a more hipster tone (60s hipster that is) constantly throwing in old slang terms that severely dates the work. The only times you see similar things nowadays is when someone is mocking that decade and its youthful generation. “Look out here you young cats.” It hampered my taking the book seriously.
We see more of his immortal father in this tome. He goes to Tangier to live with him at the age of thirteen and delves deep into the drug lifestyle, beginning with hashish. In the afterword by Burroughs senior, he says as if he is confused by them not becoming closer. From the text that’s because the senior was stoned all of the time. You can be a parent or a junkie, but not both.
It then flashes forward to Burroughs Jr. getting arrested for forging prescriptions and his internment in a federal narcotics hospital, him juking the system, and then going to work on a fishing boat in Alaska. Bringing him back to the points that you can’t make a junkie give up the habit if they don’t want to.
What I liked about these books is that the author doesn’t glamourize the 60s drug scene. The bad living conditions, the thieves, diseases, and the degradation is put on full display. It also apparent that he loved the drug lifestyle. He may lament a few decisions, but it’s clear that he had the time of his life. Many people fretted over him, but he blew them all off.
On the other hand he often makes half-assed rote counter-culture blurbs about American society and the police, which is mostly cribbed from his father’s opinions. Boiled down it is mostly him complaining that he couldn’t get high all of the time, get all the drugs he wanted for free, and was arrested when he did something illegal. No matter where and when he might’ve grown up, it seems that he would have been biologically destined to be a substance abuser and bottom out on life.
In Speed we see him trying to follow in his father’s footsteps style wise. It is reminiscent of Burroughs’s own drug autobiography Junkie, however he might have been too influenced by the book as he hasn’t quite found his own voice here. He attempts to create a speed-freak atmosphere about the entire novel. It is very fast, with the world a whirlwind of drugs, being busted, shooting up, half remembered people, shooting galleries, not eating, not sleeping for weeks, filth everywhere and brutal cops.
With this last one I relate to the police having spent too much of my personal life around chronic alcoholics and junkies, I can certainly understand any cop’s no-bullshit attitude towards them. The author doesn’t take my view. Writing about a narcotic detective, he states about the cop’s attitude “does this sound like the kind of man who is dedicating his life to alleviating the self-destruction of others?” This is wracked with irony, considering how he died and I couldn’t help but reflect, “Junkie alleviate thyself.”
The story revolves around his trip from Florida to New York to visit some friends and explore the drug scene which was thriving in the late 1960s at the time. Unlike his father, who tended to shy away from personal autobiographical accounts, Burroughs Jr. seems to be one of those writers who can only talk about themselves. Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s done well. He doesn’t talk himself up, occasionally castigates himself, but shrugs it off with a “this is how is was” attitude.
Alan Ginsberg shows up in here, simply referred to as Alan, to bail him out of prison several times (3 arrests, no convictions). He didn’t seem to make much of an impression on the author. Appearing in the periphery, chastising the author on his decisions (not unwisely), and offering much unheeded advice on life, politics, and philosophy- which the writer promptly forgot. One odd snippet dealing with Ginsburg is apparently he offered to show the author a morgue picture of his mother with the bullet hole prominently showing. The author declined.
With Kentucky Ham he tries to take on a more hipster tone (60s hipster that is) constantly throwing in old slang terms that severely dates the work. The only times you see similar things nowadays is when someone is mocking that decade and its youthful generation. “Look out here you young cats.” It hampered my taking the book seriously.
We see more of his immortal father in this tome. He goes to Tangier to live with him at the age of thirteen and delves deep into the drug lifestyle, beginning with hashish. In the afterword by Burroughs senior, he says as if he is confused by them not becoming closer. From the text that’s because the senior was stoned all of the time. You can be a parent or a junkie, but not both.
It then flashes forward to Burroughs Jr. getting arrested for forging prescriptions and his internment in a federal narcotics hospital, him juking the system, and then going to work on a fishing boat in Alaska. Bringing him back to the points that you can’t make a junkie give up the habit if they don’t want to.
What I liked about these books is that the author doesn’t glamourize the 60s drug scene. The bad living conditions, the thieves, diseases, and the degradation is put on full display. It also apparent that he loved the drug lifestyle. He may lament a few decisions, but it’s clear that he had the time of his life. Many people fretted over him, but he blew them all off.
On the other hand he often makes half-assed rote counter-culture blurbs about American society and the police, which is mostly cribbed from his father’s opinions. Boiled down it is mostly him complaining that he couldn’t get high all of the time, get all the drugs he wanted for free, and was arrested when he did something illegal. No matter where and when he might’ve grown up, it seems that he would have been biologically destined to be a substance abuser and bottom out on life.
November 25, 2017
i've been a fan of his old man for about 40 years, owning and having read 25 odd of his books and considering him to be a giant in literature and in culture (but obviously not of parenting!), have always let this book pass me by in the belief that there wouldn't be much for me here! well, a copy fell into my lap, and i don't mind being proved wrong, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the work and the fact that stylistically, at any rate, burroughs jnr. veers well clear of his father's mode of prose . at least, he does in 'speed'. there's more evidence of his father's style in 'kentucky ham', which is by far the darker of the two novels, but sits well with the light feel of the former. when i say light, i mean that there is always an optimism and the possibility of a liberating salvation as we approach the outcome. 'kentucky ham' is bereft of this, and a foreboding oblivion is apparent the deeper into his own personal mire he sinks. it is, also by far, the better written of the two, although i understand that it was a struggle for him to finish. his final writings, although he was unsatisfied with them appear as part of the biography, 'cursed from birth' (if ever there was an appropriate title!)
'speed' is an imaginatively written account of a methedrine drenched sojourn to new york, and illustrates perfectly the low-life existence of the addict in those times, mibbe a bit like 'junkie' jnr in theme, but a perfectly valid slice of counter-culture literature. sits well beside better known and more celebrated works. in the manner of storytelling he is his father's son, just not sharing a style in this volume.
'kentucky ham' details his careless bust for falsifying scripts, the trial and subsequent entrance to 'lexington' for re-hab, and is a much bleaker read, the hope for redemption diminishing continually. shadows of burroughs snr, both in the story and in the style it is written, become more apparent, as he attempts to do the right things for his son.
the tale of billy's sad existence is better left to other sources, but his legacy in these two fine autobiographical novels more than finds it's place in the history of the american counter-culture!
'speed' is an imaginatively written account of a methedrine drenched sojourn to new york, and illustrates perfectly the low-life existence of the addict in those times, mibbe a bit like 'junkie' jnr in theme, but a perfectly valid slice of counter-culture literature. sits well beside better known and more celebrated works. in the manner of storytelling he is his father's son, just not sharing a style in this volume.
'kentucky ham' details his careless bust for falsifying scripts, the trial and subsequent entrance to 'lexington' for re-hab, and is a much bleaker read, the hope for redemption diminishing continually. shadows of burroughs snr, both in the story and in the style it is written, become more apparent, as he attempts to do the right things for his son.
the tale of billy's sad existence is better left to other sources, but his legacy in these two fine autobiographical novels more than finds it's place in the history of the american counter-culture!
March 11, 2024
Most beat generation books seem to get worse and worse the older you get and the more you re-read them but I think this one holds up alright. The style of Speed bounces around the extremes of stimulant abuse in a mostly enjoyable way; the highs are fun and hopeful without feeling self-aggrandizing, and the lows are depressing and self-effacing without feeling preachy.
Having read numerous books spanning multiple decades all presenting different versions of new york as some kind of once in a lifetime convergence of palpable energy and creative camaraderie, Burroughs Jr's take of "my buddy writes shitty poetry and sells even shittier meth I think he's Awesome and you just might run into him if you're in town" is funny and weirdly light-hearted for how bleak the whole setting is.
Especially considering that it's roughly concurrent with Kerouac doing his whole "I'm not a beatnik, I'm a catholic" thing, this book is both kind of riding the coattails of the beat generation's initial offerings, yet also rises above them in seeing that the whole lifestyle failed to live up to whatever it was supposed to be, and pokes fun at itself for it. Overall does a really solid job recreating what made On The Road and Junkie so exciting to read for the first time, while feeling self-aware enough to not feel bad for still enjoying it at my big age.
Having read numerous books spanning multiple decades all presenting different versions of new york as some kind of once in a lifetime convergence of palpable energy and creative camaraderie, Burroughs Jr's take of "my buddy writes shitty poetry and sells even shittier meth I think he's Awesome and you just might run into him if you're in town" is funny and weirdly light-hearted for how bleak the whole setting is.
Especially considering that it's roughly concurrent with Kerouac doing his whole "I'm not a beatnik, I'm a catholic" thing, this book is both kind of riding the coattails of the beat generation's initial offerings, yet also rises above them in seeing that the whole lifestyle failed to live up to whatever it was supposed to be, and pokes fun at itself for it. Overall does a really solid job recreating what made On The Road and Junkie so exciting to read for the first time, while feeling self-aware enough to not feel bad for still enjoying it at my big age.
August 14, 2017
I was prepared to not like this book - it's been on my shelf since I took a Beat course in college. What really impressed me was the intensity of Burroughs Jr's personality coming through his prose and the clean economy of his descriptions. I generally prefer books with some kind of plot progression, but only a few pages in I was content to just let Billy tell me what he was seeing, because he does it so well.
August 24, 2023
I did not enjoy this book that much. Sometimes, it feels like there's no point to what he's writing. The guy is on speed, and I don't care. I mean there were times where I felt his desire to obtain it and the toll it has on his life, but for some reason, this just didn't click that great with me. Maybe in the future, I will try reading it again, but for now, was not a huge fan. I think I could see why people would enjoy it though.
October 7, 2022
Speed was great, Kentucky Ham was great until it devolved into laziness and a full on admission that he was trying to finish the book in four days to send to the publisher. Love that! But in all seriousness this was a mighty sad story and it's a shame Burroughs Jr. died so young. He lived through a lot to be able to write these at 21.
December 10, 2017
An emotional book, and his writing is much better than his father.
November 6, 2018
Def a new favorite
December 20, 2019
Really poignant, a fascinating insight into a short and tragic life.
October 18, 2020
Surprisingly good novels from Burroughs’ star-crossed son.
August 3, 2023
There is an immense sadness of a wasted life contained in these pages.
June 28, 2025
Perfect
Read
January 28, 2017Would You Believe (?)Department:Young Billy and I were locked up in the same god-awful institution( never mind which one)and I know for a fact that he was one never to back down from a challenge.
This place where we had 50 psychos to small room (largely Puerto Ricans being fed Phenobarbital.Window with no screens,no nothin' kept wide open,you could get thrown out an this was the 6th floor.Ninety degrees out in summer and the radiators are kept on full blast.That's OK,they're turned off in the winter.It was 1970 and a big bully grabs Blly by the collar.Billy responds by grabbing his and sort of jumping up and down till Mr.Big takes the hint and splits.I can't disparage anyone with those cajones.
This place where we had 50 psychos to small room (largely Puerto Ricans being fed Phenobarbital.Window with no screens,no nothin' kept wide open,you could get thrown out an this was the 6th floor.Ninety degrees out in summer and the radiators are kept on full blast.That's OK,they're turned off in the winter.It was 1970 and a big bully grabs Blly by the collar.Billy responds by grabbing his and sort of jumping up and down till Mr.Big takes the hint and splits.I can't disparage anyone with those cajones.
April 3, 2023
Speed is better than Kentucky ham
The writing in speed is impeccable, with rhyme and misspelt words to change the sound "wise watery eyes"
Kerouac lonely traveler voice - done far better than kerouac
Holden caufield, excellent creation of youth
Last part of Kentucky ham full of filler, seems unrelated but none the less interesting
Scenes connected with family work well - seeing his dying grandmother for the last time
The writing in speed is impeccable, with rhyme and misspelt words to change the sound "wise watery eyes"
Kerouac lonely traveler voice - done far better than kerouac
Holden caufield, excellent creation of youth
Last part of Kentucky ham full of filler, seems unrelated but none the less interesting
Scenes connected with family work well - seeing his dying grandmother for the last time
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2007
i read this book back in high school. i don't even remember how it fell into my hands but I was really into it. it's kinda sad but the characters are depicted in such a way that makes you just feel like you know them! Drugstore Cowboy in a book but probably better! i will have to look it up again b/c i don't really remember how it ended. it's been more than 10 yrs.
May 24, 2008
This is essentially two books, but it reads as one, so I am glad it has been combined. I read it in college, then again in my late 20s. It's a more recent version of "On the Road," but more beat than "Less Than Zero." If you are into coming of age Train Wrecks, then this is an excellent read.
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