Naked Lunch

I am afraid gentle reader that I am not going to read this book, I entered into this book and got to the fourth chapter when I said "Nope, can't do it." There are two reasons, the first is that it is overdue and I do not think that I wish to pay over a dollar for it being turned in late. The second and most pronounced reason is hinted to in the first sentence I wrote. The author, William Burroughs, makes comments, as told by the junkie, "I am afraid gentle reader that though I shouldn't I must explain what I saw." Okay I do not need to read about ___ being stuck into___. I am not a prude I am just not interested in reading it. Maybe if I were younger or on drugs, but I am neither. I am sure it is well written, he seems to have a pretty good concept of what an addled brained drug user might be like. I just do not need to read some of the descriptive passages and there was an entire chapter based on some pretty wild descriptive passages. So whoever has this book next, have fun reading it, but I am on to the next book. Maybe when I get to be an addled brained octogenarian I will try it again.

FINISHED

Okay I have finally finished "A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES" by John Kennedy Toole. This man's real life is so tragic I wonder if this account was somewhat biographical. I am sure he changed it up just a bit, but here is a man who writes a novel, cannot get anyone to read it, puts it into a box and hides it away, then at the age of thirty-two kills himself, his mother finds the manuscript and forces someone to read it and it is published. Now if we look at Ignatius, we find a man who lives with his mother, writes pages and pages of documents explaining his theories and thoughts, who believes that he has great writings which no one will understand, a mother who nags him continuously and does not understand him and who he does not want to see his work, who is on the verge of being put into a insane asylum when he is rescued by a woman he would sooner kill. Ignatius is in his 30's living with his mother, I am not sure that Mr. Toole had the same fate. So it is viewed as a comedy and there are parts that make you want to laugh, but maybe I should have not read about Mr. Toole before reading the book because Ignatius character makes me kind of sad. I think that I relate with the mom in that she wants her son to do well, move out of the house and make something of his education. I would hope that my son would not want live independently. However, unlike the mom I do not drink and bemoan my fate. I am thinking that Ignatius may have had Asperger's syndrome, the reason I say this is that I know some children that have had this and they did not like being touched, they did not like to get their hands dirty and they just burst forth with statements that maybe other people would keep to themselves. So once again I do not find the character funny, but the predicaments he gets himself into that is another story. The whole book is filled with desperate characters trying to make a life for themselves, so as in life some of these failings can be amusing. I agree with the Walker Percy, who wrote the forward in my book, you have make your way into the book in order to become invested into it. I had to hit the halfway mark in order to want to finish the book. I could why it may have been a hard sell, if the publisher only read the first chapter or two. IT gets better, would I put it on my top 100 list -no.

DRAT

I went on vacation and I forgot "THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES", now I have to read fast, because "THE NAKED LUNCH" is due back at the library this week. That is unless I want to help maintain the library with an overdue book. Has anyone else noticed that the overdue book fine has become rather expensive? It used to be around .50 cents a month, now depending on how popular the book is you can get charged $1.00/ day. Yikes. So you can see why I need to get these books back to the library, which means tonight I will have to finish "THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES" tonight. I do feel now that I got to know the characters better the book is somewhat humorous. But I am close to the end so we will see how it goes and I keep thinking how would these characters be portrayed now. There are some things in the story I find interesting and will see how the book turns out to see if I can tie it in with todays dilemmas.

Crazy Story

Still in the midst of the book "CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES." It is rather interesting and I really should pick the book up again and just finish it. However, the list of crazy characters and there interconnections could go on forever, so suffice it to say I am at a loss on how best to describe it. I will finish hopefully this week and then give you a synopsis of the story and if it has redeeming qualities. After I finish this book I will be starting "THE NAKED LUNCH", drugs and the underbelly of society, yeah for me.