The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

I liked this, kind of a lot. That is, I was expecting to love it, so my experience of discovery while reading this book was compromised. Although Murakami is widely read and liked in the Western world, I feel that his writing is thoroughly Japanese...within this bizarrely amusing (and quite accessable) story set in a quaint modern Tokyo, are fragments of a more profound level of Japanese culture...symbols and ideas that have come up in my explorations of Zen and Butoh. Many interesting things are tied together. Ultimately, it's a book that provokes a good deal of spiritual thought, and often through very viscerally disturbing passages. I cringed more than a few times, and I don't cringe often while reading. In the end, I think it's worth the effort.

Queer (William S. Burroughs)

This early Burroughs is so incredibly different from his later work. It seems as if the death of his wife was the event that totally shattered his existence and plunged him into the black hole of a world that ended up spitting out Naked Lunch and everything he wrote afterwards. His style in this book gives the impression of being not quite Burroughs, although here and there are definite glimpses of the later style. The narrative is very straight forward, and really feels more like an autobiography than a novel. A very easy read, with an interesting introduction by the author that puts the whole thing into perspective. It's really about the emotional vulnerability experienced by the ex-junky in the absence of junk, and so (I imagine) it's very appropriate as a sequel to his first novel, Junky.

The Western Lands (William S. Burroughs)

The final piece of the puzzle is, contrary to what you might expect, or at least hope, the least coherent of the three. The aftermath of the shootout leaves Joe the dead, a strange kind of anti-hero, and clears the way for a new, seemingly unrelated (or reincarnated) character, Neferti. I couldn't help picturing this character as an ancient Egyptian, which seemed appropriate given the intense exploration of Egyptian beliefs of the transmigration of souls in this book. Actually, that is sort of what the book is all about. I think the Western Lands (or the afterlife) must represent a safe haven from the oppressive force of time, and from persecution by the "shits" of the world. Framed by a set of bookend accounts of an old, dried out writer, this book is ultimately very bitter and pessimistic. Failure, burnout, and no hope for the future.

Place of Dead Roads (William S. Burroughs)

The second in the Red Night Trilogy, and sort of illuminating, sort of confusing. Definitely not as coherent as Cities of the Red Night, but still better than Naked Lunch in this respect. The character of Kim is introduced, and seems to be a reincarnation of the two main characters from the first book. He is clearly a hero of sorts: the leader of the "Johnsons," the group of decent people who will be called upon to fight the forces of organized religion and the universal tyranny of time. This installment is a Western shoot out extravaganza that transforms into space odyssey and falls apart into poetic chaos: this is what Burroughs does best.

Class Trip (Emmanuel Carrere)

A novella by a contemporary French writer- the one who wrote La Moustache, which was recently adapted into a very nice film. Class Trip was engaging and effective, but nothing too very special in the end.

Tropical Night Falling (Manuel Puig)

This book convinces me that Puig as a writer is really more dramatic than writerly. He excels at creating characters that shine and demand to be cared for, and it seems his writing consists mostly of impartial records of the things these characters say: dialogues, letters, etc. There is no narrative voice except for the voices of those being observed by no one in particular. This is refreshing, and allows for deeper involvement in the actual raw story. I read somewhere (and I think this is true) that Puig's writing often concerns itself with the theme of self-degradation as a necessary function of love and desire. His stories are heartbreaking and beautiful, and this one is no exception.

Ghost of Chance (William S. Burroughs)

A very interesting read after Cities of the Red Night. In this super-short book, Burroughs continues to explore the world of Captain Mission and his libertarian society, this time in a settlement on Madagascar. It's a rather straightforward presentation of what seems to be a common theme in late Burroughs: failure of the underdog's noble cause, and the triumph of the establishment. It ends with a cry for help concerning the endangered lemurs of Madagascar, and even includes an address for concerned readers to write to.