William Burroughs, The Western Lands

Chad Weidner
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The Western Lands was published by Viking Press in 1987. It is the final book of a late Burroughs trilogy that began with Cities of the Red Night (1981) and The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and is a fitting conclusion to it in terms of scope and vision. Different from Cities of the Red Night and Place of Dead Roads, the book recognizes the impossibility of really escaping our broken condition unless we radically reimagine ourselves. Norman Mailer’s The Book of the Dead was a source of inspiration for the book, and the content of The Western Lands is bold and wide-ranging. The author handles a number of issues throughout the narrative. Fragments are autobiographical, and show t…

1889 words

Citation: Weidner, Chad. "The Western Lands". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 August 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8129, accessed 08 October 2024.]

8129 The Western Lands 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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