Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative that is difficult to describe in terms of plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant. The book begins with the adventures of William Lee (aka Lee the Agent), who is Burroughs'' alter ego in the novel. His journey starts in the US where he is fleeing the police, in search of his next fix. There are short chapters here describing the different characters he travels with and meets along the way. Eventually he gets to Mexico where he is assigned to Dr. Benway; for what, he is not told. Benway appears and he tells about his previous doings in Annexia as a "Total Demoralizator". The story then moves to a state called Freeland &ndash; a form of limbo &ndash; where we learn of Islam Inc. Here, some new characters are introduced, such as Clem, Carl, and Joselito. A short section then jumps in space and time to a marketplace. The Black Meat is sold here and compared to "junk", i.e. heroin. The action then moves back to the hospital where Benway is fully revealed as a cruel, manipulative sadist. Time and space again shifts the narrative to a location known as Interzone. Hassan, one of the notable characters of the book and "a notorious liquefactionist", is throwing a violent orgy. AJ crashes the party and wreaks havoc, decapitating people and imitating a pirate. Hassan is enraged and tells AJ never to return, calling him a "factualist bitch" &ndash; a term which is enlarged much later when the apparently "clashing" political factions within Interzone are described. These include the Liquefactionists, the Senders, the Factualists, and the Divisionists (who occupy "a midway position"). A short descriptive section tells us of Interzone University, where a professor and his students are ridiculed; the book moves on to an orgy that AJ himself throws. The book then shifts back to the market place and a description of the totalitarian government of Annexia. Characters including the County Clerk, Benway, Dr Berger, Clem and Jody are sketched through heavy dialogue and their own sub-stories. After the description of the four parties of Interzone, we are then told more stories about AJ. After briefly describing Interzone, the novel breaks down into sub-stories and heavily cut-up influenced passages. In a sudden return to what seems to be Lee''s reality, two police officers, Hauser and O''Brien, catch up with Lee, who kills both of them. Lee then goes out to a street phone booth and calls the Narcotics Squad, saying he wants to speak to O''Brien. A Lieutenant Gonzales on the other end of the line claims there''s no one in their records called O''Brien. When Lee asks for Hauser instead, the reply is identical; Lee hangs up, and goes on the run once again. The book then becomes increasingly disjointed and impressionistic, and finally simply stops.

Naked Lunch

The novel takes place in New York City, where a chemical truck gets into an accident and spills its contents on the street. Curiously, the trucker has fake identification, and no one seems to have heard of the company name on the truck: "Ladies, INC." Later that evening, Tom Braun and his family go to a party. Tom gets into a shouting match with his wife, Susan, which their son, Andy, overhears. Andy retreats to his room to pack for a scout camping trip. After Tom leaves the apartment for the night, the women of New York who inhaled the spilled chemicals (including Susan) begin to have severe headaches. Within a short time, the women are overcome by a desire to have sex with any man they can find. Finally, the women begin attacking those who have not been similarly affected by the spilled chemicals. In increasingly gruesome scenes, women kill their children, husbands, brothers, etc., and the seemingly few unaffected women of the city. As Tom works with a small band of men to make it home to Andy, Susan first tries to mate with her son, then tries to kill him. Andy hides in a bathroom until an unaffected woman unknowingly saves his life by knocking on the door. The woman is subsequently attacked by Susan and other crazed women. Tom is wounded on his journey home, but manages to severely injure his wife before she can kill their son. Susan then kills Tom, whereupon Andy shoots his mom with several arrows (which he had for his camping trip) to make sure she is not able to recover from her injuries.

Ladies'' Night

Critique of Dialectical Reason is the product of a later stage in Sartre''s thinking, during which he no longer identified Marxism with the Soviet Union or French Communism but came closer to identifying as a Marxist. It puts forward a revision of Existentialism, and an interpretation of Marxism as a contemporary philosophy par excellence, one that can be criticized only from a reactionary pre-Marxist standpoint. Sartre argues that while the free fusion of many human projects may possibly constitute a Communist society, there is no guarantee of this. Conscious human acts are not projections of freedom that produce human ''temporality'', but movements toward ''totalization'', their sense being co-determined by existing social conditions. People are thus neither absolutely free to determine the meaning of their acts nor slaves to the circumstances in which they find themselve. Social life does not consist only of individual acts rooted in freedom, since it is also a sedimentation of history by which we are limited and a fight with nature, which imposes further obstacles and causes social relationships to be dominated by scarcity. Every satisfaction of a need can cause antagonism and make it more difficult for people to accept each other as human beings. Scarcity deprives people of the ability to make particular choices and diminishes their humanity. Communism will restore the freedom of the individual and his ability to recognize the freedom of others.

Critique of Dialectical Reason

Garrett is at home when Playmate comes by to visit, with a kid by the name of Kip Prose in tow. It turns out that Kip has made friends with creatures that cannot quite be described (Garrett thinks of them as "silver elves"), but because of his relationship with these creatures, other parties are trying to kidnap Kip. Despite his protests, Garrett gets drawn into the mess. While searching Playmate''s stables for clues, Garrett and company are attacked by another group of indescribable assailants. Luckily, Morley, Saucerhead, and Pular Singe are close by, and they manage to wake Garrett and Playmate after the scuffle. Kip Prose, however, is gone. The gang gives chase but is unable to locate Kip, though they do manage to get knocked out by the assailants a few more times. With Kip missing, Playmate and Garrett head off to talk to the members of Kip''s family, hoping they might be able to find some clues as to his whereabouts. Despite some promising leads, Playmate and Garrett are unable to locate Kip, although they do encounter an "elf" named Casey, who assures them Kip is in no immediate danger. When Playmate goes missing, Garrett and Pular Singe head out to track him down, with the Roze triplets tagging along for backup. Pular tracks the scent to the "elf" Casey''s apartment, where more mysterious "elves" make an appearance. The trail eventually takes Garrett, Pular, and the Rozes into the country outside TunFaire, where they find more of the "elves", their space ships, and an unconscious Playmate and Saucerhead Tharpe, as well as the bratty Kip Prose. Garrett decides it is time to involve the Watch, who can hopefully clean up the mess. Meanwhile, a ratman named John Stretch, who turns out to be Pular Singe''s brother, attempts to kidnap Pular for his own purposes. While Garrett and John Stretch come to an agreement, Colonel Block and Deal Relway try to manage the situation with the remaining "elves". Garrett concerns himself with striking a deal between Kip Prose, Max Weider, and Willard Tate, in which the involved parties agree to manufacture "Three Wheels", a revolutionary new method of transportation for the citizens of TunFaire. As a final twist, the "elf" Casey escapes, thwarting the attempts of Garrett and the Watch to discover the true nature of the "silver elves". Though Relway is angry and suspicious of Garrett, Garrett is on top of the world, with his new stake in the Three Wheel business booming and the Goddamn Parrot missing in action.

Angry Lead Skies

The novel tells the story of Richard Lamb, a young Englishman who marries a teenage Argentinian girl, Paquita, without asking her father''s permission, and is forced to flee to Montevideo, Uruguay with his bride. Lamb leaves his young wife with a relative while he sets off for eastern Uruguay to find work for himself. He soon becomes embroiled in adventures with the Uruguayan gauchos and romances with local women. Lamb unknowingly helps a rebel guerrilla general, Santa Coloma, escape from prison and joins his cause. However, the rebels are defeated in battle and Lamb has to flee in disguise. He helps Demetria, the daughter of an old rebel leader, escape from her persecutors and returns to Montevideo. Lamb, Paquita, Demetria and Santa Coloma evade their government pursuers by slipping away on a boat bound for Buenos Aires. Here the novel ends, but in the opening paragraphs, Lamb had already informed the reader that after the events of the story he was captured by Paquita''s father and thrown into prison for three years, during which time Paquita herself died of grief.

The Purple Land

Despite the post-apocalyptic scenario, and several action sequences, the book is largely about civilization and symbols. Each of the three sections deals with a different symbol. The first is the Postman himself, Gordon Krantz, who takes the uniform solely for warmth after he loses everything but his sleeping clothes. He wanders without establishing himself anywhere, and acts in scenes of William Shakespeare for supplies. Originally from Minnesota, he has traveled as far West as Oregon. Taking shelter in a long-abandoned postal van, he finds a sack of mail and takes it to a nearby community to barter for food and shelter. His reputation as a real postman builds not because of a deliberate fraud (at least initially) but because people are desperate to believe. Later, in the second section, he encounters a community (Corvallis, Oregon) led by Cyclops, apparently a sentient artificial intelligence created at Oregon State University which miraculously survived the cataclysm. In reality, however, the machine had ceased functioning during a battle; a group of scientists merely maintain the pretense of it working to try and keep hope, order, and knowledge alive. Eventually, in the third section, as the Postman joins forces with the Cyclops scientists in a war against an influx of "hypersurvivalists", he begins to find that the hypersurvivalists are being pressed from the Rogue River area to the south as well. The hypersurvivalists are more commonly referred to as Holnists, after the founder of their ideal, Nathan Holn. Many times through the book, curses are uttered which damn Holn for his actions. Nathan Holn was an author who championed an extreme, violent, misogynistic and hypersurvivalist society. Holn is said to have himself been hanged in the novel, but in the time following what should have been a brief period of civil disorder, followers of Holn prevented the United States from recovering from the limited war, and the plagues that followed. As the story ends, and he comes close to the hypersurvivalist''s southern enemy, he begins to find traces of them, primarily in the symbol that they rally behind: the Bear Flag of California. The final scenes give the impression that the three symbols may rally together in an effort to revive civilization. Another message of the plot deals with the backstory of the post-apocalyptic world: specifically, that it was not the electronics-destroying electromagnetic pulses, nor the destruction of major cities, nor the release of various bio-engineered plagues that actually destroyed society: rather, it was the hypersurvivalists themselves, those who maintained stockpiles of weapons and ammunition and who preyed on humanitarian workers and other forces of order.

The Postman

The novel takes place about 25 years after the events in the previous novel, Skyfall. Eldrinson Valdoria and his wife Roca Skolia live happily on his homeworld Lyshriol and have ten children. Some of them have already left home, like the second oldest son Althor who is training to become a Jagernaut, or the firstborn Eldrin who at the request of the Skolian Assembly had to marry his aunt, the Ruby Pharaoh Dyhianna Selei. The sixth of the Valdoria children, 16-year-old Sauscony (Soz), wants to enter the Military academy to become a Jagernaut like her brother. But Eldrinson has other plans – he would rather prefer to see his "little girl" living safely on Lyshriol, married to a local landlord. When she disobeys, he disowns both her (for leaving) and Althor (for taking her off-world). Though he regrets his harsh words immediately, he has no chance to take them back. Soon after, his teenage son Shannon, unhappy about the family discord, runs away from home. The book is told from the perspective of several main characters – young Soz during her military training; Shannon searching for his lost kin, the mystic Blue Dale archers; and their father Eldrinson, being captured, crippled, and nearly tortured to death by a sadistic Aristo who infiltrated Lyshriol to destroy the Ruby Dynasty.

Schism

Zoey and Stark reassure their connection by having sex under the wishing tree and become connected. Zoey finds out that she wields the ancient magick of the fey and can bring back old fey that serve her elements, prompting Queen Sgiach to ask her to stay on Skye indefinitely and be her successor. Aphrodite and Darius leave Skye, but Zoey and Stark decide to stay a little longer while Stark recuperates. Zoey continuously senses Darkness on Skye, leading her to believe that she cannot hide from Darkness anymore. Neferet returns to the House of Night. In an attempt to draw Zoey back from Skye after Kalona''s failed mission, Neferet kills Jack as a debt payment to Darkness. Finding out about Jack''s death, Zoey realizes that no matter how good she feels on Skye, Tulsa is her home and she has responsibilities as a High Priestess and returns. Kalona finds out that he can enter Stark''s mind because of the immortality he breathed into him. For the same reason, he realizes that the oath he swore to Neferet doesn''t apply to him anymore as he hasn''t been fully an immortal since his return. Neferet allows Zoey to light Jack''s funeral pyre and during the ceremony, Neferet asks Zoey for forgiveness to regain everyone''s trust. Zoey accepts the fake apology even though she sees through Neferet, but many other people think the apology is genuine. Neferet summons Darkness to drag Rephaim to the funeral and accuses him of being allied with Darkness and Stevie Rae for being allied with Rephaim, then orders the Sons of Erebus to kill both of them. Kalona interferes and faces the Sons of Erebus with Rephaim. The two fight, but Rephaim only defends himself rather than attacking the warriors. Stevie Rae asks her friends to cast a circle to stop the battle and save Rephaim. She asks Kalona for his son''s freedom and he grants it and takes off. A white feather falls from him, symbolizing his good deed. The feather breaks Stevie Rae''s concentration and Dragon Lankford lunges to kill Rephaim. Convinced by Stevie Rae''s words, Zoey steps between them and stops Dragon, arguing that Rephaim is on the same side, having chosen the path of Light. Nyx appears then and forgives Rephaim, bespelling him to take human form at night and raven form during the day, to atone for killing Anastasia. She also talks to Damien and Dragon, to convince them to move on, then disappears. Rephaim goes to Dragon and offers his service to pay for the grief he had caused, but Dragon rejects him. When Zoey tries to calm Dragon, he lashes at her for her age. Because Neferet and Dragon do not accept him at the House of Night, Zoey, her friends, and the red fledglings leave to start a new House of Night on their own in the tunnels, with Zoey being the "vampyre queen", Stevie Rae being the High Priestess, Aphrodite being the Prophetess, Kramisha being the Poet Laureate, and all the red fledglings and Zoey''s friends being the students. Towards the end of the book, Neferet cooperates with the white bull and intends on sacrificing Sylvia Redbird, but ends up killing Linda Heffer (who had recently left Zoey''s stepfather due to his infidelity) to create a Vessel for her (someone who has to obey her completely) as a weapon to use against Zoey. Meanwhile, in the Otherworld, Heath is given the opportunity by Nyx, to be the lost soul in this Vessel and he chooses it over being reborn in the real world or remaining in the Otherworld; this way, he can help Zoey in the modern world. Meanwhile, Stark and Zoey are making out and preparing to have sex for their third time, but Stark becomes aggressive, which is unlike himself. He bites Zoey, but she is finally able to stop him (It is implied that it was Kalona, not Stark, in Stark''s soul, who took over and got aggressive). When they go to sleep, Zoey has a dream where she learns of her mother''s death and realizes that her mother really cared for her. The book ends with Zoey waking up with this new realization and beginning to cry and grieve for her mother''s death, and Stark being there to comfort her.

Awakened

Raoul de Almayo, an Argentine society playboy is murdered by German agents in Buenos Aires in the early days of World War II. Charles Stewart, polo-playing American OSS secret agent, is sent to uncover the identity of the “Raven”, a spy in the German embassy in Buenos Aires to whom Raoul was the only link. Stewart’s trail leads him to Argentina’s decadent high society and an affair with the beautiful Julia Vargas. He uncovers a plot that may determine the course of the war, involving a coup against the Argentine government, the planned assassination of President Ortiz and the German battleship, Graf Spee, that is rampaging British shipping in the Atlantic. Stewart and Julia escape German agents, but Stewart is arrested by the notorious Colonel Fuentes, head of the Argentine secret police. Julia arranges Stewart’s release, but the two of them are captured by Gestapo agents who intend to murder them as part of the coup plot. Meanwhile, flashbacks tell the brutal story of John Gideon, Julia’s dead grandfather, who rose from a prison ship to become founder of Argentina’s greatest fortune and whose life is somehow entwined in these events. Julia and Stewart escape the Germans and Stewart manages to get critical information to the British that leads to the Battle of the River Plate and the sinking of the Graf Spee. At a society polo match at Julia’s estancia, Stewart manages to prevent the assassination and coup. Captured by the Germans and about to be shot, Stewart is saved by the Raven only to discover that the real author of the plot and these events was Julia, who takes her grandfather’s final horrific revenge. In an epilogue at the Battle of Stalingrad, Stewart learns in a letter from the Raven of Julia’s final fate.

War of the Raven

This book is about a 19 year old girl named Tish, whose real name is Clementine. She is in love with a 22 year old sculptor named Fonny, whose real name is Alonzo. They become engaged and she becomes impregnated. However, he is falsely accused of raping a Puerto Rican woman, Victoria Rogers. He was set up by a racist police man (Officer Bell) and he soon goes to jail. This unfortunately halts their engagement. Ms.Rogers left the United States to go back to Puerto Rico and Tish''s mother Sharon travels there to find evidence that will set Fonny free, which pushes them all through New York and San Juan. Baldwin narrates through Tish’s point of view as well as Fonny''s. The tone of the story is both sad and sweet. This content is very explicit with mature scenes. This book describes what a strong family the Rivers family is and how they stuck together until the end of everything. Although Fonny''s own mother and sisters didn''t bother to save him, the Rivers family takes him in as their own. They work extra hours so that they could make the money to pay the lawyer and to try to pay for Fonny''s bail if he gets out on bail. In the end, Fonny''s father commits suicide. Furthermore, the baby is finally born. Throughout the whole story the author shows what a powerful family is and the troubles they went through.

If Beale Street Could Talk

The novel begins in the afternoon with Adam getting water for dinner from the Coopers'' well. He is interrupted by his eleven year-old brother Levi. As he returns to his home, his father Moses reprimands him for superstitious ignorance. Similarly, his mother Sarah upbraids him for not spending his free time reading and memorizing the Bible''s Book of Lamentations. At dinner, Moses sternly reprimands Adam for the ignorance represented by the spell and points to the Cooper family tradition, in 125 years in the American colonies, of literacy, rationalism and intellectualism. He pointedly tells him that he is not yet a man in his father''s eyes. As dinner ends, the Coopers are visited by their cousin Joseph Simmons, who is a member of the local Committee of correspondence, which organizes resistance to the British. He and Moses work on a declaration of their rights before they go to the Committee meeting. Moses refuses to let Adam join him. That evening, Adam learns that the attendees discussed matters of revolt and whether or not to keep minutes. Moses convinces the men to be proud of their speech and not fear punishment for treason. Meanwhile, Adam visits Ruth, whom he admires. She once told everyone that she was going to marry him when they grew up. He finally vents his frustration with his father''s constant belittling. They part with a kiss. That night Adam and Levi overhear a midnight rider say that the British are coming. Adam joins the militia in order to resist the British, which, surprisingly, Moses agrees to, telling Sarah that Adam is no longer a boy in his eyes. Father and son prepare for combat and talk about the relationship between Adam and Ruth. After breakfast, they join the militia to face the British on the green. About 70 men and boys gather in Lexington and when the British arrive shortly after dawn they encounter two lines of militia. The colonists stand their ground though the British commander, Major Pitcairn, orders them to disperse. A shot is fired by a British soldier, starting the battle, in which Moses is killed. After the British kill more of the colonists, the outnumbered militia flees the battlefield. Adam hides in a nearby smokehouse, worrying about his father''s death. Later that afternoon, Adam hears two British soldiers outside the smokehouse debate whether to burn it, but they do not. He escapes through the woods but runs into two British soldiers and is nearly shot. Escaping across a meadow he encounters Solomon Chandler, who tells him stories in order to assuage his fear after having lost his father. He assures him that despite having run away when the shooting started on the green, he is not a coward. The two join a group of militiamen, and he tells them all what happened in Lexington. Soon, more militias gather and they learn that the British took heavy casualties at the Old North Bridge. They gather along the road back to Boston and plan an ambush of the retreating British. The British troops arrive and the militia open fire. After several volleys, the militia runs away and the British do not pursue. The militia regathers and the British approach again. The militia lays another ambush, in which they retreat down the road under cover of sharpshooters killing the British from great distances. They continue to lay ambushes for the British, and retreat through the woods. They meet up with others at a nearby barn and decide to set yet another trap for the British along a nearby road. Along the way they encounter, and defeat, a British cavalry patrol. The group of militia men continues to grow, with men from neighboring towns joining in, and they set another trap. Meanwhile, they see smoke rising from the vicinity of Lexington and think that the village has been burnt by the British. The attack on them goes as planned, but Adam falls asleep during it. Soon he gets leave to return to Lexington and console his family. He finds his house unburned, and his family is relieved he isn''t dead. Moses'' body is brought home. They bear him to the church with the other dead. As Adam looks over the damage left from the battle, he realizes that, unlike Levi, he has left childhood behind. That evening, Adam returns to his home. Many neighbors have come to visit and prepare food there, including Ruth, and she and Adam talk. She asks about the battle in the morning on the green, and he tells her about some of the things he saw. She worries that the British will come again and the same thing will happen, but he reassures her. She then asks him if he loves her, and after thinking about it, he says yes. She tells him that she loves him and then they part. After returning home to a nearly empty house, he goes to bed thinking about the changes that happened to him during those two days.

April Morning

Taking place during World War II, Fireshadow follows two seventeen-year-old boys. Erich Pieters joins the German Wehrmacht to fight for Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1941, and winds up in an Australian Prisoner of War camp after fighting in North Africa. Half a century later, Vinnie Santiani flees into the remote Australian Bush in an effort to cope with the death of his sister. Despite the fact that they live in different times, the boys'' lives intertwine in the novel with haunting results. A reviewer for Magpies commented that the award-winning book''s "language is exceptional throughout ... while the author''s insights into the emotional lives of the young people are sensitively conveyed." The main character is Erich Pieters who is only 17 years of age. The novel doesn’t provide much of a physical description of him but is does provide a good description of his personality. Erich grew up in a small family of a mother, father and younger sister. His father wasn’t around much when he was younger as he was an army officer who worked for Hitler. When the war started (Erich was only 17 at the time) Erich signed up for the army to the disapproval of his mother and sister but not his father. His father was a very proud man and Erich took after him. Soon after Erich went to war, he was captured and sent to Australia to a prisoner of war camp. As he developed into a man, he became less proud and his personality developed as he tried to overcome his adversity of adapting to such different surroundings and treatment. As Erich aged he became wiser and more caring for those around him. As shown at the end of the novel, Erich is a gentle caring man who as he says “I may be sick, but my eyesight, hearing and memories are as strong as ever!”

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Naked Lunch

By William S. Burroughs

Ladies' Night

By Jack Ketchum

Critique of Dialectical Reason

By Jean-Paul Sartre

Angry Lead Skies

By Glen Cook

The Purple Land

By William Henry Hudson

The Postman

By David Brin

Schism

By Catherine Asaro

Awakened

By Kristin Cast

War of the Raven

By Andrew Kaplan

If Beale Street Could Talk

By James Baldwin

April Morning

By Howard Fast

Fireshadow

No Author Listed