The Western Lands - William S Burroughs

The Western Lands is William Burroughs' Book of the Dead, which draws upon ancient Egyptian mythology for its symbolic structure. The 'Western Lands' of the title refer to the final state to which the souls of the dead must travel if they are to find true immortality.

Attempting this dangerous journey are Burroughs's questers: Joe the Dead, Kim Carsons, the scribe Nefertiti, Hassan i Sabbah, and the old writer William Seward Hall, made famous by his first book years before but who has written nothing since because he killed himself in the story.

The questers at once reflect and become the various souls that reside in each individual. The empty shell of the writer becomes Ba, the Heart, for which 'nothing remains to him but his feelings for cats'. Nefertiti, Kim Carsons and Joe each in turn revolve around or are challenged to fulfil the roles of Sekem Ku, Ka and the other states of soul.

As with the souls that survive the Seku, or physical body, they must endure extreme dangers on their quest, travelling through a labyrinthine universe of corruption, mutation, grandeur and despair.

The Western Lands concludes Burroughs's spiritual odyssey, which began in Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads . It is an intricately interwoven novel, often picaresque, often episodic, sweeping through time from ancient Egypt to the medical riots of 1999, ranging from despairing apprehensions of modern reality to moments of bathos or high comedy. Always it is characterized by Burroughs's awesome literary style, combining chilling touches of elegy and autobiography with black humour and meditation.