Naked Lunch (sometimes The Naked Lunch) is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The novel follows the junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the U.S. to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone.
The novel was highly controversial, and its supposed obscenity led to a series of high-profile legal challenges. The novel remains divisive, but both admirers and critics recognize it as one of the defining works of the Beat generation.
