William Burroughs Jr., Cursed From Birth

Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs, Jr. (Paperback)
Billy was a friend of mine.I knew him at Green Valley School in Orange City, Fla. in 1972 and afterwards until his death in 1981. I think this book(CURSED FROM BIRTH) tells his story the way he would like. LITERARY OUTLAW is the other good bio of Bill Burroughs, Sr. in which Billy's life is well told. Read both of these books and you will know the Burroughs. The old man was a genius and a great writer but a lousy father. The son was cursed from birth(that title is something Billy wrote himself and signed a letter with to his father).
I tried to tell Billy to change his name in 1972. I thought that would be his only chance of surviving the Burroughs name. But of course his course was set. He was and would always be a Burroughs. To have your father kill your mother when you are 4 and then to be sent to grow up with your grandparents(abandoned by your father)and then to learn in your teens that your father is the notorious junkie homosexual genius author of NAKED LUNCH well how would you handle that? So self destruction was Billy's fate. This is an excellent book and anyone who is interested in either father or the son should enjoy and learn from it. One thing though. Billy enjoyed his life VERY MUCH until he got sick. So his life was not that short and was certainly not all unhappy. Just the last 10 years of it.
Look for this book(Cursed From Birth)on Amazon.com to read more about it.
Click on the link below to read the wikipedia page on William Burroughs,Jr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs,_Jr.