Remember the scene from Melville's Billy Budd where Budd is hung and somehow the Captain reacts as if he's been hung instead and his body reacts accordingly? Repeat this scene about 2000 times over a couple hundred of pages and you have Cities of the Red Night. I can't tell of Burroughs is a genius or just a lazy writer--probably a little of both.
Author of this book is William S. Burroughs