Strange, I was about to point out that Carl Hiaasen's parents were Norwegian. It's weird what a change in outer circumstances can do to your writing style.

OMG, PLEASE tell me that MJ pic was Shopped and not a hallucination. D8

I didn't find "Naked Lunch" that difficult to read, but I had an edition with a pretty good introduction. Basically, it came down to "How goshdarn weird and fulla drugs them Beatniks were back in them ol' days". As for anyone who suggested "A Clockwork Orange", Anthony Burgess was a well-known student of the works of James Joyce. So in his case, we might as well go right back to the #1 book on the list.