William S. Burroughs, if not unambiguously of the Devil's party, is the author of the most sinister American novel, "Naked Lunch," to attain the status of a classic. Nor have his books, since he published in 1959 those "detailed notes on sickness and delirium" (his description), become less sinister, or more coherent. "Port of Saints" is gamely described by its jacket copy as "the mind-boggling story of a man whose alternate selves take him on a fantastic journey through space, time, and sexuality." We are further told that the volume was written, or assembled, or whatever it is that Burroughs does with scissors and eggbeater to concoct his books, before the author's return to the United States in 1973. So we have here something of a period piece, revolving … around a stylized struggle between a sick American society and a healthy, tribalized counterculture. In Burroughs' fantasy, the heroic outsiders are...