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Title: Exterminator by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0-14-005003-5 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.08 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My favorite Burroughs volume
Comment: EXTERMINATOR! A NOVEL is without any question my favorite William S. Burroughs book. The "A Novel" of the title must surely be ironic, because the book is not in any recognizable sense a novel. It is a collection of largely unconnected sketches and scenes. Not every section is a masterpiece, but several are among the most surreal and brilliant things that Burroughs ever wrote. And for anyone who has not previously read any Burroughs, it is a brilliant introduction. I personally find it far more accessible and enjoyable than NAKED LUNCH, which, while it has many fine passages, nonetheless can at times become tedious.
Although by and large the various parts are unconnected, several are focused on the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. In particular, the amazingly creative and hysterically funny "The Coming of the Purple Better One" takes that as its locale. The "Purple Better One" of the title refers to a baboon that is placed upon the convention podium, and upon whose face is superimposed the face of a white Southern, racist politician, whose recorded speech is then played. It is one of the more bizarre, brilliant, and absurd scenes in recent American literature. Another favorite is "The Discipline of DE," the DE standing for "Do Easy." The story is a strange blend of Zen Buddhist tract and self-help manifestation. Other favorites include the title story, with the narrator/exterminator repeating ominously "You want the service?" and a supposed film treatment "Twilight's Last Gleamings."
The collection features many of the themes usually associated with Burroughs: Sci-fi, fantasy, drugs, usual medical practices and phenomena, governmental nefariousness, and the corruption of capitalistic life.
Rating: 5
Summary: Second only to "Naked Lunch".
Comment: This is the only other book of William S. Burroughs that, in my opinion, comes close to the absolute genius of "Naked Lunch." A fragmented novel of strange vignettes, loosely incorporating the theme of the exterminator and his grim trade as its focus, the book reads like a hallucinatory nightmare version of the Sunday comics from an unseen world better left undiscovered. Brilliant, funny, sad and disturbing--everything grteat writing should be.
Rating: 4
Summary: Cold Lost Marbles
Comment: This book is pretty good. I was surprised to see a few bad reviews for something which seems to hold good amount of merit, especially in comparison to most. Of course, it's not Ulysses, or even Burroughs's best. It's simply good.
Exterminator!, The Colonel Issues DE, Cold Lost Marbles, and The Perfect Servant have been my favorite passages since I first read it. The book is hilarious if you can manage to analytically wipe the opaque layer of genius-dirt from the neglected window obscuring Burroughs's warm, cozy, funny soul.
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Title: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0802132952 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Cities of the Red Night : A Novel by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0312278462 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 04 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Junky: The Definitive Text of "Junk" by William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris ISBN: 0142003166 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Western Lands by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0140094563 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Ticket That Exploded by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0802151507 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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