Nova Express - Softcover

William Burroughs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802133304 ISBN 13: 9780802133304

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999

Synopsis

The Soft Machine introduced us to the conditions of a universe where endemic lusts of the mind and body pray upon men, hook them, and turn them into beasts. Nova Express takes William S. Burroughs's nightmarish futuristic tale one step further. The diabolical Nova Criminals--Sammy The Butcher, Green Tony, Iron Claws, The Brown Artist, Jacky Blue Note, Izzy The Push, to name only a few--have gained control and plan on wreaking untold destruction. It's up to Inspector Lee of the Nova Police to attack and dismantle the word and imagery machine of these "control addicts" before it's too late. This surrealist novel is part sci-fi, part Swiftian parody, and always pure Burroughs.

About this title

Review:

A sermon blast of language. . . . Burroughs is the Martin Luther of hipsterism, welding his decree on the silicon doors of the solar system. "Newsweek"
Hypnotic . . . outrageous. [Burroughs] can think of the wildest parodies of erotic exuberance and invent the weirdest places for demonstrating them. "Harper s"
Burroughs is first and foremost a poet. His attunement to contemporary language is probably unequalled in American writing. Anyone with a feeling for English phrase at its most balanced, concise, and arresting, cannot fail to see this excellence. Terry Southern
Burroughs writes with a beauty and efficiency unmatched by any living writer. "Chicago Sun-Times"
Macabre, funny, reverberant, grotesque. "The New York Review of Books""

"A sermon blast of language. . . . Burroughs is the Martin Luther of hipsterism, welding his decree on the silicon doors of the solar system."--Newsweek

"Hypnotic . . . outrageous. [Burroughs] can think of the wildest parodies of erotic exuberance and invent the weirdest places for demonstrating them." --Harper's

"Burroughs is first and foremost a poet. His attunement to contemporary language is probably unequalled in American writing. Anyone with a feeling for English phrase at its most balanced, concise, and arresting, cannot fail to see this excellence."--Terry Southern

"Burroughs writes with a beauty and efficiency unmatched by any living writer."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Macabre, funny, reverberant, grotesque."--The New York Review of Books

About the Author:

William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis. In work and in life Burroughs expressed a lifelong subversion of the morality, politics and economics of modern America. To escape those conditions, and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user, Burroughs left his homeland in 1950, and soon after began writing. By the time of his death he was widely recognised as one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the twentieth century. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer, Nova Express, Interzone, The Wild Boys, The Ticket That Exploded and The Soft Machine. After living in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London, Burroughs finally returned to America in 1974. He died in 1997.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0802133304
• ISBN 13: 9780802133304
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192