Exterminator! [Hardcover]

William S. BURROUGHS (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Penguin (1979)
• ASIN: B000KOP25Y
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Burroughs volume, May 30, 2002

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Exterminator! (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second only to "Naked Lunch"., October 28, 1998

By 

Stephen Caratzas (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Exterminator! (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cold Lost Marbles, October 23, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Exterminator! (Hardcover)

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.