Exterminator!, William S. Burroughs
Exterminator!, William S. Burroughs
3 Rating(s)
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Exterminator!
A Novel

Author: William S. Burroughs

Narrator: Richard Powers

Unabridged: 4 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/16/2016

Synopsis

Conspirators plot to explode a train carrying nerve gas. A perfect servant suddenly reveals himself to be the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. Science-fantasy wars, racism, corporate capitalism, drug addiction, and various medical and psychiatric horrors all play their parts in this mosaic, experimental novel. Here is William S. Burroughs at his coruscating and hilarious best.

About William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) was an American author, painter, and spoken-word performer who has had a wide-ranging influence on American culture. Jack Kerouac called him the “greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift.” Norman Mailer declared him “the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius.” A postmodernist and a key figure of the beat generation, he focused his art on a relentless subversion of the moral, political, and economic conventions of modern American society, as reflected in his often darkly humorous and sardonic satire. He wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six short-story collections, and four collections of essays. No fewer than five books of his interviews and correspondence have been published. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. He was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 and in the following year was appointed to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

About Richard Powers

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bram on March 18, 2025

I hadn't read a Burroughs book since my student days. I enjoyed it. Disjointed and fantastical at points, but it made more sense than I remember. Especially interesting against the backdrop of the what's happening in the US today.......more

Goodreads review by Tosh on April 25, 2008

The closest to a short story collection by the cranky and hysterical William S. Burroughs. And the fact that he once had a job as rat and insect Exterminator is something like crazy. Who in their right mind would allow this guy into their home?......more

Goodreads review by Tim on July 15, 2022

So I read another book by crazy old William S. Burroughs. This was the first collection of short pieces of his that I read (although it is possible to see Naked Lunch as a collection of short pieces, which I think it was originally before Burroughs slapped them together into a book). This is also a......more

Goodreads review by Mat on January 30, 2013

When I first sunk my teeth into this book, I was not so sure it was going to be a good 'un. The first few 'vignettes' / short stories in Exterminator! are not that great actually but the book gets better and better and better. I would give the first 5-10 vignettes only about 3 stars on average but th......more

Goodreads review by Lee on December 03, 2024

I dunno, I wanted to like it and appreciate it a lot more than I actually liked and appreciated it. I completely understand how influential and transgressive these loosely affiliated naughty and satirical texts are both in substance and form, but they just don't hit me the way J. G. Ballard's or lat......more

Quotes

“Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift.” Jack Kerouac

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