"Sheer pleasure. . . . Wonderfully entertaining."-Chicago Sun-Times Acclaimed by Norman Mailer more than twenty years ago as "possibly the only American writer of genius," William S. Burroughs has produced a body of work unique in our time. In these scintillating essays, he writes wittily and wisely about himself, his interests, his influences, his friends and foes. He offers candid and not always flattering assessments of such diverse writers as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Samuel Beckett, and Marcel Proust. He ruminates on science and the often dubious paths into which it seems intent on leading us, whether into outer or inner space. He reviews his reviewers, explains his famous "cut-up" method, and discusses the role coincidence has played in his life and work. As satirist and parodist, William Burroughs has no peer, as these varied works, written over three decades, amply reveal. This collection, containing both fiction and nonfiction, is representative of Burroughs's work. The style and tone are vintage Burroughs;the themes of addiction, mind control, and homosexuality central to the novels are explored here more succinctly. The most original material consists of comments on writing and writers: perceptive remarks on Hemingway and Fitzgerald, an interesting comparison of Proust and Beckett, and an acknowledgment of Conrad's influence on a portion of Naked Lunch. William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) was the author of numerous novels, including Naked Lunch, Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, The Soft Machine, and The Wild Boys. He is considered one of the twentieth century's most radical, innovative, and influential writers, and a founding member of the Beat Generation.
