The adding machine: selected essays

Burroughs, William S.

ISBN 10: 1559702109 / ISBN 13: 9781559702102

Published by Arcade Pub. : Distributed by Little, Brown, New York, 1993

About this Item

201 pages 21 cm. ; 1st Arcade pbk. ed.

Seller Inventory # 112297

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The adding machine: selected essays
• Publisher: Arcade Pub. : Distributed by Little, Brown, New York
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559702109
• ISBN 13: 9781559702102
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st edition.
• Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Essays

About this title

Synopsis

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 a satirist and parodist, William Burroughs has no peer, as these varied works, written over three decades, amply reveal.

From Library Journal

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. Although occasionally marred by repetition, these pieces provide useful insight into the writer's philosophical and artistic concerns. Recommended for serious collections in contemporary literature. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
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