Nova Express: The Restored Text

For many people, Burroughs can be really tough to read. This is one of his books from the 60s that I think is quite readable. You have to get into the flow of the language, of the images. It’s a little like listening to Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane. The words just wash over you and create an effect. There is a bit of a story and it’s about the Nova Mob who are trying to destroy the Earth and the Nova Police that are trying to stop them.

The novel NOVA EXPRESS by William Burroughs carries a special kind of absurdity. The cut-up method works to find some deeper meaning in the societal virus known as 'language.' And it is quite virulent here. There are many times when I can hardly picture what he's illustrating. That being said, the moments when I can are just so brilliant, even the unreadable sections are instantly forgiven.William Gibson (NEUROMANCER) once described Burroughs' writing skills akin to meeting the 'only person who can play steel guitar.' Even half a sentence by the writer can infect you with an urge to write his way, crack jokes his way, denounce freaky conspiracies his way, et cetera~There was an interview when Burroughs described 'life' as a cup-up; The fragmentary sewing of hopping from one scene in everyday life to another. There are times here when I have to reread complete madness, and there is of course moments when he's simply building up a chapter, cementing the book's overall plot, and all that. But once you get smacked with one of his classic bone-chilling, gritty, anxious paragraphs, you'll be begging for something indecipherable. They hit hard, but you feel far wiser for reading them afterwards. I'd advise anyone who liked NAKED LUNCH to give NOVA EXPRESS a chance (or someone looking to completely derange their senses).

This is Burroughs at his crazy best - writing in a cut-up mode, with much repetition and re-hashing of previous paragraphs into new ones which make less and less sense, but which, nonetheless provide a loose narrative about paranoid, drug-fueled, orgies of the sci-fi kind. He can almost be called a latter 20th century James Joyce for the way he plays with the language and his unique prose that goes all over the place but still, somehow, ends up going somewhere.

There is nothing to dislike from a Beat writer. Ever.

This is by far one of the most originally cool books I have ever read. More than a book, I would say the whole thing is a "literary experience."

EXCELLENT PRODUCT AS EXPECTED

WS.B anything all day

GREAT WRITING...

Vintage Burroughs.

An interesting look inside the mind of a hard core drug user - William Burroughs

ペヨトル工房、山形浩生翻訳の本を読んだ方にならわかると思うが、味わい深さというよりも、やや荒唐無稽。それでもなぜか読みたくなる、不思議な小説。文庫になっている「ソフトマシーン」を気に入った方は是非どうぞ。しかし本書を理解するには根気が要りますよ。でも、さほど難解なわけではない。これを好きになった方は「爆発した切符」原著を是非どうぞ。