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I've decided to do something a little different this time. I know this is primarily a games-oriented site, but I felt this book needed to be reviewed in my own special way.

Mainly because it is the single most horrendous piece of shit I've ever seen put to paper.

Nova Express, by William Burroughs, is completely incoherent, lacking in all the niceties you usually expect in a book, like a plot, structure, or even basic comprehension of the English language. Apparently, he wrote it as an assault on language itself after he shot his wife in the head doing a drunken/stoned version of William Tell. He believed he couldn't possibly have done this, so something was "controlling him", and he decided it was the english language.

Yeah, cuz it couldn't have been the booze. Or the heroin.

Anyway, Nova Express is the result of that line of thinking. I had to read it for a class back at Penn State, and the book infuriated me for two things: One, that it actually got published, and Two, that the cover said Burroughs was the best satirist since Jonathan Swift, you know, the guy who wrote A Modest Proposal.

When faced with suck a grotesque abuse of the written word, there was really only one way I could respond (click for full size):

 I kept the book after the class was finished, and took it with me whenever my dad and I went skeet shooting. Most of the time, there were people there, so I couldn't get away with blasting the book, but I finally got my opportunity a few weeks ago and let'er rip.

Possibly the best part, though, is the end line of one surviving page: "The Word broken pounded twisted exploded in smoke-"

I've given the book a 1 only because that's the lowest rating available. I guess the gaping hole in the book is close enough to a "0".

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