The Wild Boys

Written by William S. Burroughs

Narrated by Luis Moreno

In this funny, nightmarish masterpiece of imaginative excess, grotesque characters engage in acts of violent one-upmanship, boundless riches mangle a corner of Africa into a Bacchanalian utopia, and technology, flesh and violence fuse with and undo each other. A fragmentary, freewheeling novel, it sees wild boys engage in vigorous, ritualistic sex and drug taking, as well as prankster-ish guerrilla warfare and open combat with a confused and outmatched army.

• Language: English
• Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd
• Release date: Apr 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781471231438

William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis in 1914. He is best-known work is 1959's Naked Lunch-which became the focus of a landmark 1962 Supreme Court decision that helped eliminate literary censorship in the United States. Described by Norman Mailer as one of America's few writers genuinely "possessed by genius," he died in 1997. His many other works include Junky and The Place of Dead Roads (Picador).

Reviews for The Wild Boys

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is rather like a long, incredible dream that just never stops surprising me. Of the trilogy (_The Soft Machine_ and _Nova Express_ being the two to precede this novel) I hear this is the most accessible, but have not yet read the other two. Burroughs writes surreal sex like no one else!

[bembo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imaginatively erotic. Read this years ago, and can still recall vivid erotic images so well described.

[lucaconti-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not my cup of tea

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the best Burroughs work I've read so far. Of course, he is using his cut-up technique and the writing is somewhat difficult to follow, but there still seems to be a sense of something coherently effectuating itself (especially in terms of theme.) There is a lot of sex here, but it's like that primal urge is the thing that is dooming humanity in the first place. It was an eventful read and I'm glad I read it.3.5 stars.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps this short novel by William S. Burroughs should not be taken too seriously. It was a joy to read this orgiastic, erotic, playful and sometimes hard to follow story. The troupe of rebellious wild boys, defeating the CIA and army attack, cannot be accepted but with a smile. There is a lot that defies understanding, perhaps one should not try to understand everything.This naughty novel was written as early as 1969, but was not surprisingly not published until 1980. Pure madness and joy.