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Product Description
Product Description
Burroughs’ first novel, a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses, remains the most unflinching, unsentimental account of addiction ever written. Through junk neighbourhoods in New York, New Orleans and Mexico City, through time spent kicking, time spent dealing and time rolling drunks for money, through junk sickness and a sanatorium, Junky is a field report (by a writer trained in anthropology at Harvard) from the American post-war drug underground. A cult classic, it has influenced generations of writers with its raw, sparse and unapologetic tone. This definitive edition painstakingly recreates the author’s original text word for word.
About the Author
William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis. In work and in life Burroughs expressed a lifelong subversion of the morality, politics and economics of modern America. To escape those conditions, and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user, Burroughs left his homeland in 1950, and soon after began writing. By the time of his death he was widely recognised as one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the twentieth century. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer, Nova Express, Interzone, The Wild Boys, The Ticket That Exploded and The Soft Machine. After living in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London, Burroughs finally returned to America in 1974. He died in 1997.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Burrough's account of life as a heroin user really comes to life in spoken word form, as the author's reptilian diction wrings every last drop of croaked and strung-out junk sickness from the page.
Notorious for accidentally shooting his wife dead in Mexico during a crazy William Tell routine, William Burroughs is the author of countless books, most of which are largely unreadable, aside from his two early semi-autobiographical works, 'Queer', and 'Junky', which recount his experiences as a homosexual drug user during a time in America when being either of these things was to be a social leper.
A disturbing, yet occasionally humourous tale of a life lived at the more bizarre extremes of experience, 'Junky' is essential listening for anyone interested in either the Beat Generation or drug culture, and is a good starting point for Burroughs novices.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Burroughs’ writing here is a unique and successful blend of autobiography and detached journalism, unprecedented for that time. The prologue gives Junky an air of authenticity from the outset as the author briefly describes his childhood before plunging into this narrative of a journey – teeming with colorful low-life characters - from the Midwest to New York to Texas to New Orleans, a farm in the Rio Grande Valley, & finally Mexico in his relentless pursuit of the heroin trip.
There is a certain aloofness in the style, giving the reader the impression that you’re only witness to a restricted part of the protagonist’s experiences. For example, the text makes vague references to his wife who obviously journeyed and indulged with him, but no more is told of her, poor Joan. Although “Queer’, which is a more rounded novel, filled in many pieces of the jigsaw, it was only upon reading Ellis Ambrose’s “The Subterranean Kerouac,” that this novel finally made sense and I began to see a fuller picture of Burroughs, his wife and their contemporaries. Anyway, this is a piece of brilliant writing on many levels. The book concludes with a glossary of “junk lingo” or “jive talk” – so that’s what the BeeGees were singing about?
There is a certain aloofness in the style, giving the reader the impression that you’re only witness to a restricted part of the protagonist’s experiences. For example, the text makes vague references to his wife who obviously journeyed and indulged with him, but no more is told of her, poor Joan. Although “Queer’, which is a more rounded novel, filled in many pieces of the jigsaw, it was only upon reading Ellis Ambrose’s “The Subterranean Kerouac,” that this novel finally made sense and I began to see a fuller picture of Burroughs, his wife and their contemporaries. Anyway, this is a piece of brilliant writing on many levels. The book concludes with a glossary of “junk lingo” or “jive talk” – so that’s what the BeeGees were singing about?
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Junky is William Burroughs's first novel, and one of his most important....Don't let the first person narrative fool you, this is not an autobiography in any usual sense. Burroughs himself described it as a 'travel book.'
Unlike the cut-up novels this novel easily engages the reader. There is a narrative, even if there is no narrative development towards a repentant self realsation that would be expected in a confessional novel.
If you have read On the Road then you'll appreciate Junky.
If you have read Naked Lunch then this might come as something of a surprise. But don't berate the book for that. It might not deconstruct a logical narrative development. Or for that matter it doesn't deconstruct the liberal humanist individual. But it does reveal Burroughs the genius....
If you are familiar with Burroughs allready then Junky is well worth buying.
And if you aren't... buy this book. You'll never look at eye droppers the same way after reading this.
Unlike the cut-up novels this novel easily engages the reader. There is a narrative, even if there is no narrative development towards a repentant self realsation that would be expected in a confessional novel.
If you have read On the Road then you'll appreciate Junky.
If you have read Naked Lunch then this might come as something of a surprise. But don't berate the book for that. It might not deconstruct a logical narrative development. Or for that matter it doesn't deconstruct the liberal humanist individual. But it does reveal Burroughs the genius....
If you are familiar with Burroughs allready then Junky is well worth buying.
And if you aren't... buy this book. You'll never look at eye droppers the same way after reading this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Life of a junky
Compared to most of Burroughs's works, Junkie is the least frightening of the bunch. It has a plot (wow!), it has a main character, and everything in it makes perfect sense. Read more
Published 2 months ago by wendyxia
A Bravura performance
I thought this was a fairly accurate representation of addiction (having lived with an addict myself). Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
jimmi lac
Not the best ,great as piece of factual type reading & a Beautiful passage on the change from flower to animal.. very true ..speaking from personnel experience. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. James De'lucia
This Book is Anything But Junk
Junky is William Burroughs first and most accessible novel. Unlike Naked Lunch, which is written in a very surreal and abstract way, Junky reads like an actual novel with a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Michael Cunningham
his best and first effort
After trying to make sense out of his more surrealistic efforts for years to little avail and no enjoyment, I stumbled across this book and was immediately swept into the narrative... Read more
Published 12 months ago by rob crawford
World Turned Upside Down
A sad book in many respects, returning back to read it again after first dissecting his sons book "Speed." Junior tried to emulate his father and was cast in his shadow. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
Classic Cult Novel
Junkie (alternative title spelled Junky) is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by William S. Burroughs. Read more
Published 20 months ago by JamesG
disappointed
I was really looking forward to reading this, especially as all the reviews are so positive, which is why its disappointing to have to be the first reviewer to give this book its... Read more
Published on 12 May 2010 by Hayley Walsh
The one and only by Maria Pilar Browning
This has to be a classic example of the beat generation. It is always an amazing experience to read anything by the one and only, the master, Mr William S Burroughs, but this has... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by Maria P. Browning
Adventures in early drug culture
In comparison to some of his other works this is an easy reading uncomplex treatise on the writers early life in the hipster underground. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2009 by nicholas hargreaves
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