William S. Burroughs

Oliver Harris

the definitive text of "junk"

Junky

jack

damn seventy years ago u could really just go on a bender for 5-10 years, write a book about it, and become an important author lol. honestly though, my opinion on this shifted back and forth between thinking it was a poorly written, historically interesting piece to thinking it was incredibly insightful and well written. my final thoughts lie somewhere in between. despite going into it thinking about danny boyle’s trainspotting (which is based off a different book of a similar premise), the film i was mostly reminded of was john casavettes’ debut, shadows (my second time mentioning casavettes on goodreads lol). both casavettes and burroughs convey a confessional desperation that makes their work seem both powerful and effortless. in casavettes’ reliance on improv+simple scene construction and burroughs’ reliance on a near-journalistic account of the narrator’s day to day life, the pieces’ subjects are put on full display. this is not a flaw in the style, but rather a feature of it—both are “aware of [their] talent for invisibility.” 
didn’t mean to go so long on this one, but this book is most effective when burroughs analyzes what it feels like to be addicted, and also what it doesn’t feel like. lot of cool stuff here. nice ending as well.

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Junk wins by default, cause we got nothing else to do this holiday season.

Varol Aksoy

Burroughs'u Jack Kerouac gözüyle psikopat manyak bir adam olarak tanıdım, kitabın adı da bu gözlemle örtüşüyor. Bakalım neler var içinde :)

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It is always fascinating to take a look into the past of Burroughs, however I found the novel sometimes became slightly rambly and incoherent which I guess is his style. The novel does a good job of being stylish without romanticizing drug addiction. The ending, however, was fucking goofy.

Relates the highs and lows of mainlining smack, from initial heroin bliss to dependency, the horrors of cold turkey.

John Balek

After reading so many other Burroughs novels I've finally gotten around to Junky. Its amazing how good this book is for it being Burroughs first. For a book that's nearing 70 years old it still feels as visceral and hard hitting as it must have been back in the 50's. I love the anecdotal approach to the book's structure in which chapters progress the narrative as well as short asides that are almost poetic in their sense. While progressing through Burroughs experiences from New York to New Orleans to Mexico City we also get insight into US anti drug policies during the 50's as well as Burroughs' knowledge and expertise on all things narcotics. Its a great contemporary to Doors of Perception and a thrilling read.

Luke Jones

Second read.

This book is more like a 7.5/10 than a 3/5.

What William S. Burroughs describes is horrible, but to dive into a world I never have and never will experience is fascinating, and the way Burroughs writes is wonderful. I tried to get through Naked Lunch a few years ago but couldn't. This might be the only readable book for me.

rippy

Hannah Pilkington

Ada 

Analyzes the cycle of addiction through the eyes of a former heroin addict. It is a personal study of crime and drugs and their affect upon the mind and body.

The Definitive Text of Junk

Mari-Claire Parrin

Daniel Voicu

Jim Hagan

Liam Ellul

Donovan Metz

Nicklas Persson

yasi

Heiki Riesenkampf

Maurice FitzGerald

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

death nurse

Ellie Davey

A shocking exposé of the desperate subculture surrounding heroin addiction, William S. Burroughs' Junky is edited with an introduction by Oliver Harris in Penguin Modern Classics. 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. Nurtured into being by fellow Beat Generation guru Allen Ginsberg, Junky is a cult classic that 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. In work and in life, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) expressed a constant 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. If you enjoyed Junky, you might like Burroughs' Exterminator!, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Reads today as fresh and unvarnished as it ever has'Will Self

Junky the definitive text of "junk"

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