Reviews
i liked it a lot but in some sections i didn’t feel like hearing about the act of shooting in explicit detail. overall very interesting story from burroughs
Only book I’ve read about drug culture that is neither miserable nor white-knuckled (coincidentally reading Infinite Jest at the moment, which I think also has that strength) — which is a balancing act. Burroughs writes with this neutralizing effect. Comically straightforward compared to what little I’ve read/listened to by him and yet densely detailed and just really eye-opening. It speaks for itself that there’s hesitation to even call it a novel.
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.
Junk wins by default, cause we got nothing else to do this holiday season.
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.
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.
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.
