Junky: The Definitive Text of "Junk"Junk is not, like alcohol or a weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life. In his debut novel, Junky, Burroughs fictionalized his experiences using and peddling heroin and other drugs in the 1950s into a work that reads like a field report from the underworld of post-war America. The Burroughs-like protagonist of the novel, Bill Lee, see-saws between periods of addiction and rehab, using a panoply of substances including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, paregoric (a weak tincture of opium) and goof balls (barbiturate), amongst others. For this definitive edition, renowned Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has gone back to archival typescripts to re-created the author's original text word by word. From the tenements of New York to the queer bars of New Orleans, Junky takes the reader into a world at once long-forgotten and still with us today. Burroughs’s first novel is a cult classic and a critical part of his oeuvre. |
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A. A. Wyn Ace Books agent Allen Ginsberg antihistamine asked began benzedrine better Bill Gains blood Burroughs caps Carl Solomon cells codeine couldn’t croaker cure didn’t doctor dollars Doolie door drinking dropper drug addict drugstore drunk eyes face Federal feel Ginsberg give habit hand Herman heroin histamine ifyou junk sickness Junky kick knew later Lexington looked Lupita lush lush-worker Mexican Mexico City mooch morphine Naked Lunch narcotics needle never Nick night novel ofjunk ofthe Old Ike opium orgones Orleans paper peddler pesos peyote pigeon pocket pusher pushing Queer score script shoot shot sitting smiled someone stashed stopped street stuff subway talking tea heads tell There’s told took turned Valley vein waiting walked weed wife Wilhelm Reich William Burroughs write