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	• Junky: The Definitive Text of Junk (50th Anniversary Edition) William S. Burroughs Penguin (Non-Classics), 2003 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 93 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

However, beyond any possible political or philosophical interpretations, this is a fast-moving, informative book with a dry wit hidden amongst the deadpan prose. What is often forgotten is that Burroughs' first known stories were all parodies of other genres and in many ways, Junky is a dead-on imitation of the hardboiled, pulp novels that were also prominent at the time.

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What you see is what you get...

Most serious readers have experienced a Beat phase in their reading careers...or should. Mine mainly centred on the works of Kerouac and Ginsberg with a spat of McClure and Burroughs thrown in for good measure. Through the years ~Junky~ would make an appearance, however the opportunity never presented itself to crack its covers. The book would manfest from time to time, simply to remind me that it still existed. I finally read ~Junky~ last week and it blew me away.

Despite the fact that William S. Burroughs has been thrown into the Beat literati, ~Junky~ doesn't seem to fit. The book is a one off, an important artefact of history - a testimony to an unfortunate human predicament and a way of life that is all too real; and societies ignorance, intolerance and exploitation of the condition, and its continued hypocrisy.

What I found interesting is that nothing has really changed since ~Junky~ was first published two generations ago. Drug addiction is still a 'moral issue' for a lot of people, including the addiction to alcohol. To be fair, as a society, we've probably made a little progress in the last fifty years, in terms of our understanding and treatment of drugs, but there is still a long way to go.

William Lee, a middle class, educated individual of relative privilege, tells the story of his introduction to junk, subsequent addiction and his on-going hellish relationship with the demon. This testimony is not a posing, romantic portrayal of a hip drug user, living an artistic, bohemian existence amongst poets, painters and musicians, all creating great works of art and having a wonderful time. ~Junky~ is an honest account concerning the 'vicious circle' of addiction, and the many attempts by those afflicted to escape the circle, but once you're in it, there's really no getting out - entirely.

In fact it was Burroughs who coined the phrase:

"Once a junky always a junky." And this is the tragedy.

After closing the book, I had a eerie feeling that I was holding something important in my hands. It ceased to be merely a book and became something else...a relic of a bygone era, its peculiar venacular, attitudes, dreams and nightmares. I believe it would be a mistake to include this book in any literary category for it stands alone, without pretence or device...because with ~Junky~ what you see is what you get.

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CHARMING!

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 Amburn's Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack 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?

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Harrowing

Little of the sprawling, stream-of-conscious style that would define William S. Burroughs's later work is found in his superb first novel, Junky. The narrative is straightforward, grim and dark. No spice is necessary is to intensify the subject matter. Junky is the story of Bill Lee, an aimless drifter who lets opiates or "junk" take control of his life. "You become a narcotics addict because you do not have any strong motivations in any other direction," Burroughs explains in the prologue, "Junk wins by default." It is upon that idea that Junky progresses. Little about how the main character feels or thinks is discussed, but information about the effect of junk, how it is peddled, how cure programs work and how junkies form subcultures in inner cities is revealed in great detail and that is Burroughs's masterminding. Junk has taken control and Lee's being slowly becomes a mere vehicle for his addiction. It becomes the main character. The effect is one of harrowing sadness for the reader and one of fascination for those of us with an interest in narcotics addiction. Junky is less a book I would recommend to fans of beatnik or other experimental literature and more of a novel I would highly endorse for readers who enjoy works, which are highly pungent and affecting.

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