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Loading... Junkyby William S. Burroughs
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Wildly Original - An Impressive First Novel: If you're looking for something different, check out this impressive first novel. Although not a long novel (about 120 pp.), it's wildly original, highly descriptive writing begs a second reading. _Junky_ is surprisingly well-structured. Believe it or not, there is a plot! Characters drop in and out of the story, so that the novel itself feels like some sort of crash pad. Everyone is fair game for Burrough's observations; many are described in a surreal, hilarious way. I like the way Burroughs varies sentence and paragraph length, giving an improvisational feel to the book, as if it's a be-bop record or a Jackson Pollock drip painting. (And maybe that's the intent?) Again, nothing escapes Burrough's critical eye. Although he is homosexual and a junkie, he shows contempt for some of the trappings and adherents of these 1950s subcultures. Some of my favorite lines include: - "Waves of hostility and suspicion flowed from his large brown eyes like some sort of television broadcast." - "'You're both mother (expletive deleted)ers.' She was half-asleep. Her voice was matter-of-fact as if referring to actual incest." - "A young man lurched in with some object under his arm." (Burrough's word choice is hilarious - "lurched"!) - "The place looked like a Chop Suey joint. ... The walls were painted black and there was a Chinese character in red lacquer on one wall. 'We don't know what it means,' she said. 'Shirts thirty-one cents,' I suggested." Perhaps Burrough's self-observation and sense of humor likely contributed to his longevity. It's hard to believe he lived to age 84! _Naked Lunch_ is next on my list. I really enjoyed this book, both for the quick and easy to read style of writing and because as a recovering addict the druggie aspects were more meaning full and easy to relate to then they may be for a non-addict. Autobiographical story of William S. Burroughs and his "queer", junkie, traveling life style. Can't wait to read Naked Lunch! Junky, Burroughs first novel, goes beyond the beat generation writing and concentrates on the subject he knows best, junk. His heroin addiction, experience with using and kicking the habit does not glorify drug use, but enhances its realness as a problem and that an addict is always looking for that perfect drug. The diction captures the language of its time and the beauty and tragedy of Burroughs thoughts. Quotation from page 7. 'Morphine hits the backs of the legs first, then the back of the neck, a spreading wave of relaxation slackening the muscles away from the bones so that you seem to float without outlines, like lying in warm salt water. As this relaxing wave spread through my tissues, I experience a strong feeling of fear. I had a feeling that some horrible image was just beyond the field of vision, moving, as I turned my head, so that I never quite saw it. I felt nauseous; I lay down and closed my eyes. A series of pictures passed, like watching a movie: A huge, neon-lighted cocktail bar that got larger and larger until streets, traffic, and street repairs were included in it; a waitress currying a skull on a tray; stars in the clear sky. The physical impact of the fear of death; the shutting off of breath; stopping of blood.' no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140043519, Paperback)Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junk, his first book, a candid, eyewitness account of times and places that are now long gone. This book brings them vividly to life again; it is an unvarnished field report from the American postwar underground. For this definitive 50th-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly re-created the author's original text, word by word, from archival typescripts. Here for the first time are Burroughs's own unpublished Introduction and an entire omitted chapter, along with many "lost" passages and auxiliary texts by Allen Ginsberg and others. Harris's comprehensive Introduction reveals the composition history of Junk's text and places its contents against a lively historical background.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Junky doesn't glamorize or demonize. It's more of a front-line account of how one gets from point A to point B. If one wants a morality tale, it's not coming. Make no mistake, there's no false advertising from Bill when he says, "I have learned the junk equation. Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life." (