Junky

Om boken

A shocking exposé of the desperate subculture surrounding heroin addiction, William S. Burroughs' Junky is a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses. It 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 from the American post-war drug underground. Written by a author trained in anthropology at Harvard, it is a cult classic that has influenced generations of writers with its raw, sparse and unapologetic tone. 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. 'Reads today as fresh and unvarnished as it ever has' — Will Self