Junky: The Definitive Text of "Junk" - Couverture souple

Burroughs, William S

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0802120423 ISBN 13 : 9780802120427

Editeur : Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012

Synopsis

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.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis. Despite graduating from Harvard in 1936 with a degree in English Literature, Burroughs spent a number of his early years working in a variety of often unpleasant positions, including those of cockroach exterminator, factory worker and advertising copywriter. In work and in life he expressed a constant subversion of the morality, politics and economics of modern America. To escape these, and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user, Burroughs left the US 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. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer, Nova Express, Interzone, and The Wild Boys. After living in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London, Burroughs finally returned to America in 1974, settling in Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived and worked until his death in 1997.

Présentation de l'éditeur

'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'William Burroughs, legendary drug addict, founder member of the Beats and author of Naked Lunch, relates with unflinching realism the addict's life: from initial heroin bliss to an unabated hunger for the needle, and the horrors of cold turkey and back again.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0802120423
• ISBN 13: 9780802120427
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible