In 1950 or so, the family of William S. Burroughs were embarrassed by his lifestyle and drug addiction so they cut off his trust fund, leaving him stranded without a steady income. Dealing heroin only gave him enough money to keep his habit going and fencing stolen goods didn’t prove to be very lucrative either. Burroughs decided to write a novel for the pulp market in order to buy food and pay rent. Writing about what he knew helped him make an easy transition into the world of cheap and sleazy paperbacks. Junky, originally published under the pen name William Lee, was his first published book and initiated the world into the mythos of WSB. But Burroughs had natural talent and this book is far better than standard pulp fiction fare.
Junky is the most straightforward novel Burroughs ever wrote. Going by the name of Bill, the narrator spends time in New York City, New Orleans, and Mexico City doing all the things a heroin addict does. He deals to maintain his habit, spends a lot of time buying and getting his fixes, rolling drunks in the subway for money, going in and out of jails and rehab centers, and spending as much time kicking his habits as he does indulging in them. There appears to be two Bills in this narrative; one Bill is using heroin and the other Bill is trying not to use heroin. The latter Bill is the darker of the two. When he isn’t shooting up he compensates by smoking weed, sniffing coke, getting blind drunk, and experimenting with hallucinogens. Sometimes he also plays with guns and has sex with teenage Mexican boy prostitutes.
That is what happens throughout the whole book. What really makes it great is the Burroughs style. In his spartan sentences, he describes people and places using the least number of words possible but such bone-dry descriptions are always clear. This is direct, no frills communication and if his other books make you feel confused or alienated from the text, you should try out Junky to get a good grasp of what Burroughs was all about. His sparse prose is delivered so that you can always hear his nasal, monotonous voice reciting these lines in a way that is avuncular and hypnotic, speaking directly to that part of your brain that makes him impossible to forget.
Then there is the humor. It should come as no surprise that heroin addicts are a sorry bunch of characters. Burroughs describes these outcasts and losers with a stark, deadpan approach that is often hilarious. He comes across as what he is: an upper class rich guy thrown into a scumpit society where his only connection to the other people in it is through their shared sickness of drug addiction. He cannot admire or glamorize these people. He doesn’t even feel affection for them. He just describes them as they are with gallows humor. Burroughs’ literary persona is so rigid and unemotional that you could be forgiven for not immediately recognizing all the jokes he makes but once you get a sense for what he is about, there might be times when you cannot stop laughing.
Junky is one of the first books you should read if you are new to Beat Generation literature. It is also a lucid entry into the mind of William S. Burroughs. It stays interesting after multiple readings too and can actually function as a skeleton key to the more stupefying novels of this genius writer. But do not enter the world of this author blindly since readers unfamiliar with this man should be warned: the literature of William S. Burroughs could possibly be works of The Devil.
Burroughs, William S. Junky. Penguin Books, New York: 1977.
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