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    Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk'
    Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk'
    Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk'
    Audiobook7 hours

    Junky: The Definitive Text of 'Junk'

    Written by William S. Burroughs

    Narrated by Andrew Garman, Mark Nelson, Multiple Narrators and T. Ryder Smith

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    About this audiobook

    A shocking exposé of the desperate subculture surrounding addiction, William S. Burroughs' cult classic Junky is now available for the first time on unabridged audio

    Burroughs' first novel, a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses, remains the most unflinching, unsentimental account of addiction ever written. Through time spent kicking and time spent dealing, through junk sickness and a sanatorium, Junky is a field report from the American post-war drug underground. It has influenced generations of writers with its raw, sparse and unapologetic tone.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateDec 1, 2012
    ISBN9781471209789
    Author

    William S. Burroughs

    William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis in 1914. He is best-known work is 1959's Naked Lunch-which became the focus of a landmark 1962 Supreme Court decision that helped eliminate literary censorship in the United States. Described by Norman Mailer as one of America's few writers genuinely "possessed by genius," he died in 1997. His many other works include Junky and The Place of Dead Roads (Picador).

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    Reviews for Junky

    4/5

    1,136 ratings34 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Really good book but it is striking how much of a monster Burroughs was
    • 5/5
      This was written perfectly from a junky… I myself am recovering addict I never used needles not that I didn’t want too, but thought if I did it this way it wasn’t as bad…what a load of BS I was telling myself!!! When Burroughs described junk sickness man did that take me back some years. But yes it is very difficult to describe someone what it’s like being addicted to opiates and to just quit it like that yea right. I’ve quit a lot of things, but opiates by far are the worst!!! I thought it was a great read!!
    • 5/5
      This edition doesn't only present the well-written and brutally honest work of literature with respect to the author and the original manuscript, but also provides some important context to the book. The introduction by Allen Ginsberg, as well as the publisher's introduction, shed some light on 1950s America for those too young to know anything about it, and basically provide you with a free ticket to the world of Beatnik generation literature.
    • 4/5
      Es como trainspotting pero de los 50´s en Estados Unido y México
    • 5/5
      Addiction Story of Yore. Is very interesting to read this book keeping in mind that it was published in the 1950's. Beautifully written and with honesty, well presented.
    • 3/5
      I read Queer before reading this book. I suppose to understand (not really) that book you should read this one first. They go hand in hand about Burroughs' life. This one piqued my interest because of Edinburg (Texas) reference,and that's where I live.

      If I recall correctly, that part is left out in the original text.
    • 4/5
      I listened to the audiobook, which is exceptionally well read. The book itself, although it wanes a bit toward the end, is a fascinating look at drug addict culture in New York City, New Orleans, and Mexico City, as the narrator moves to avoid trouble. The problematic parts of the book are the sporadic mention of his wife, and even kids at one point, who play no part in most of the book. It could easily be criticized for a bit of randomness here and there, but the small details are very well done. This isn't nearly as harrowing, if that's what you're looking for, as Hubert Selby's Requiem for a Dream, but in its matter-of-factness, it rings true. Of course, when the author's opinions intrude, or when you read Burroughs' original 1952 introduction--not published--you enter a bit into the world of fantasy. This edition includes a long introduction and a number of appendices which are worthwhile, but not really necessary to your understanding or enjoyment of the book. It does provide a more complete text, apparently, but I have nothing to compare it with. It is nice to know it hasn't been bowdlerized, though.
    • 5/5
      This book is semi autobiographical. It does make one wonder how a man who understood the life of an addict so well, could become one. This book walks a narrow line - and does it well. It does not glorify addiction but neither is it a sensational tale. Burroughs main character, Bill Lee, is a sad character; always going down by stages. The book explains the drugs on the market, at that time, and shows the sad people who partook: people who would sell their proverbial granny for a hit. From the addicts that I have come across, little has changed.
    • 4/5
      Burroughs wrote this book much based on his own experience with addiction decades ago, and I think it'll forever be potent.

      It's a very straight-forward, no-nonsense and no-tearjerker experience as Burroughs writes of Lee's addictions, faltering friendships, his fleeting meets with people while trying to attain drugs as quickly as possible, at times doing anything for it. He goes from selling drugs to using them, to robbing drunks on trains to escaping the law, to trying to fence stuff to get money to get more drugs to avoid The Sickness, to get to Mexico to live a better life, to avoid his wife, to get together with her, to be able to get out of bed, to try and get off drugs completely, to get into less hardcore stuff to get back into heroin.

      It's very well-written, and eloquently cut-up in terms of what goes in which chapters. The descriptions of people, events and feelings aren't poetic - it's all straight-forward and I got the sense that his abuse just went on and on, a vortex that went round and round.

      This book reminds me a lot of Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting", although this is timeless and different. It's like the inspirational big brother to Martin Amis' "Money".

      And it stands out. Burroughs was a very livid writer and this is a powerful and telling work on addiction, and in his desire to explain the elements that make out addiction to everybody, he dispels myths and actually writes some really stupid shit (e.g. that cocaine does not create any form of dependency), so just have an open, questioning mind when reading this (as with every written word, anywhere).

      In this edition from Penguin, there are several inclusions of nice extraneous material here: appendixes, a glossary and a long introduction.
    • 5/5
      A thrilling, roaring ride into the life and times of William S. Burroughs. This book effectually makes you understand the drug culture at the time and shows some of Burroughs' most intimate moments in dealing with junk and the law. It is a manifesto in itself as well as a description, carefully knitted, of the lifestyles of heroin addicts- tinged with his own real-life experiences. This is GREAT Burroughs- his work at his finest.4.5 stars- FULLY earned.
    • 4/5
      The autobiographical story of Lee, (the author's original pen name), a young man who begins shooting junk mainly out of boredom. The time is right around WWII. As a university graduate and with a monthly allowance from his family, Lee chose to hang out in dives and make the acquaintance of people who had access to a variety of hard drugs. Lee takes part in muggings and other ways to get money for heroin, morphine or whatever can be had. It's a bleak yet compelling story by an author who describes an awful existence of crimes, highs, withdrawals and constant running from police, and it's obvious that it's more non-fiction than fiction.
    • 3/5
      Junky is an engaging read, with Burroughs offering a kind of insight into a situation that cannot be easily articulated. I'm especially grateful for Allen Ginsberg's introduction, which certainly helped give me some background on an otherwise difficult to understand man.
    • 3/5
      I read this book many years ago and really enjoyed it.

      Of all Burrough's works, I think it's most accessible. I haven't read too much of his other work, so it's hard to know what to compare it to. I liked the atmosphere that the book created, I liked how detailed his writing was, I liked how it felt personal, but also removed at the same time.

      I liked that this book was written in the 50's, and I felt that its semi-autobiographical nature really added to the honesty of the overall piece. Some people have said that this is a slow-moving book for them, and while I didn't feel that way at the time, I can see how it's possible. A lot of this story is just the protagonist going through daily life and there isn't so much a plot as the main character talking about drugs, and where he finds his next hit. I found it interesting because it was (almost?) a period piece, and so there was an overall tone that I liked.

      Unfortunately, there are like, no female characters. None. From what I remember, in the very least. If they are, they're probably minor.

      Still, I appreciate Burrough's wry, witty, dark humour, and so I will give this read 3.5 stars. c:
    • 3/5
      Well, the good thing is that I finished it and can now say I've read it. I didn't like it very much though... The main character (apparently Burroughs) presents his addiction as a cold factual situation which he could, and did, overcome at will. I think his gender, his age, his race and his economic station at the point of his addiction played a pivotal and yet unacknowledged role in his theories and "advice" for dealing with a junk addiction. I'm pretty sure he was not smarter than the medical experts and I suspect his descent into junk addiction played a bigger role in his "great" understandings of how to kick or cure the habit than did any factual reality.I guess it's one of those books everyone who "reads literature", or, at least, reads American literature has to say they've read... so I've done that. Now I'm going to go drink too much wine and see what theories of alcohol addiction and recovery I can pull out of my rear-end.
    • 4/5
      Pretty crazy read. This guy has seen and done some shit and most of this book, as the title suggests, is about his experiences with drugs, particularly Heroin.

      We follow him as he goes through his daily quest to get high. Sometimes he is selling and we learn about the hassles and pitfalls of dealing with customers who are always asking for something on tick. We hear his opinions on weed, coke, speed, time spent in jail.

      It is quite sobering and something that takes you down into the dirty parts of this lifestyle. Nothing is glorified and polished and if you ever to know what this world is like, this guy has done it so you dont have too.
    • 4/5
      This semi-autobiographical narrative was a very interesting read for the fact that it deals in depth with drug culture in a time that I was not even aware there was one. I also had absolutely no clue that Burroughs was from St. Louis.
    • 2/5
      I understand why people love this book, it wasn't for me. I don't necessarily have to have the beginning, middle, end plot standard, but I do need to feel that a story is going somewhere. This was just ramblings to me. It didn't work for me. I listened to the audiobook and didn't particularly love the narrator, either.
    • 4/5
      Great book to understand better the life and psyche of an addict. It focuses solely on the addiction, drugs, and law but barely touches upon affects on relationships.
    • 4/5
      A short, well written book, that honestly lays out the mental and physical strife junkies must deal with. Whether 50 years ago, today, or 50 years from now, this book carries a relevance that many will not, or cannot understand. Very worth an afternoon of your attention.
    • 4/5
      This was one of the hardest books I have ever tried to read. It must have taken me three or four times to get through the book. In the end though, I can say I liked it. I am still unsure WHAT exactly I liked about it since it is so hard to read and understand.

      It is a book about drugs that makes you feel like you've taken drugs--and then tried to read the book.
    • 3/5
      I expected to not like this book by William S Burrough's but I liked it. It was an easy to read book and I was impressed that this author who openly writes about his addiction and his homosexuality was intelligent. He writes this book without defensiveness or anger. He writes with matter-of-fact style. This was his debut novel. He wrote the original in 1953 and was published by Ace. I read the Penguin addition. This book is gives the reader a trained anthropologist observations as he portrays the life of an addict in New York, New Orleans and Mexico City. For those readers who have read The Road by Jack Kerouac, this would be a great companion read. They were acquaintances and even had thought of writing a novel together.
    • 5/5
      This is a re-read for me. I wanted to check out the new edition. The novel was always fantastic, but the new editions that restores text is genius. I won't repeat all the things people normally say about how you should read this first, etc. etc. All I will say is that the honesty of the prose, the zero degree of fabulation, is the genius of the book. Almost no one else on the planet could pull of this much with this little. READ THIS NOVEL.
    • 4/5
      To many contemporary readers narcotics and drug addicts are shrouded by an atmosphere of crime, danger and dirt, which will lead most people to shun heroin addicts, or "junkies" as they have become known. With Junky, also spelled Junkie, William S. Burroughs tries to clear that image, and would almost succeed.Junky was published as an autobiographical novel telling an almost clinically cool history of how Burroughs became addicted, which is told in a very straightforward narrative, and seemingly based on a very innocent transaction, of a pal asking him to sell some morphine and Burroughs ending up trying some himself. Assuming that Burroughs' assertion that many facts, descriptions of feelings, etc are factual and truthful, Junky would be an excellent guide to better understand the world of "junk" and "junk users", as Burroughs calls it.The Penguin Modern Classics edition of Junky. The definitive text of 'Junk' is published with a long introduction by Oliver Harris and includes various parts and appendixes which were cut from the original manuscript. According to the original introduction Burroughs had written Junky with the intention to enlighten readers about the true life of "junk user" and separating "junk" from the mystery surrounding it.However, in the Prologue Burroughs gives an all but sketchy impression of his life leading up to his life as a "junk". Comparing these notes with the biographical information we now have, not just of Burroughs but also of the other writers of the Beat Generation, it is clear that the biographical sketch in the Prologue is incomplete and probably deliberately vague. To present Junky as a lifestyle choice it probably did not fit the bill to explain that despite his good education and relative carefree life, receiving a monthly allowance from a trust fund, Burroughs was attracted to criminal behaviour, and the Beat Generation started with a murder in which Kerouac was charged as an accessory and Burroughs as a material witness, in 1944. It was later that same year Burroughs developed his addiction.Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated writing a novel together ("And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks"), and Burroughs completed the manuscript of another novel, but Junky. The definitive text of 'Junk' was Burroughs' official debut in 1953. The introduction by Oliver Harris provides many interesting details about the publication history of Junky including the various suggested titles and publishers' deliberations rejecting Burroughs' original title. The Penguin edition also includes an appreciation of Junky written by Alan Ginsberg, besides a glossary, letters and excerpts which were cut from the original manuscript, such as a long passage about Wilhelm Reich's theory of "orgones", etc in six appendices.Unlike Burroughs' later work, Junky is written in a straightforward prose style, and linear plot development. It provides a fascinating account of the life of a junky, from the point of view of a junky, explaining how heroin changes their life.
    • 5/5
      An incredibly accurate description of the life of an addict, whether now or 50 years ago. A must read for any lover of literature. One of my favorite books, and the first I have read of William S. Burroughs, but I'm hoping to add more of his work to my library now that I have discovered this work.
    • 4/5
      Extremely insightful and thought provoking
    • 5/5
      This book is the record of a dangerous filled with the glamor of filth and the grime of suffering. The narrative neither decries nor glamorizes "junk", but rather lays out a picture for the reader to absorb with his own eyes. This picture is often desperate and disturbing, but also humorous. The antics of the jonesing narrator keep the reader interested, and the plot is easily moved along by his need. The cast of characters around him, comprised by pushers, needy pests, and easily unlikable cops adds a good dose of humor. I find that these elements aide in presenting a more readable and quality work than "On the Road", by Burrough's contemporary Kerouac. Burroughs' debut novel gives us a fascinating glimpse into a world that many of us will never see. Perhaps that is to our benefit.
    • 3/5
      Junkie is nonstop. It begins with Burroughs first dalliance with drugs, and goes on and on until he stops, and then the writing stops. It's a bit much at times, but generally this is a fascinating account of addiction - what happens to you when you're addicted, why people go for drugs, and how people treat you when you're on them.
    • 4/5
      In this slender volume, Burroughs manages what so many others come short of doing in so much more space and with far less success. He traces the lifecycle of the Junky - from birth to existence and how one manages to slide into the lifestyle without seeming to notice. The book covers Bill Gains life as he first tries morphine from a friend's batch of stolen goods all the way through as a full-blown addict hiding out in Mexico avoiding more stringent laws in the United States where he's spent time in and out of various rehabs, jails and going over countless other drugs, ways to kick and looking for that next elusive high. In between are the crimes, the broken friendships, the failed relationships, the self-loathing homosexual hookups and a life of constant paranoia. But there's also the release that Junk brings. There's the joy of the score and the feeling in the back of ones knees and the ability to have all of that go away.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."
    • 5/5
      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!
    • 5/5
      Ah, good ol' Bull Lee. A classic case of the man's life and myth being far more interesting than his writerly output; except, of course, for Junkie, which is probably one of the most innovative books of the latter half of the 20th century.Bill was never cool: cool is transient, hip is being there, and Bill had been hip from the day he was born.Let's forget about him being a lifelong paedophile (after all, he himself was sexually abused when he was a child, so he was just squaring the circle, right?) let's judge him by his literary heretage.After he had written "Junkie", he most probably realised that he would never be able to top it: so half-way through his next book "Queer" he goes all Dada on his readers and starts writing like a latter day Henry Miller who's overdosed on absinth. So his big hit is "Naked Lunch"; right time, right place; but if it wasn't for the aforementioned he would have disappeared without trace from the literary scene afore he even arrived on it; but the U.S. literati fell for his pitch hook, line and clinkers, and the preceding rubbish that he churned out over the years eventually earned him a place in the Hall of Fame. "Naked Lunch" hasn't time-travelled all that well, nowadays it reads like a relic from the 1960s 'let it all hang out' bag. Whereas "Junkie" is still as fresh as a New York sewer rat on the prowl with a hard on fit to smash a China plate: amoral, apolitical nihilism in yer face - the narrator of "Junkie" pre-empts the post-scarcity, consumer capitalist society, where everything has a price tag and nothing has any lasting value: this is how it was, this is how it IS.