HenryChinaski
Founding member
so i picked up a copy of Junky yesterday. It was the first time I was introduced into Burroughs. Now, normally, homosexual writers aren't my cup of tea (Ginsberg is overrated and quite a horrible writer) but Burroughs is an exception.
read the book in one setting.
here's a review.
JUNKY: A review of sorts.
My first encounter with junk was the other day in the bookstore. I stumbled upon it in the fiction section and grabbed it up. But, I didn't buy it just then and put it back, reluctantly. I went home and did a little reasearch on the author. The only thing I really knew about Bill Burroughs was that he was associated with the Beat Generation.
So, I went back to the book store and forced myself to purchase the book, took it home and read it, cover to cover. Now, what I found while reading this book may be a little hard for me to put into words.
Most of you would agree to disagree when I say that out of all the Beat writers, Burroughs' work stands out the most. Kerouac and Ginsberg just don't seem to hold ground with this man.
His style is very simplistic, a mixture of easily commprehensible yet intelligently tinged terms and slang.
But, simple is good. People don't want to have to think too hard about what they're reading.
To me, this book is the wise Grandfather to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Now, forgive me for trying to compare this novel to such a dialectally opposite literary work but there isn't really any other way to approach this.
This book will take you back into the New York, New Orleans, and Mexico City underground drug scene of the early 1930's up through the 1940's. True, times have changed a great deal but do yourself a favor and jump into Burroughs' time machine that was originally titled Junk and learn about this horrible epidemic.
Junky is a classic novel about drug addiction and the struggles of a man and many others caught up in it.
Although Burroughs fought with his addiction and was eventually overcome by it, his work remains undiminished in the public eye and waits to be found by men and women alike. Now, go look for it.
Or, do what I did and wait for it to find you.
- Douglas R. Zirk
read the book in one setting.
here's a review.
JUNKY: A review of sorts.
My first encounter with junk was the other day in the bookstore. I stumbled upon it in the fiction section and grabbed it up. But, I didn't buy it just then and put it back, reluctantly. I went home and did a little reasearch on the author. The only thing I really knew about Bill Burroughs was that he was associated with the Beat Generation.
So, I went back to the book store and forced myself to purchase the book, took it home and read it, cover to cover. Now, what I found while reading this book may be a little hard for me to put into words.
Most of you would agree to disagree when I say that out of all the Beat writers, Burroughs' work stands out the most. Kerouac and Ginsberg just don't seem to hold ground with this man.
His style is very simplistic, a mixture of easily commprehensible yet intelligently tinged terms and slang.
But, simple is good. People don't want to have to think too hard about what they're reading.
To me, this book is the wise Grandfather to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Now, forgive me for trying to compare this novel to such a dialectally opposite literary work but there isn't really any other way to approach this.
This book will take you back into the New York, New Orleans, and Mexico City underground drug scene of the early 1930's up through the 1940's. True, times have changed a great deal but do yourself a favor and jump into Burroughs' time machine that was originally titled Junk and learn about this horrible epidemic.
Junky is a classic novel about drug addiction and the struggles of a man and many others caught up in it.
Although Burroughs fought with his addiction and was eventually overcome by it, his work remains undiminished in the public eye and waits to be found by men and women alike. Now, go look for it.
Or, do what I did and wait for it to find you.
- Douglas R. Zirk
