Penguin Essentials: Junky

"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."

Originally published in 1953 under the pseudonym William Lee, Junky is the first novel by the legendary founder of the Beat Generation, William S. Burroughs. A largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures, and relapses, it remains the most unflinching and unsentimental portrait of addiction ever written.

From the tenements of New York and the queer bars of New Orleans to the underworld of Mexico City, Burroughs relates the addict's life with "field report" realism. He tracks the journey from the initial bliss of heroin to an unabated hunger for the needle, documenting the horrors of cold turkey and the strange, ghostly nocturnal wanderings of a life controlled by "junk time".

A dark, powerful, and mesmerizing cult classic, Junky is the essential precursor to Burroughs' masterpiece, Naked Lunch.