Andrew Albano

Uncharted Books

This is a book that I have read before while in high school but it was kinda on my own. My junior year english teacher mentioned Burroughs in class in a discussion one day and I ended up staying after to ask about him. He told me a bunch of things about Burroughs and the other Beat writers of the time. I asked if he had any books by him and he ended up giving me Junky, which is really got me back into reading at the time.

Burroughs does not pull any punches in this, his first novel. It is a plain account of the life of a junkie based on his own life. Burroughs describes his experience in a very matter of fact way; the many lows and very few highs. The descriptions of coming off heroin are horrific. It is still difficult to read, but describes a way of life and a downward spiral. Burroughs illustrates how much junk dominates your life when you are an addict and the effect it can have on your personality and relationships with others. There is one shocking description of cruelty to an animal which comes out of the blue and you realize the irrationality of the whole thing. Junk think is different. Most of the characters flit in and out very briefly and they are a pretty hopeless bunch. It is the description of the lifestyle and the drivers in the personality of a junkie which are the real strength of the book.

The book at times could be difficult to follow because of the premise of drugs. The protagonist is on drugs almost the entirety of the book, the inconsistencies, laps in judgement, irregular timelines and characters all make you feel apart of that world. I have never done heroin, never plan on it, but by Burroughs descriptions and structure I felt like I was with him throughout all of his trips.

This is the first book that I have read that deals with drugs, whether the author is on them or the character is using them. I have, however, listened to music, watch movies, tv shows, about drugs and the portrayal is quite different. In a lot of media drugs are sometimes glorified with whimsical depictions like the cosmic types who think they’re in pursuit of some Buddhist ideal. A lot of popular songs like Can’t Feel My Face by The Weekend, which I feel like was on the radio forever, is about cocaine. Burroughs is honest. There’s nothing romantic, in his depiction of drugs, his reaction to drugs is purely physical.

Junky will make you feel dirty, gross, and like a junk addict by the time you finish it. I felt ways and thought more differently than I ever had, I thought I was apart of the story engaging in a lot of the acts and I felt terrible just reading about it. Burroughs’ virtual junky diary is a trip through the author’s own self-inflicted and self-injected personal hell. If public schools really wanted kids to abstain from injecting needles in their arms they should get rid of D.A.R.E. and force students to read Junky by William Burroughs, a book based on real-life personal experience drug addiction.