Queer, an early work of William S. Burroughs, is also a stark narrative self portrait, a brutally realist love story, a tragicomic grotesque fantasy and an ingenious detective novel. This book offers many fundamental clues for the thorough study of the overwhelming literary universe of this author. It is set in an immense suburb which Burroughs would later define as the Interzone, stretching from Mexico City, the world capital of crime, to Panama. Lee, the alter ego of the writer, weaves his amorous web around Allerton. ...
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Queer, an early work of William S. Burroughs, is also a stark narrative self portrait, a brutally realist love story, a tragicomic grotesque fantasy and an ingenious detective novel. This book offers many fundamental clues for the thorough study of the overwhelming literary universe of this author. It is set in an immense suburb which Burroughs would later define as the Interzone, stretching from Mexico City, the world capital of crime, to Panama. Lee, the alter ego of the writer, weaves his amorous web around Allerton. Allerton is an ambiguous youngster, as indifferent as an animal. He wanders through the most sordid of neighbourhoods, in which strange people swarm in a state of decomposition. During these excursions, like an alienated rogue, he offers us radioactive thorns of his very black humour. In order to resolve his sexual and lethal obsessions, Lee parts ways with his friend in search of Ayahuasca, a drug absolutely capable of awarding complete control over brains, and for this reason greatly desired by Russia and the United States.
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Queer allows the reader to experience life through the eyes of a homosexual drug addict. I found this book so captivating I was able to finish it in one night. In this book Burroughs exposes the secret world of homosexuals in a time when their lifestyle was thought by many to be criminal. This book also exposes the raw human emotions of one sided love affair between William Lee and his young traveling companion. Queer is a classic novel written in true Burroughs' style and welcomes the reader into the dark side of life.
