A heady mix of desire, humour, pain and politics, Burroughs autobiographical novel finds a queer man in the American expat community of early-1950s Mexico City on a desperate quest for satisfaction.
Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs' only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies that paved the way for his masterpiece, Naked Lunch.
Set in Mexico City during the early fifties, Queer follows William Lee's hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene. As Lee breaks down, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges; a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the Ugly American at his ugliest.
A haunting tale of possession and exorcism, Queer is also a novel with a history of secrets, as this new edition reveals.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141189918
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 160 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 11 mm
Queer is a stunner. A neglected work that became legendary in its very absence. - Los Angeles Times
At its heart, William Burroughs’ Queer is a tale about the desperation and despair of unrequited love. It begins where Junky left off, with Burroughs’ literary alter ego William Lee skulking around Mexico City in the... More
i rly enjoyed this book overall, it wasn’t what i was expecting but instead of a romance, it really took a deep dive into concepts of unrequited love and mainly, in my opinion focuses on the act of chasing highs and... More
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