Queer

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.

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.

The definitive text of William S. Burroughs's early, long-unpublished novel, reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, set to be adapted for film directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is a haunting tale of possession and exorcism. Both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, it is both Burroughs's 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, the protagonist of Burroughs's debut novel Junky, a man afflicted with acute heroin withdrawal and romantic yearnings for Eugene Allerton. As Lee breaks down over the course of his hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges, a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the ugly American at his ugliest. Now a cult classic and a highly regarded part of his oeuvre, reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, this edition of Queer features a contextualizing introduction by the eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris.

The definitive text of William S. Burroughs's early, long-unpublished novel, reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, set to be adapted for film directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is a haunting tale of possession and exorcism. Both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, it is both Burroughs's 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, the protagonist of Burroughs's debut novel Junky, a man afflicted with acute heroin withdrawal and romantic yearnings for Eugene Allerton. As Lee breaks down over the course of his hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges, a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the ugly American at his ugliest. Now a cult classic and a highly regarded part of his oeuvre, reissued on the seventieth anniversary of the year of its writing, this edition of Queer features a contextualizing introduction by the eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris.

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), amerikansk ‘kult’-forfatter, homoseksuel og narkoman, mest kendt for Nøgen frokost samt som vigtig del af beatgenerationen. QUEER er en roman om en rejse ind i den sydamerikanske jungle i jagten på yage, et indiansk rusmiddel. “Queer er en vigtig brik i et forfatterskab, der uden tvivl vil blive stående som et af de vigtigste i amerikansk litteratur i sidste halvdel af det 20. århundrede.” - Christen K. Thomsen i Fyens Stiftstidende . “En iskold tyrker af en bog. Let it roll. Bare læs. Queer er et godt nok sted at begynde, og oversættelsen er fuld af fart ...” - Peter Laugesen i Information .

LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday, selected by award-winning translator Frank Wynne. Since the dawn of literature, queer people have turned to writing to document their existence: to share great triumphs and deep despairs; to praise the virtues of their lover, extol their loneliness and proclaim their lust; to tell of their peculiarities and mundanities. For almost as long, they have been censored and bowdlerised, persecuted and relegated to the margins. No longer. Alive in these pages, readers will hear Homer's Achilles beat his chest in grief for the loss of his Patroclus and Paul Verlaine exalt the arsehole of his lover. They will see Alison Bechdel tiptoe then leap out of the closet and Juno Dawson come out again, but differently. They will bite and lick and groan in sweet surprise with Roz Kaveney, and fall in and out of love alongside Qiu Miaojin in Paris and Taiwan. They will recognise queer saints and icons – Audre Lorde, Larry Kramer, Virginia Woolf – and meet young queer, trans and non-binary writers – Keith Jarrett, Zhang Yueran and Niviaq Korneliussen, among others. Frank Wynne allows their voices to ring out, unashamed and unabashed, in eighty pieces that straddle the spectrum of queer existence: short stories, poems, essays, extracts and scenes from countries the world over, from ancient times to yesterday. Reviews for Queer : 'A landmark anthology of queer writing' BBC Front Row 'A landmark collection of LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday, featuring powerful voices in many literary forms' Spectator , Books of the Year 'A fearless and life-affirming celebration of what Gilbert Adair [...] called 'the second most natural thing in the world'' Review 31 , Books of the Year