Queer

The definitive 25th-anniversay edition of Burroughs's legendary second novel. Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queeris 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, Queerfollows 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, Queeris also a novel with a history of secrets, as this new edition reveals.

William S. Burroughs, widely recognized as one of the most culturally influential and innovative artists of the twentieth century, is the author of Junky, Naked Lunch, and Interzone, among other works.
Leading Burroughs textual scholar and critic, Oliver Harris edited The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959 and Penguin's fiftieth-anniversary edition of Junky.