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I enjoyed the story when I read it as a novel so I enjoyed the play.It seems appropo to the times even now but I think the music needs to be updated.My own experience was way back in the 90's,not much different than the 70's or 80's.I was small-town U.S.A. so found similarities with small town U.K.
The book was first published in 1996, and so many may feel that it has dated. Told in first-person narrative by a wide range of characters, the novel mainly focuses on David "Tar" Lawson and Gemma Brogan, two teenagers who run away from home to Bristol. Admittedly, I have very little experience with the world of drugs, addition and rehabilitation, so it is impossible for me to deem the book's authenticity. Before reading, I had very little of idea as to what went on in the minds of people like those found in "Junk".
We were scared because there might be no more smack at the other end." What is apparent to everyone but the ignorant teenagers is that the much-celebrated freedom from their parents is only temporary - soon enough they make themselves prisoners of a far more restrictive lifestyle, one that eventually strips away all their opportunities for a decent life. Why do they let themselves become so helplessly addicted. Their joy at their initial independence gradually gives way to a de-habilitating desire for heroin, and watching their world shrink down to a dismal cycle of drug abuse is (in my opinion) vividly portrayed by Burgess. An especially harrowing passage describes Gemma's feelings after a failed attempt at going cold turkey: "I knew I was really a junkie this time because, what's a junkie scared of. By the end of the novel (though I don't confess to being any sort of expert on the subject), I had some inkling as to why some people do the things they do for drugs. What goes on in an addict's mind.
What drives a person to take drugs. The subject matter tackles such a weighty issue that it's almost inevitable that readers would be divided. Gemma runs away simply because she is not getting on with her strict parents, but her loud and stubborn personality (which often slips into obnoxiousness) is the reason Tar gives up the relative safety of the anarchists squat for the home of the drug-addicted Rob and Lily. One reader may find it enlightening, sobering and realistic; another will find it dated and irrelevant. Not Aids, not overdosing, like you might think.
Why do they go to such lengths to get their drugs. Whether this upsets your reading pleasure or not depends on how well you can relate to teenagers of an older generation.As I said at the beginning of the review, "Junk" is a book that you'll find meaningful or worthless. From there, it is a downward spiral into desperate addiction, as Tar turns to shoplifting and Gemma becomes a prostitute in order to fund their need for heroin. "Junk" is an immensely difficult book to review, simply because it's so many different things to different readers. Tar and Gemma's stories are closely intertwined, and it's hard to place blame on just one of the teens for the predicament they find themselves in. Tar is the first to run away, (understandable considering his abusive father and drunken mother) but he encourages Gemma to join him. Surrounding them are chapters devoted to others in their immediate circle: Richard and Vonny, the anarchists who do their best to help the teens, Rob and Lily, the hopeless addicts who live each day to the fullest, and even the teenagers' parents, who recount their devastation and sense of failure.
These chapters help round out the point-of-view of the main narrative (for instance, Vonny recounts how spoilt Gemma is, a trait that Gemma certainly doesn't recognize in herself), as well as reveal information about grey characters - the storekeeper Skolly for example, seems like a helpful guy at first, though several chapters on we realize that he's unknowingly part of the cycle of addition that entraps Gemma. The controversial subject matter means that audiences will have widely different opinions on how effective it is as a reading text, probably depending on their own experience (or inexperience) with drugs. What I can say is that Burgess's award-winning novel (winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, to be precise) had me engrossed from start to finish. There's really no way to tell until you've read it. Finding a place amongst a group of anarchists, the two eventually move in with Rob and Lily, two fellow teenagers who get them hooked on heroin. There is some truly heartbreaking stuff in here, as the teens first try to convince themselves (and the reader) that they are completely in control of their lives, then justify their illegal actions, and finally find that they're unable to break their habit when a friend gets pregnant. However, it's worth saying that even though it was written in the 90s, Burgess sets it in the 1980s - as such, many components (such as the song lyrics that head several chapters) are intended to be old-fashioned.
For what it's worth, I found it a worthwhile read, and would particularly recommend it to parents who want to share the subject with young teens (thirteen to sixteen year olds, possibly) as Burgess describes drug-use, sex, prostitution, violence and unwanted pregnancy without ever resorting to gratuitous descriptions or by abandoning everything to despair, despite the ambiguous ending.
The characters in the novel go through many struggles and the biggest struggle is the challenge to get off `junk', or heroin. I would strongly recommend this novel to teenagers who are curious about drug-taking. `As for the people here. What I find fascinating is the way Burgess describes the characters and the settings which provide the readers with an image that is very real. Unlucky to be born into a family with alcoholic parents; unlucky to have met Gemma, his girlfriend, who introduced him to drugs' unlucky to be the only one caught. Lily and Rob are senior users of junk.
Partying, taking drugs, even prostitution is nothing new to them. Tar, the protagonist, is sensible and responsible but unlucky. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal, the novel Junk by Melvin Burgess successfully allows readers to gain insights into what teenage drug life was like in Bristol during the mid 1980s. Furthermore, his style includes conversations and slang words which help make his fictional characters more realistic. The novel Junk is easy to understand and is suitable for people of all ages. It is a fast-paced book that depicts the daunting reality of drugs. To conclude, Junk is a compelling novel of truths about drug-use and certainly a must-read for teenagers.
`The thing I have to remember is that I'm weak and that they're weak' said Tar after being in the `detox' centre for a while. Throughout the novel, Burgess focuses on four characters in particular: Tar, Gemma, Lily and Rob. some are pure invention, some are seeded from real people and then fictionalized, some are fictitious with bits of real people stirred in,' commented Burgess in the introduction of his novel. He represents the typical teenager: confident to say `no' to drugs but slowly being dragged in due to peer-pressure. Is he strong enough to stand firm and quit drugs or is the temptation towards heroin too strong for him to handle. Burgess, using the style of a teenager, writes his novel in the form of diary entries by different people.
Burgess's "Smack," written a year before his short novel "Junk," is a terrific novel that captivies and evokes emotion. "Junk," however, is a poorly written screen-play version of that novel. The point of creating such a thing is beyond me. He should have stopped while he was ahead with "Smack."
I was wrong.Written by a man who obviously has never experienced heroin use or addiction first (or Im guessing even second) hand, this woeful book patronises it's "teen" readers with old-guy-trying-to-be-hip teen speak (newsflash Burgess, no-one. I find it interesting that the writer has gotten away with such terrible writing and such a lack of understanding of heroin addiction simply by aiming this poor attempt at a novel at "young adults". Is it because he could not get published if he tried to write for grown ups.I picked up this book in an airport about to leave Los Angeles for London, 9 days after detoxing cold turkey from heroin and the Burroughs aping title and cover imagery made me think it would be an interesting read. NO-ONE calls heroin "junk" anymore) and it's linear plotting.Honestly, I was amazed that this book got published and then relentelessly promoted by a bunch of wannabe "hip" english teachers and social workers who again had no clue as to what the heroin scene was all about, as a book that could tell the kids "Drugs are, you know, bad and stuff."Steer your teens to Trainspotting or even Junky if you want them to know what heroin is all about. Or, if you want them to think you are an out of touch old fool, give the a copy of this book.
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