Speed
Subtitle: and, Kentucky ham
By: William S. Burroughs, Jr.
Contributors: Burroughs, William S., 1947-
Publisher: Overlook Press
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Woodstock, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 363
Subjects: Autobiographical fiction, American.; Alienation (Social psychology) -- Fiction.; Drug withdrawal symptoms -- Fiction.; Methamphetamine abuse -- Fiction.; Recovering addicts -- Fiction.; Drug addicts -- Fiction.; East Village (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction.; Kentucky -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Other titles: Speed ; Kentucky ham; Kentucky ham.
Description: A methedrine-inspired odyssey, a painfully candid exploration of the horizons of the speed freak's world, from the drug-hazed fantasy of New York's infamous East Village to the terrifying reality of a Federal narcotics hospital, Burroughs Jr.'s two novels present a vision of alienated youth at its most raw and uncensored. Speed follows Billy as he hustles for dope and money, crashing in garbage-strewn apartments and guiding a paranoid friend through the perilous city streets.

With tough, gritty detachment, he describes the stages of his own drug addiction and physical and emotional deterioration. Kentucky Ham takes him from the squalor of the East Village crash pads to his father's literary hideaway in Tangier, and finally to incarceration at the Federal Narcotics Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Through both these autobiographical novels, William S. Burroughs, Jr., tells a story of generational isolation that is as relevant today as when it was first written.