Candy

Davies, Luke. Candy, New York: Ballantine Books, 1998

Set in Sydney Australia Candy tells a tale of a young couple’s addiction to heroin and each other and like all addictions it has euphoria and self destruction.

Once the narrator see’s Candy he is enthralled by her beauty and presence and they fall in love quickly.

Unfortunately their relationship turns sour when it becomes a threesome with heroin and they are forced to do abhorrent things to obtain money to sustain their habit.

Like many novels about drug culture Candy is filled with regret, pain and an abundance of dark humor but what sets Candy apart is its Australian setting where drug culture hasn’t really be explored so realistically.

Candy was adapted into a film starring Heath Ledger candy which was a moderate critical success but before watching the film read the book a rare Australian transgressive novel.

Trainspotting

Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting, New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Trainspotting is a fast paced novel about working class culture and heroin addiction in Edinburgh Scotland as it follows the lives of several young people in their punk lifestyles.

Told from multiple perspectives the novel could be considered book of short stories about each of the characters as they steal, go to concerts, cause mayhem, use heroin, drink pints, have abstract conversations, have relationships and run scams.

It heavily uses Scottish dialect in its writing adding more reality to the speech of these characters but also causing the reader to perhaps phonetically sound out some of the words.

It instantly got cult status for its depiction of a dark side of Scotland not often explored and for its black humor.

Trainspotting has adult content and should be read by people over 18 who are interested fast paced humorous read that goes against social norms.

Naked Lunch

Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch, Paris : Olympia Press, 1959.

William S Burroughs third and arguably his best novel follows the character William Lee though a series of surrealist adventures which heroin, dark humor and the odd Dr. Benaway all feature.

Originally very difficult from Burroughs to get published because of its controversial subject matter Naked Lunch has since become considered a great piece of American literature even Time Magazine named it in their 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 .

The book uses Burroughs famous cutaway technique which while it may makes the book sometimes confusing it never gets boring.

Darkly funny and very provocative and very good read.