A long time ago I used to write pulp novels for various publishers. Stewart wrote many too. We had some sort of dispute, I don't even remember what it was about, and I am no longer in touch with him. Almost 40 years have past, and I am an old man. I have two young kids.Stewart was a stalwart friend of William Burroughs. Once I bought a first edition of "Junky" and Burroughs autographed it for me. I told Burroughs I paid a nickel for it at a street sale. Burroughs said "it is worth a lot more". Stewart was embarrassed I told him that.Anyway, this is an authentic, gritty, period-perfect novel that captures the atmosphere, the words and the actual streets of the Lower East Side in the 1970's. It is so real you feel you are there.An excellent novel, by a writer who intrinsically knows his craft, even if he typed it on a beige electric typewriter.If you not only want to know about NYC at that time, but actually be immersed in a simulacrum of it, seek out this novel by all means.I have recently found my original, autographed first edition, and reread it. It holds up perfectly.
