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Review: 'Junk' by Melvin Burgess
“Junk”. Bit of an ambiguous title. At
first glance, I thought I would be reading a tale about
household garbage or things people had thrown out to waste.
Yes, in spite of the bright picture of the red syringe on the
front cover, I embarked upon the first few pages wondering why
my mum had bought me a book about refuse. Of course, she must
have neglected the blurb on the back describing the novel as a
‘love affair’ with heroin.
Junk is in fact the story of two teenage runaways who both
leave home to go and live in Bristol to escape the constraints
of the parental nest. It is what many of us dream of doing at
thirteen or fourteen: screaming a big ‘up yours’ to the
parents and breaking free of curfews, kissing bans, forbidden
loud music and restricted hemlines. However, as the main
characters Gemma and Tar become entwined in the empty world of
drugs, theft and prostitution, it becomes clear that squatting
in the city does not have the glamorous appeal of the fantasy.
Gemma’s rebellious attitude to life is at first quite
liberating, but when she becomes addicted to heroin and brings
Tar down with her, she is revealed as a selfish spoilt brat.
Tar leaves home because of the violent relationship between
his alcoholic parents: whereas Gemma runs away simply because
she has to obey a few rules. The narrative alternates between
the different perspectives of Gemma, Tar and the other teenage
heroin users, as well as focussing on the parents’ viewpoint.
Burgess’s insight into the minds of both teenagers and adults
provides a complex psychological subtext that plays out the
fragility of the parental role and demonstrates how easily it
can be destroyed. Junk is not just an account of the
subversive desires of the teenager: it illustrates the
complexities of the parent - child relationship and shows how
naivety and innocence on both sides inevitably results in
tragedy.
In some ways, Melvin Burgess’s novel swiftly invokes a
morality yarn warning about the bleak reality of running away
from home. This can be quite irritating for the rebel, because
it implies that anyone who disobeys their parents will end up
pumped with drugs selling themselves on the streets. However,
on the other hand, the sympathetic approach to anarchy and the
criticism of bureaucracy results in a novel that challenges
the political and social repression of our society. Tar and
Gemma’s teenage years are essentially tragic: Burgess warns
how this could be avoided. An exciting read, and a novel I
found hard to put down.
8/10
Caroline Sams
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