Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985,Queeris an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel,William S Burroughs' only realist love story and amontage of comic-grotesque fantasiesthat paved the way for his masterpiece,Naked Lunch.For more than three decades, while its writer's world fame increased,Queerremained unpublished because of itsforthright depiction of homosexual longings.Set in the corrupt and spectral Mexico City of the forties,Queeris the story of William Lee, a man afflicted with both acute heroin withdrawal and romantic and sexual yearnings for an indifferent user named Eugene Allerton. The narrative is punctuated by Lee's outrageous "routines" —brilliant comic monologues that foreshadowNaked Lunch— yet the atmosphere is heavy with foreboding.In his extraordinary introduction, Burroughs reflects on the shattering events in his life that lay behind this work.