As a companion piece to my recent (10/30/11) list of books featuring alcohol and alcoholism, I list here books (mostly novels) that prominently feature (mostly) illegal drugs as part of their stories. Some would criticize the authors for romanticizing drugs or making them seem glamorous, and this does happen to some extent. But just as often, the books show the negative sides of drugs and, especially, drug addiction.
Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
Confessions of an English Opium Eater, by Thomas de Quincy
The Doors of Perception, by Aldous Huxley
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson
Junkie, by William Burroughs
Less Than Zero, by Brett Easton Ellis
The Man with the Golden Arm, by Nelson Algren
Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
Requiem for a Dream, by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh
…and much of the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud.
I note, as a point of interest, that all of the books on this list are by male authors. We know that both men and women take drugs, but perhaps only men can take them as part of a macho, "guy" persona, and/or a bohemian, artistic, "living on the wild side" persona? Do women who take a lot of drugs simply seem pitiful? Is "living on the wild side" good for men's images but bad for women's?
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