William Lee

William Lee is the narrator of the story though his character drops out of much of the plot, particularly in the middle of the novel. Instead, Lee's direct experience acts as a defining structure that provides an introduction and conclusion to the events of the novel. Lee is a drug dealer and addict on the run after killing two police officers. He uses his various connections to make his way out of the United States and into Mexico. After that, the reader is left to judge if anything that happens is real of hallucinated.

Lee is clearly based on the author, himself, William S. Burroughs, who went on a similar trip around the world in order to avoid arrest in the United States. The characters described reflect the people that Burroughs met in the many exotic locations he visited during his trip. In addition, the experience of...