Back then, Kuritzkes was familiar only with Burroughs’ more surreal works “Naked Lunch” and “The Yage Letters.”

In an effort not to lose this handsome young man, Lee convinces Allerton to join him on a road trip through Latin America in search of yagé, a drug Lee craves.

Knowing Burroughs' work, through his other books “Naked Lunch” or “The Yagé Letters,” I had a preconceived notion of what the world of Burroughs was like, narratively.

Doctor Cotter shows up towards the end of the book, but in the book, they get to Doctor Cotter’s hut and think they are going to get the yagé, but that possibility is closed, and they return to civilization not having gotten what they came for.

Lee uses heroin to escape the feeling of triviality, but when Allerton warms up to him, Lee’s focus shifts to a new drug: yagé.