
The Place of Dead Roads
William Burroughs(Author)
Fourth Estate Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 29. April 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-00-734193-1 (ISBN)
Description
A controversial reworking of well-trodden American myth by the author of 'Naked Lunch'. This surreal fable, set in America's Old West, features a cast of notorious characters: The Crying Gun, who breaks into tears at the sight of his opponent; The Priest, who goes into gunfights giving his adversaries the last rites; and The Nihilistic Kid himself, Kim Carson, who, with a succession of beautiful sidekicks, sets out to challenge the morality of small-town America. Fantastical and humorous, 'The Place of Dead Roads' continues William Burroughs' exploration of society's controlling forces - the State, the Church, women, literature, drugs - with a style that is utterly unique in twentieth-century literature.
Reviews / Votes
'It's a comedy and a nightmare of Bosch-like visions, extraordinarily precise vivid visualisations, outrageous ideas like mind bombs.' Allen Ginsberg '"The Place of Dead Roads" is Burroughs at his very best, with the same remarkable ear for dialogue and effortless originality.' Guardian 'The most radical innovator in fiction since Joyce.' Angela Carter 'Burroughs has a paranoid vision, but as he himself said: the psychotic is someone who knows what's really going on.' J. G. Ballard, Sunday TimesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
maps
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Weight
192 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-734193-1 (9780007341931)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
William Burroughs was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1914. Immensely influential among the Beat writers of the 1950s - notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg - he already had an underground reputation before the appearance of his first important book, 'Naked Lunch'. Originally published by the daring and influential Olympia Press (the original publishers of Henry Miller) in France in 1959, it aroused great controversy on publication and was not available in the US until 1962 and in the UK until 1964. The book was adapted for film by David Cronenberg in 1991. William Burroughs died in 1997.