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.