The Place of Dead Roads : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs' Best Book
Review: (...) This is the best of Burroughs's novels. Unfortunately it seems to be a forgotten masterpiece, with superficial fans tending to prefer his earlier, better-known stuff (Junkie, Naked Lunch, Queer), the stuff that's in print and more notorious than his later, finer work. I'm so glad that there's been a reprinting of this book - I would absolutely recommend it to any Burroughs fan as compulsory reading, and to anyone else who wants to read a lost 20th century masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: insanely brilliant
Review: I would have to re-read this book to give a just review, so I will cut to the chase... I remember being stunned at the brilliance of this work when I read it. If you've only read 'junky' then you could never fathom just how good Burroughs can be!

Rating:
Summary: Hyperdimensional and ecstatically conceived
Review: In "The Place of Dead Roads," the second volume of the "Cities of the Red Night" trilogy, Burroughs continues his scathing deconstruction of Western society, making a murderously funny mockery of hypocrisy and hum-drum normality. Written with a practiced mix of anger and nostalgia, "The Place of Dead Roads" is like a prison confession written in some other dimension, a rollicking synthesis of Burroughs tropes old and new. Join Kim Carsons on his nightmare quest to rid the planet of its addictions: it's a surreal and haunting literary journey, the last 100 pages of which witness Burroughs at his visionary best.

Rating:
Summary: fairly entertaining but not b's best
Review: the book starts off well with some deft writing on wild west style duels and guns--burroughs knows his shootin' irons. then there is some good stuff on dividing humankind (and et's too) into johnsons (the good) and non-johnsons (the bad, including the english, the arabs, the venusians, but not the french, who are johnsons.) along way are a few one-liner jokes so funny you have to slap your leg. and in the middle of the book are two wonderful
chapters, one evoking a feeling of loss, the next about a fake rural town peopled by fake rustics, johsonville, that is absolutely hilarious. and toward the end there's an astonishingly funny chapter on kim carsons, the gunslinging hero, being fitted for a proper english suit by an english tailor after entering the shop in a medieval cape that reeks of black palgue. and then near the end as well there's a proper bourroughs's list of the inner circles of hell, including bald, mid-aged men giving birth to centipedes from egg sacks on their heads. that is, there's b at his hallucinatory wildest here and there, but for too many pages there's just dull claptrap attempting to hold the sharper visions together in a ho-hum good vs evil (johnson vs non-) plot. not as stylistically even as b's more sober books such as junky and queer, and not as consistently stoned as naked lunch, but definitely readable.

Rating:
Summary: A fast-paced space/time adventure through the very wild west
Review: The Place of Dead Roads is the second book in the Western Lands trilogy, which begins with Cities of the Red Night and concludes with The Western Lands. The story begins in late 19th century American west, following the exploits of the young, homosexual, opiate addicted gunslinger, Kim Carsons. We follow Carsons and his gang, the Wild Fruits, through wired western mythology and sci-fi space/time travelling adventure as they attempt to organize the world-wide "Johnson Family", to overthrow the humans infected by a venusian virus which turns them into religious snooping control freaks. All the elements of classic Burroughs are here. There's an abundance of drug frenzy, violence and wicked black humour. This book, or its prequel Cities of the Red Night, are ideal places to start for anyone who is approaching Burroughs for the first time; as well as being thoroughly challenging and entertaining to the initiated. This Trilogy (li! ke much of Burroughs' work reading the 3 in sequence is not specifically required) is my personal favourite of Burroughs. I highly recommend it, but be warned: it will change the way you dream forever! R.I.P Bill. We miss you.

Rating:
Summary: a show down and shoot out of visions
Review: This i regard as Burrough's most accomplished work. It crystallizes and synthesizes the Naked Lunch method of chaos, the cut up poetry of the Soft Machine and the newly found appreciation of the prose tale like in the Wild Boys. Though there's very little of the characteristic hipster imagery, this distorted Western movie style novel conjures up an even more shocking world than Junky did. Its humour that of a crocodile wanting to smoke a good cigar with you. And what about feeling compassion for a shootist that wants to destroy the borders of humanity? Without a word too many, despite all the repitition, a desert vista of all that Burroughs stands for is created from a vultures point of view, with some expeditions into the jungle of his dreams and fears. And what is it you find there? Not just a simple answer to the questions of life. It leaves you on your own confronted with the cruel caleidoscope of truth. You thought you could make a deal with good and bad? Read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Twisted and beautiful novel with wonderful descriptions
Review: This is only a little bit more coherent than Naked Lunch, but Burroughs seems to have become better at description since NL -- the descriptions of scenery, people, and everything else, are perhaps the best I've ever seen in the English language. Some people may be turned off by (or drawn by!) the graphic drug use, homosexual pedophilia, etc, but that's just a sideshow: Burroughs is a master of language and wording, and that's the big reason to read the book. This book is a must-read, even if only to see someone pushing the limits of language, writing, and imagination. See why the Beats considered Burroughs a literary mentor.

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs at his Best
Review: This may be the most accessible of all of Burrough's books, and proves his brilliant command of the language. He starts with an incredibly strong novel, and then takes us on a head trip through the joys and evils of modern civilization. Remarkably coherent, considering the ground that he covers. Like a few other things, you really can't explain it - just try it and you'll see.

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs at his Best
Review: This may be the most accessible of all of Burrough's books, and proves his brilliant command of the language. He starts with an incredibly strong novel, and then takes us on a head trip through the joys and evils of modern civilization. Remarkably coherent, considering the ground that he covers. Like a few other things, you really can't explain it - just try it and you'll see.

Rating:
Summary: THE MASTER DOES IT AGAIN
Review: WILLIAM BURROUGHS AT HIS BEST, PERIOD. DOING HIS VERY OWN VERSION OF NIETSZCHE'S "THE GENEALOGY OF MORAL", BURROUGHS TAKES US ON A TIME AND SPACE SPANNING TRIP TROUGH THE REALMS OF THE SLAVE-GODS, THE LANGUAJE VIRUS (EVER PRESENT IN BURROUGHS MITHOLOGY) AND THE INVADED WOMAN-VESSELS FOR THE CATHOLIC DECEASE, BURROUGHS PROVES ONCE MORE THAT HE CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS WITH LANGUAJE, A TRULY MASTERPIECE THAT EXPANDS SEVERAL UNIVERSES WIDE. DO NOT DARE TO MISS IT.