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 Kidhimself, 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 theState, the Church, women, literature, drugs with a style that is utterly unique in twentieth-century literature.