What do You think about The Place Of Dead Roads (2001)?
This is the second of the Red Night trilogy; I have yet to read the other two.Readers unfamiliar with Burroughs should, as always be warned that, like most of his works, this is hallucinatory, disjoint, violent, and graphic.However, as always, it is leavened by wacky black humor, and vivid writing that has a paradoxical dark beauty.It's more narrative than his cut-up works, which took language to near-Joycean-Wakean extremes.There is a Western narrative of sorts, although there is considerable time-jumping. It centers on the mission, if one could call it that, of Kim Carson and his band of randy and often transvestite outlaws, and the outrages they commit to save the planet from itself, and make Earth safe for non-linear thought and the dissolution of the system. The usual conspiracies, repulsive and threatening invertebrate, reptilian and alien life forms, and bizarre sex acts taken to the level of absurdity also make their appearance.
—Ed Smiley
More homo-mysticism and rod rubbing from W S Burroughs, probably the greatest writer in the "action" genre. Faster in some parts than others, like most things written by W.S.B. it is both a great tale unto itself and development upon Cities of the Red Night. As usual Burroughs makes silly putty newspaper prints of the truth as an attempt to reproduce his own visions. The outer space polemic had less of an impact on me, as I really see it as a metaphor for occultist exploration of inner space. Burroughs would like to marry the two, but I might just be too square to be the minister, even thought I thoroughly enjoy his treatment of both themes. For me the winner was the continuation of sexual communication of language thematic.
—Levon
I read this book, and its prequel, Cities of the Red Night, for the first time when I was in college, and a lot of it went over my head. Interestingly (and perhaps because of this), I also came out of it convinced that Burroughs was a genius, and that his every word should be taken as the Gospel Truth. Looking at it now, I "get" what he's saying a lot better, and I find that I disagree with him more.This book begins as a gay Western, with some sci fi interludes, and gradually becomes more bizarre and non-chronological. The protagonist is Kim Carsons, who may or may not be a fictional character from the writings of "William Seward Hall," a man who died in a shootout at the turn of the century, and presumably an alter-ego for Burroughs himself. Carsons is a misfit, a rebel, an expert shootist, and an insatiable homophile. We watch Carsons as he develops from a shy but dangerous teenager into the leader of a movement called "the Johnson Family," which, Burroughs explains, was a term "to designate good bums and thieves," which was "elaborated into a code of conduct." In the book, it elaborates still further, into a vast international organization fighting authority and preparing humanity for the evolutionary leap it must take to colonize the stars. Much of the book is actually propaganda for Burroughs' own views regarding sexuality, conformity, the State, space exploration, human transcendence, and gun rights. For all that, Burroughs is a skillful artist, who doesn't allow polemic to overwhelm his prose - in fact, at times exactly the opposite takes place. Burroughs was that rarest of combinations, a poet and a political thinker, and only rarely did he lose sight of the art in his work. It is probably for this reason that he remains so influential. While in some way each of his books is a rant in favor of his own viewpoint, he never descends to the transparency of an Ayn Rand. Burroughs allowed creativity to dominate, which is probably why some of his "genius" insights into politics seem questionable to me now. They are unsystematic, often the result of trying to push a stray thought to its logical conclusion, and intended to be more shocking than insightful. He is also an expert eroticist, although that will be disturbing to anyone who is unprepared for such explicit scenes of gay sex. This was one area I got more out of the second time around.This book is less explicitly misogynist than its predecessor, but there remains a disdain/disinterest/suspicion of women in the subtext. Women characters are rare, and they are often disgusting, evil, and/or stupid. The exception is Salt Chunk Mary, a de-sexualized grande dame of Burroughs' imagined underworld. She isn't particularly well-developed as a character, although the same could be said of many of the male characters. At least she never turns out to be part of the alien conspiracy to enslave humanity, which is itself a concession on Burroughs' part.For all the criticisms I've put into this review, it remains a a very enjoyable work of fiction, and earns four stars for being something I'm glad I took the time to return to.
—Michael
