The Place of Dead Roads

The Place of Dead Roads by William S. Burroughs, published in 1983, is the second book of the trilogy that begins with Cities of the Red Night and concludes with The Western Lands. It chronicles the story of a homosexual gunfighter in the American West, beginning with the gunfighter’s death in 1899, incorporates contrasting themes and time travel episodes, and makes use of Burroughs’ extensive knowledge of firearms. Non-linear in construction, it makes use of vivid imagery and repetition but does not employ the famous “cut-up” method of literary collage used in his earlier novels.

Works by William S. Burroughs
Novels and novellas
  • And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
  • Junkie
  • Queer
  • Naked Lunch
  • The Soft Machine
  • The Ticket That Exploded
  • Dead Fingers Talk
  • Nova Express
  • The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
  • The Wild Boys
  • Port of Saints
  • Blade Runner (a movie)
  • Cities of the Red Night
  • Ghost of Chance
  • The Place of Dead Roads
  • The Western Lands
  • My Education: A Book of Dreams
  • The Cat Inside
Short story collections
  • Interzone
  • Exterminator!
  • Ah Pook Is Here
  • Tornado Alley
  • The Burroughs File
  • The Third Mind
  • Time
  • The Exterminator
  • Minutes to Go
Essay collections
  • The Electronic Revolution
  • The Third Mind
  • Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology
  • The Adding Machine: Collected Essays
Non-fiction
  • The Yage Letters
  • The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
  • Letters to Allen Ginsberg
  • The Burroughs File
  • Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs
Recordings
  • Call Me Burroughs
  • Dead City Radio
  • Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales
  • Real English Tea Made Here
  • The "Priest" They Called Him
Films
  • The Junky's Christmas
  • Ah Pook Is Here
  • Naked Lunch (film)


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