"This is Burroughs's most accessible, tightly knit work of fiction. .
. . Laid out as a stripped-down movie script it's almost as if this is
the form that Burroughs has always needed."--Kirkus Reviews
Before he was gunned down in the Palace Chop House in Newark, New
Jersey, in October 1935, Arthur Flegenheimer, alias Dutch Schultz, was
generally considered New York's number one racketeer. Taken to a
hospital following the gangland shooting, Schultz survived for two days.
His room was guarded around the clock, and a police stenographer was
stationed at his bedside in the hope of learning who is assailant or
assailants were. Instead, what was recorded were Dutch's fevered
fantasies, stemming from his childhood and youth, as well as his recent
past. Taking these "last words" as a starting point, Burroughs has
created in this work a fantasia on Dutch Schultz, a narrative that takes
the form of a film script and explores themes including crime,
addiction, and power.