In this brilliant, witty, fond burlesque of boys' adventure books, noted American novelist Gilbert Sorrentino weaves the tale of Bud, Nort, and Dick and their search for treasure in the Wild West. What makes their story so unusual is that it takes place entirely in the interrogative, and that Sorrentino's fluency with genre conventions is such that the adventurers survive this sustained rhetorical testing just as they do blistering heat, savage sandstorms, and the evil machinations of Del Pinzo and his sinister companion Zapto. When old Billee croaked out that it was a-goin' to be the killer to out-killer all killers, did Bud begin to whimper uncontrollably, like a fool woman lost in the bresh? Did he mebbe wish that he'd never heared o' desert gold? Was there, in effect, wild fear loose in this neck of the woods? Is 'neck of the woods' an example of a thwarted ekphrasis?