Brilliant book by
William S. Burroughs that begins the Nova Trilogy (the other books in the trilogy being
The Ticket That Exploded and
Nova Express respectively).
In it he unflinchingly explores the notion of how the human condition is one of manipulation through addiction. It is a montage of various paranoid sex/drug/language/fear addicted characters through space and time. The "adventure" is spliced with Burrough's characteristic cut-up style, and chock full his vividly perverse poetry. Perhaps the strangest is the recurring image of the hanging orgasm, where a prisoner is hanged to death while simultaneously achieving orgasm.
Read it. It's a mindfuck.