Head West with Broken Neck

by P.H. Mountain

"…a raucous ride into a life spent living in the moment." — The US Review of Books

Head West with Broken Neck, Vol. 3 of THE WORLD IS MY ASHTRAY, reconnects readers to P.H. Mountain's hilarious, fast-paced world of questionable decisions gone horribly right. Then predictably wrong. And then, somehow, surprisingly right again.

Paul and Lonnie remain holed up in the mountain ghost town of Eldora, Colorado, where Paul completes his first novel with the indispensable assistance of acid, speed, and rivers of Budweiser. Now a dangerously legal twenty-one-year-old man, he tests the patience of every barstool and bartender within twenty-five miles—finding all the pleasure and pain the bottle promises.

“Unless the Hindus were right, I’d never died before, and the Hindus couldn’t possibly be right, could they? Those dudes f**king starved as perfectly edible cows strolled past, flaunting their exalted bovine existence with each steaming cow patty they dumped on Gandhi Plaza. Still, pain this overwhelming implied death, didn’t it?”

With a few extra bucks in their pockets, Paul, Lonnie, and the dogs take off on a wanderlust road trip in the battered Vanship Econoline, crisscrossing the bohemian American West in search of those final reckless days of youth. But the slow, relentless drip of time presents challenges that weed and whiskey can no longer solve. As adulthood looms, Paul and Lonnie are forced to confront hard truths—about themselves, each other, and the inevitable future.

Spontaneous travel, excruciating pain, and bursts of hilarity punctuate this next chapter in P.H. Mountain’s darkly funny coming-of-age memoir. Set in the 90s just before the tech revolution, Head West with Broken Neck is a full embrace of reckless living, an unapologetic testament to the wild beauty of attacking life with the throttle open and arms spread wide.

“I collapsed backward, pulling Lonnie on top of my chest. We rolled around the bed, clutched each other spastically, howled like old beat poets in old bars in old ‘Frisco town. I reached around and extracted the last vestiges of orgasm from her soul, hoping we could just die, just f**king croak right then and there, because nothing would ever get much better or mean much more.”

Fans of Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, Bukowski, Kerouac, and Anthony Bourdain will find P.H. Mountain's voice both savage and soulful—a literary outlaw chasing truth wherever it may hide.

328 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2025

About the author

P.H. Mountain was partially educated at the University of Minnesota before earning his undergraduate degree from the Boulder Public Library and his master's from The Sundown Saloon. At 29, he founded a software company that continues to thrive. He has lived in three different vehicles, fifteen different states, and five different countries, but he generally considers Colorado home. In a moment of clarity, Paul married his wife Stella in 2001. To this day, he still considers her the luckiest woman alive.

Reviews

[Christa Grosvenor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another great book in this series !

I find the author hilarious and his storytelling capabilities are top tier . At times you could almost lose yourself in the story and forget this is someone’s actual life you’re reading about.

The use of the term “ciggie” does highly irritate me . Although, that could be mostly due to my remembrance of also using the term. 😂😂

I almost died laughing when Eddie nearly fell out of the van. Which is such an odd thing to say and in no way do I find the near death experience comical but the abrupt way the story was told was well done.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one as much as the other two in the series . I’m excited for the next ! I really enjoy this method of memoir . The spreading out and separating each life change/decision into separate books. It keeps me on my toes!

I did not expect the ending we got with this book. I thought for sure Lonnie was going to prep her goodbyes. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it but I’m excited to see where we go next ! Highly recommend this read . 😁❤️

[Jason Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 64 of 2025

4.5 stars.

Book 3 of PH Mountain’s The World is My Ashtray series. Much like Book 1 and 2, book 3 did NOT disappoint!
Book takes place primarily in the early 90s in Colorado with a road trip out to the west coast.
I’ve said it about the other books, even if it’s only 10% true, he has lived one helluva life! lol
It’s a fun, fun, drunk wild ride!
Enjoy it! I certainly did!

[Richard Kravitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book in the series because I am from California and have spent time in Oregon so I was familar with many of the places they visited in the "Head West" part of the story. And of course I did live in Boulder for a tumultuous year in 83-84 when I turned 25-->26, visited Minneapolis-St. Paul last summer for the Disc Golf Masters World championships and ran around for years until I married at 35. But I did have kids!!

I finished the 3 books of Pauls wild years as my final selections of 2025 and we'll see the impact in 2026. Read all 3 electronically in about 10 days.

Next year is Atlas Shrugged for sure, no excuses now that I am comfortable with e-books and can enlarge the print :)

[Mark Tournear · Rating 5 out of 5]

impossible to put down.

I read all three books back to back, and I’m already hungry for more. Can’t wait to see what goes down with Paul and Lonnie in the Midwest!

[Kameel Keshav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant rendition by Paul Mountain on this third installment! Has to be one of my favorite authors these days and cannot wait for the next installment!