And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

Item came before the scheduled time and was in excellent condition

Archetypal beat review of the seminal beat episode igniting the beat sensibility in Columbia's backyard; totally so beat. Take a breath, wipe your brow. Pour yourself a drink. Do some smack and crash in the mosh pit that is your girlfriend's apartment, if there's room. Better than the local news. A crime of passion among those so addled we are forever left to explain. The generation going nowhere heroically. Important historical context for those bursting with explosions in their head to go on the road...

First off, the release of this book is nothing short of a literary event: two literary icons known for their convention breaking novels collaborating in fiction and basing their book on a real life murder that happened within their circle of friends. "...HIPPOS..." is not as amazing as Kerouac publicly recalled it being, nor is it really the "minor work" that Burroughs dismissed it as. 64 years after it was written, this book takes on a new importance outside of it's literary merits. The work is instantly fascinating to me (as I think it will be to any fans of these writers) because it is an important early step in these artist's development. We can really get a sense of the early Beats relationships in the book, their wild energy and their literary fascinations. Kerouac and Burroughs wrote this book from two points of view. The Kerouac is the character Mike Ryko and Burroughs character is Will Dennison. For those of you aquainted with the circle of the Beats, Lucien Carr is the character Philip Tourian, David Kammerer is Al Ramsay, Edie Parker is Janie and Celine Young is Barbara....and so on. A note to the Kerouac fans....This was written before TOWN & THE CITY and has neither TCs sweeping Wolfean images or ON THE ROAD's spontanious bop prose. One can barely detect Jack's love for words in this book. His writing at times is a little whispy (which hints at his Wolfean tastes) but Jack never dives into the full breadth of nostalgia of which all Kerouac fans know he's capable. His writing is more clipped and economic. In fact one can imagine William Burroughs looking over Jack's pages and telling him, "Less literary, deary" In a rare moment of abandon, Jack does let his character Mike Ryko recount (at length) his wild experiences at sea but that monologue goes on a bit too long and disrupts the clipped flow of what is essentially a dime store crime novel. Bill's pages resemble his later though commonly dubbed "first book", JUNKY - a novel which I very much enjoyed for the same reason as I enjoyed this. It's early Burroughs, who writes his prose like an anthropologist or a police officer writes on his notepad, "Just the facts" ****But one should keep in mind when reading this book that THESE ARE NOT THE FACTS about what happened with the Carr/Kammerer murder case. Jack and Bill are intentionally creating fictionalized account. Their creative embellishments sometimes reveal their personal interests or preoccupations so it becomes hard to decipher what in the book is fact and what is fiction - much like most of Jack's novels. Critical Readers Be Warned: I think the reader should curve their expectations accordingly, with respect to the writers youth and inexperience. Though indeed an interesting work, "...Hippos.." is not in the vein of their groundbreaking work. it's a good and quick read, though the book ends abruptly. It seems that Kerouac and Burroughs either lost interest in writing it or were discouraged by Lucien's wishes for them not to continue the book. It was due to Lucien's influence that the book has remained so long out of the public's hands for 60 years. It was only published after Lucien passed in 2005 - RIP. If it's facts about the real events you want I'd suggest reading one of the many Kerouac or Burroughs biographies available - though many have contradicting information. It should be mentioned that James Grauerholtz's Afterward for the book will be quite helpful for those unaware of the true facts of the case. And we should all give a big thank you to Mr. Grauerholtz, executive of the Burroughs estate for publishing this book at long last. It really is a gift.

A book by Wm S Burroughs and Jack Kerouac written long ago that's supposed to be a true story about a murder that took place. Having just received it, I have not had the opportunity to read it yet, but I've heard of it and it's sure to be a hoot!

Great read. It's in the beginning of the relationship between Burroughs & Kerouac...the timeframe this book was written is referenced in other works by Kerouac, not sure if Burroughs references it. It's neat to read the chapters and be able to distinguish who wrote one. Highly recommend. Good, quick read

Absolutely phenomenal. Seeing my favorite authors in these rough, early stages of their writing gives my passion to live a sort of lifestyle that they cruise along with ease.

It's a good book but that Kerouac is wack. It's written in an erratic and flowery way, depicting drunk listless stoners with no direction. Given that it has very little plot it's an enjoyable read. All based on a true story too, which makes it awesome. It's basically a biography of Kerouac's life as a young adult living life with his friends. New England raised many great writers/poets (I have coincidentally lived down the street from Jack Frost and John Greenleaf Whittiers house) but I'd never checked out Kerouac. This isn't his best book in my opinion but it's a good read nonetheless.

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is an early novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs that has interested fans of both authors works for decades. Based on a tragic event within their inner circle, Hippos is a roman à clef novel told through the perspectives of Will Dennison (Burroughs) and Mike Ryko (Kerouac) in alternating chapters. Those familiar with the various figures of the Beat Generation will likely recognize a number of characters, although the story primarily concerns the relationship between Philip Tourian and Allen "Al" Ramsay, based on Lucien Carr and David Kammerer respectively. It's an intriguing story that was purposefully kept in the shadows for years, so how can you resist? I wont share it here, but if you're interested in learning about the publication obstacles Hippos endured the executor of the Burroughs estate, James Grauerholz, added an informative Afterword to the book. Prior to reading Hippos I was very familiar with the event it is based on and the history of the Beats. Since I started reading Burroughs, nearly a decade ago, he has become my favorite author whose work I cant stop reading. I was late to the party on this one mainly because I knew the story of Lucien Carr and David Kammerer already and not being all that interested in reading Kerouac. After having read it though, I'm surprised how much of my opinion on the Carr-Kammerer event has changed. The unique feature of Hippos is that it was written within a year of the tragic event it is based on when the memories the authors had of Carr and Kammerer were fresh. While I was reading the book I often wondered how much of the dialogue was taken directly from real life. Even if you're familiar with the events as I was, I'd strongly urge you to consider picking this one up. I had basically made up my mind on what kind of person I understood David Kammerer to be and Hippos made me reconsider things. Shortly after Hippos was published in 2008 a film was made that was also based on the event that inspired the book starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHann called Kill Your Darlings. Ben Foster, who plays Burroughs, gives an incredible performance as well. Perhaps after reading the book you can see the events come to life with the movie. Hippos is undoubtedly not the greatest example of either Burroughs or Kerouac's writing, but it's an excellent insight into how these two literary luminaries started out and grew over time. The story is ripe with sensationalism and intrigue that will keep you from wanting to put it down. Definitely add this one to your library!

This is a 5 stars book but I am giving it 4 because the book had no plastic protecting it and it had a big stain.

five stars

Este libro fue escrito a medias por William Burroughs y Jack Kerouac. Las credenciales beat son suficientes para que los admiradores de ambos se animen a leerlo.

If, like me, you are a big fan of Burroughs and Kerouac's eh 'solo efforts'; if you have raced through 'On The Road' while pitifully short on gas, and shot up on 'Junk' when you knew you shouldn't; if you have searched through 'Cities of the Red Night';if you have broken down in 'Big Sur' and shifted your way through all those frozen moments of 'Naked Lunch' then you will probably want to buy this book. It is the heretofore unpublished collaboration from 1944 between these two greats of Twentieh Century Literature, written as alternating chapters, one by Burroughs followed by one by Kerouac and on like that, from the point of view of William Dennison and Mike Ryko respectively. It tells the story of a crime from the point of view of two mixed up in it. It is apparently based on actual events. I wouldn't call it a work of juvenalia exactly, there is a lot to like here, but it doesn't reach the heights (or the depths) of either writer's later stylistic flourishes. It is in fact a pretty conventional novel. The main enjoyment for me was in seeing the differences between the two writers even at this embryonic stage, spotting the germs of what they would become. But I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying this at ALL! If you like the two writers' work then buy it by all means. I really enjoyed reading it. All I would say is 'Don't start here' if you've never before read Burroughs or Kerouac.

The value in this book is as a document of the development of the Beats. It's literary value is minimal, other than the essay at the end about the history of the work. Kerouac's portions were all right, and the best parts of the story get reused by him in many other books. Burroughs was obviously very new to writing and his chapters reminded me of bad Chandler film noir.