And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

Item came before the scheduled time and was in excellent condition

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.

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...

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

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.

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.