En de nijlpaarden werden gekookt in hun watertanks

Where this book lacks in literary merit it makes up for it in pure fun. The pace is fast and entertaining. This is not a major work by either of these authors by any means but it is a collabortation that works. You can feel ther confusion, their emotions are on their sleeves as they come to grips

Show More

with the sudden tragic event that they are right in the midst of. You won't regret reading this.

Show Less

Written in 1945, And the hippos were boiled in their tanks was not published until 1997. Alternating chapters were written in a collaboration between William S. Burroughs, who wrote the Will Dennison chapters, and the young Jack Kerouac, who wrote the Mike Ryko chapters. It is obvious, that at this

Show More

early stage in their careers, Burroughs is the better writer of the two co-authors.

To readers who are averse of the style of Burroughs and Kerouac, despite its quirky title, And the hippos were boiled in their tanks is remarkably "normal" and atypical of the two authors' later work. Its main interest lies in the fact that it is an early work by these authors, and is based on a real murder case in lieu of which the authors were arrested as accessories. The novel is a reasonably enjoyable read, if your interest in the authors and the real murder case, are combined with an interest in reading regular crime and detective stories of the 1940s.

The novel begins with the four friends lounching in Dennison's apartment, and the sexy description of Phillip Tourian, seventeen years old, half Turkish and half American, " the kind of boy literary fags write sonnets to, which start out, “O raven-haired Grecian lad . . .” (p.4). The members of the little group hang out discussing poetry, while living a life in semi-poverty. Forty-ish Ramsey Allen follows Phillip around hoping to develop a lasting relationship with the young man, both in love and sexually.

The murder comes relatively late, towards the end of the novel (p.165), and the story barely handles the consequences. Obviously, the lounging lifestyle of the main characters with its subliminal (homo) sexuality is the mainstay of the novel. Relatively little happens in terms of plot, and the overall atmosphere is brooding, as the characters do not seem to know how to shape their lives.

The novel seems mainly of interest to a small readership that is either interested in the origins of the Beat Generation, or the beginnings of gay literature and its setting in Christopher Street in the New York of the mid-1940s.

In the Penguin Modern Classics edition (2008 / 9), the novel is followed by a long and informative afterword by James Grauerholtz.

Show Less

Burroughs didn't think much of this book, but fans of Junky and Queer will love it. The great thing about Hippos and the way it's written (with Burroughs handling one chapter and Kerouac the next) is that it prevented both authors from following their worst instincts. There was no room for

Show More

self-indulgence: our fledgling novelists actually had a story to tell, and did a pretty damned good job of it. This book is one of Burroughs's more coherent moments, and frankly is the only item in Kerouac's oeuvre that I find readable.

Hippos is a riveting snapshot of mid-1940s New York City and the coterie of lollygaggers to which Lucien Carr and David Kammerer belonged. Despite the occasional (and forgivable) technical awkwardness of the writing, the real-life participants in the story are vividly represented: Edie Parker ("Janie") comes off as sulky and unpleasant, Carr ("Philip") as a spoiled, smug, thoroughly awful son of a bitch, and Kammerer ("Al") as exasperating but pitiable. It should be noted that Patricia Healy, who knew both Kammerer and Carr, vehemently disputed the notion (central to Carr's legal defense when he stood trial for killing Kammerer) that Kammerer was a relentless gay stalker. She contended that Carr was the victimizer in the relationship.

At this point, it's impossible to reconstruct the whole truth. What we do know for certain is that Kammerer had been a good friend of Burroughs and Kerouac...but, when Carr confessed to killing the older man, it was Carr's side they took. David Kammerer was banished to the same murky Beat limbo later occupied by Joan Vollmer and William Burroughs Jr., and the reader of this novel is faced with a troubling question: how, and why, do those closest to us become expendable?

Show Less

An intriguing literary curiosity: this collaborative novel by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac was written in 1945 but published for the first time in 2008. It is a fictional version of a murder in Greenwich Village in 1944; the authors knew both the killer and the victim. The book sat in a

Show More

publisher's file cabinet for all this time, first, because it was lurid (for the 1940s) and not all that well-written, and second, to spare the perpetrator, who had done his time and reinvented himself. The title of the book is a line from a radio news account of a fire at a circus or zoo. It has no bearing on the rest of the book except to add to the grotesque and absurdist background of the book.

What interested me most, other than the Bohemian milieu, was that it was written in a flat, noirish style quite different from the later (drug-induced?) stylistic excesses of both authors.

I particularly liked Kerouac's subplot which showed his character playing the Merchant Marine union system to get a good berth. This part would make a good beginning to a later Jack London book: Kerouac's character would have ended up on a ship whose captain was Wolf Larsen, Jr.

Show Less

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is an early collaboration between celebrated writers Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. They have written, in alternating chapters, a fictionalized account of the summer when one of their friends murdered another of their friends. This is definately a

Show More

novel of the Beat Generation, set in New York and full of drugs, alcohol, art and violence. The charcters are lost indiviuals, unsure of who they are or where they belong.
I usually have a hard time understanding this kind of book, the Beat Generation is one I just don't get. But I found the characters in this book more understandable and sympathetic. It gave me a taste of Kerouac and Burroughs early writing style that I appreciated.
I listened to the audio version of this book and Ray Porter does a good job distinguishing between the two narrators of the story.

Show Less

Presented for the first time, this legendary book chronicles the misadventures of the early founders of the Beat Generation nearly a decade before any of them acquired fame and notoriety. Here is Kerouac and Burroughs at their most raw and cockiest, characteristics that subsequently transmogrified

Show More

to more gentle natures due to alcoholism, divorce, drug abuse, poverty, wanderlust, love, loss, failure, and success in the years to follow. There are many passages that illustrate this in the book, but here are a few that stand out:

Our eggs had now arrived, but Phillip’s eggs were absolutely raw. He called the waitress over and said, “These eggs are raw.” He illustrated the point by dipping his spoon into the eggs and pulling it out with a long streamer of raw white.
The waitress said, “You said soft-boiled eggs, didn’t you?” We can’t be taking things back for you.”
Phillip [Lucien Carr] pushed the eggs across the counter. “Two four-minute eggs,” he said. “Maybe that will simplify matters.” Then he turned to me and started talking about the New Vision.
(p.16)

We had cigarettes but no matches. Phil called out to the waitress, “I say, have you a match, miss?”
The waitress said, “No.”
Phillip said, “The get some,” in his clear, calm tone.
(p. 18)

She [Edie Parker] said, “What are you going to do out at sea?” and I [Jack Kerouac] said, “Don’t worry about the future.”
(p.20)

Show Less

Of interest to completists only. While the Burroughs parts are okay, the Kerouac parts are embarrassingly awkward and wooden. The best part of the book is the title.

Vivid depiction of what the 40s were like for the youth in NYC.

Given the history of this book --inspired by the murder that gave rise to the Beats-- it would appear hard to take this book at face value. However, the dry and unemotional, unadorned prose fits the restless nihilistic times and subject perfectly. This book is worth reading beyond its historical

Show More

and biographical significance. It is an honest look at a time and a generation in American history that has been mythologized.

Show Less

I really enjoyed reading this! Quite a snapshot of the life and beginnings of the Beats! But boy oh boy were they a bunch of moochers!

Finally, my first Beat novel! It's been a long time coming, though I'd always assumed On the Road would be my first... but whatever. I got this one from the library right after I bought Kill Your Darlings on DVD and realised that the book was essentially a thinly-veiled novelisation of the real

Show More

events depicted in the film. Labelled a 'crime noir', I actually didn't think it felt that way at all; the murder is a fleeting thing right near the end of the book. It's incredibly easy to read, filled with tiny mundane details that build up a picture of a bohemian alcohol-fuelled lifestyle largely consisting of bar hopping and drifting in and out of each other's homes to eat, sleep, love, talk and dream. I also liked the insight into how boys would 'ship out' to work at sea, and how that process worked. An odd one, this, in that I didn't rank it THAT highly, yet I'd really like to reread it and have my own copy at some point in the near future.

Show Less

Well, this was my first Beat novel and I read it because my interest was peaked by a podcast on This American Life, featuring William S. Burroughs as told by Iggy Pop.

This book was interesting because it was written in 1945 but not published until 2008 (after all persons the story was based on

Show More

were dead). Also because alternating chapters were written by Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, and it was based on a true life murder in which they were both indicted for knowing the killer and the victim. Many say the murder led to the beginning of the Beat movement? I wouldn't be qualified to even guess at that, being a Beat "virgin" prior to this book, but I may be willing to try a few more novels.

I've heard a lot of the names mentioned in the Afterword in the past, but never gave the Beat movement much thought - except what I saw in movies as a generation who smoked heavily in underground bars, read strange poetry to a conga drum beating in the background, dressed in black turtlenecks, pegged black pants, black berets and thick black glasses. Also, I always thought the Beatniks were part of the 1960s. I didn't realize they started in the 1940s. I also learned that author Caleb Carr ( [The Alienist] ) is the son of Lucian Carr - the murderer the story is based on. I learn so much when I read.....

Show Less

I remember reading about this time period and the central incident in Vanity of Duluoz (and in Kerouac biographies), but it was sort of interesting to read the early writing of Kerouac and Burroughs. There was a lot of that aimless "we did this for awhile and then we did that and then we stopped

Show More

for a drink" without the reflection or digging into the empty center that would characterize Kerouac's later work. And I have to say the troubling aspects of the relationship and murder at the center of the plot seemed to be ignored, not only in the book, but in all of the writing about the book and the incident that I've read so far. Maybe the new movie--Kill Your Darlings--will change that...and maybe not. I look forward to reading Vanity of Duluoz again some day. The first Kerouac I ever read, even though it was one of his last works.

Show Less

I really enjoyed reading this! Quite a snapshot of the life and beginnings of the Beats! But boy oh boy were they a bunch of moochers!

Written in 1945 but unpublished until 2008, this story is set in NYC and has two narrators. Kerouac wrote the chapters told from the view of Mike Ryko, a sometimes merchant marine who has lived on and off with Janie for a year. She wants to marry while Mike seems to be indifferent to the idea and

Show More

runs out the door with his friends whenever given the chance.
Burroughs writes the chapters labeled "Will Dennison". Will is from Reno, has some family money and a wife he visits once a year. He is unflappable whether being hit up for money or listening to a murder confession. He helpfully gives a detailed tutorial on how to prepare morphine for shooting up. Dennison is the only person who seeks out the company of Al, an older creepy stalker who is obsessed with good-looking teen Phillip, who is himself the most horrible of the bunch.
They move as a group; Mike, Will, Al, Phillip, Janie and Barbara, always asking each other for money, cigarettes or dinner, and though they're broke they manage to always be guzzling liquor. Aside from Mike and Phillip repeatedly sleeping too late to get chosen for a freighter, not much happens until near the end when Phillip snaps. This is still a worthwhile read if only to experience a very early Beat novel.

Show Less