In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Lucien Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerrer. Carr had come to each of them and confessed; Kerouac helped him get rid of the weapon - neither told the police. For this failing they were arrested. Months later, the two writers - unpublished at the time - collaborated on "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks", a fictionalized account of the summer of the killing.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Lucien Carr, college roommate of Allen Ginsberg and friend of both William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, killed David Kammerer in 1944. Ginsberg began and then abandoned a novel based on the incident; Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated and completed this one, which has remained unpublished until now. Writing alternating chapters from alternating points of view, the eventual Beat icons adopted a hard-boiled voice without adopting the conventions of a crime novel. Where most crime novels start with a murder, Hippos leads up to it, and the only tension is generated by the reader’s knowledge of what happened in real life. But if it isn’t successful as a crime novel, it’s fascinating for the glimpses it provides into the authors’ lifestyles (the aimless partying is more On the Road than The Big Sleep) and its indications of the writing styles they would later develop. Interestingly, while references to Rimbaud suggest a parallel to the poet’s volatile love affair with Verlaine, the portrayal of Carr, aka “Phillip Tourian,” is not romanticized—in fact, he would have been a great character for Hammett, Cain, or Chandler to work with. --Keir Graff
--This text refers to the
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About the Author
William S. Burroughs was born in 1914. His first published novel was the largely autobiographical Junky, which remains a classic depiction of drug dependency. He died in 1997. Jack Kerouac was born in 1922. In 1947, he hitchhiked across America and wrote his most famous novel On the Road. He died in 1969.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
IN PRINT AT LAST!!!! For the first time in over 60 years!!!,
By Bardwire777 (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (Hardcover)
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very early novel by Kerouac and Burroughs,
By
This review is from: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (Paperback)
"And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks," by Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, with forward by James Grauerholz (220 pgs., 1945, 2008). This is the first novel written by members of what became known as the Beat Generation. It was written by Kerouac & Burroughs near the end of World War Two & was never published. They each wrote alternating chapters.
The novel is closely based on the murder of one of their circle of friends by another of their circle of friends. In real life, Lucien Carr IV, then 19, stabbed to death David Eames Kammerer. David & Lucien met in St. Louis, MO when David was 25 & Lucien was 11. A strange mentorship grew between them. David & Burroughs were friends since they were just 9 & had met in elementary school in St. Louis. Kerouac met them when he was a freshman at Columbia University in NYC. This book is about the normal day-to-day meanderings of a group of young men & young women seemingly just hanging out. Kerouac keeps waiting to ship out on the merchant marine vessel, but never does. Burroughs is the only one with a job. Women are always around. They are all jumping in & out of bed. Yet, in a seemingly chaste sort of way. Kerouac's first wife, Edie Parker is here. All the names have been changed. There is always tension whenever Lucien & David meet. Lucien wants David out of his life. They still always get together. David loves Lucien in a purely chaste way. Bisexuality is always present in this book. In this novel, Lucien kills David with a hatchet in a drunken stupor. In real life, Lucien stabbed David to death with a knife. Lucien was sent away for a couple of years. Later, he became Louis Carr, the top writer& editor for UPI. This novel was never published. First, because it was rejected by everyone who looked at it & later when the writers became famous, Carr persuaded them not to publish the book for fear of opening old wounds. Both authors promised not to publish the novel until after Carr's death. It's a good first read & a good foreshadowing of where both writers would be headed in their careers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read,
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This review is from: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (Paperback)
A very interesting and rarely used approach to the novel. Reading the work of two enormously famous writers from the days before they had even published a poem is a unique experience. All the stripped down glory of on the road with real sense of mystery. You know how it ends, but why does it get there? I wouldn't say this book is perfect, but I would still say it is very worth the read.
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