And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac

On August 14, 1944, Lucien Carr, a friend of William S. Burroughs from St. Louis, stabbed a man named David Kammerer with a Boy Scout knife and threw his body in the Hudson River. For eight years, Kammerer had fawned over the younger Carr, but that night something happened: either Carr had had enough or he was forced to defend himself.

The next day, his clothes stained with blood, Carr went to his friends Bill Burroughs and Jack Kerouac for help. Doing so, he involved them in the crime. A few months later, they were caught up in the crime in a different way.

Something about the murder captivated the Beats, especially Kerouac and Burroughs, who decided to collaborate on a novel about the events of the previous summer. At the time, the two authors were still unknown, yet to write anything of note. Narrating alternating chapters, they pieced together a hard-boiled tale of bohemian New York during World War II, full of drugs and art, obsession and violence, with scenes and characters drawn from their own lives.

They submitted their manuscript—called And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks after an absurd line from a radio bulletin about a circus fire—to publishers, but it was rejected and confined to a filing cabinet for decades. Finally published, at long last, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks tells the story of Ramsay Allen and the object of his fixation, the charismatic, idealistic young Phillip Tourian. Phillip and his friends drink and dream in the bars and apartments of the West Village, until, with his friend Mike Ryko (Kerouac's narrator), he hatches a plan to ship out as a merchant marine. They'll catch a boat for France and jump ship, then make their way through the front to Paris.

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is an engaging, fast-paced read that shows the two authors' developing styles. It is also an incomparable artifact, a legendary novel from the dawn of the Beat movement by two hugely influential writers.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Crime, Novels, Literature, American, The United States Of America

214 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

William Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.

Reviews

[Caddy Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know where to start with this review. This book meant so much to me. Yet, I know for many people it wouldn't be a good read. It's the only novel Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs ever wrote together, and it sat under floorboards for decades before finally getting published only a few years ago, now that all of the people it's about have died. Lucien Carr was the last, passing away in 2005. He had asked the person who published this not to do it while he was alive.

This book, while not listed as historical fiction, is historical fiction nonetheless. It's characters represent Kerouac, Burroughs, Carr, Kammerer and others that were part of their group of friends. For those of you that don't know about the Beat Generation of writers, Kerouac, Burroughs,and Ginsberg. They were introduced to each other by Lucian Carr, who was the one who created the energy and impetus for their work to come. Strangely, Carr never did publish. Perhaps how he is portrayed in Kill Your Darlings was true: maybe he had others do his college papers. Or, perhaps he gave up after his stint in jail.

Anyway, this story is based on the historic murder that took place in 1944. Lucian Carr stabbed David Kammerer several times, tied his hands behind his back with shoelaces, and put stones in his pockets, then rolled him into the river. This was a huge case back then. There were homosexual accusations (Kammerer was gay) and Carr's attorney protrayed Carr as a heterosexual who had been stalked by Kammerer since Carr was 11 and Kamerer was 25. The man followed him from state to state, school to school.

Yet, Lucien Carr encouraged him. Many times the two of them hung out together. Making the story even more interesting is the fact that Burroughs and Kammerer had been friends since childhood. Kammerer always talked about his love for Lucien to Burroughs and his frustration that he had never scored with him.

Yet, there is evidence that Lucien and Allan Ginsberg were intimate several times. So, it isn't that Lucien Carr was strictly hetero.

This book tells the story from the perspective of two men that were close friends of both the victim and the murderer. Although many little details are changed, I would have to assume they tell it much like it was. Both this book and the movie Kill Your Darlings (my favorite movie of 2013) show Lucien Carr to be an arrogant, egotistical cockteaser. Yet, his charms were evident and seemed to work their magic on everyone he came into contact with.

I know even I am charmed by Lucien all these years later. Lucien, Lucien, what really happened? What went on between you and your stalker friend? Had he used you when you were only 11 or 12? Did he hold some type of spell over you? Or did you over him, and did you use that power to torture and demean him in front of others?

No one knows the full story. Only Lucien Carr and David Hammerer could tell us and they are long gone. But what a story it is.

Plus, William S. Burroughs is a favorite of mine. It was great fun to see what he and Kerouac did together as untested writers. Great literature? Probably not. But totally wonderful just the same, as it gives us a glimpse into the Beat Generation's inner life and the beginning of two great writers.

I did find it odd that Allan Ginsberg, or a character like him, is not in the book. I don't know why.

If you read it, be sure to read the notes at the end. They will give you fascinating insight.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn't too sure just what to expect with this collaboration novel between Burroughs & Kerouac. One thing's for sure—aside from the morphine & hard drinking, it only slightly resembled the sort of material both would go on to write in future years. Each had their distinctive style and direction that set them apart, whereas here, the alternating chapters of the bartender turned detective Will Dennison (Burroughs), who has links to the criminal underworld, and the slumming-it-around merchant marine Mike Ryko (Kerouac), who dreams of making it to the Paris left-bank after shipping out and going AWOL, you'd think it's the same writer as there is very little difference in the prose from one chapter to the next.

A hard-boiled crime novel in the vein of, say, Hammett, from the same guy who penned Naked Lunch? Surely not. Well, it sort of is. If anything though, its New York setting and the violence boiling up within it - featuring sailors, drunken brawls, gays & prostitutes, domestic rows, drug use, and ultimately here, murder - I was reminded in a way of Last Exit to Brooklyn; albeit this came a couple of decades before. Mind you, this is in no way as graphic, hellish, or gut-punching as that was.

Glad it got published in the end as I was really impressed. It had a hypnotic hold on me that I really wasn't expecting, seeing as both—especially Burroughs who had written next to nothing prior, were pretty much nobodies at the time. The fact both writers were caught up in the real life murder case involving Lucien Carr only escalated my interest in the story further. I'm surprised the book was rejected then and spent decades unpublished, because to be honest, I'm come across many a novel by a first time writer that felt far inferior to this and that never should have seen the light of day.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Beat-lunatic's dream book. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac's first book - and not only that but the only book that they wrote together. Written in 1945, the story is based on their friend Lucian Carr who murdered another friend of everyone's at that time.

Burroughs would write one chapter and Kerouac would write the other. If one just read the chapters or book you would notice the style of the writing right away. In other words it is very Burroughs and very Kerouac. Even as young writers, their stylistic prose writing comes super clear as if it was their DNA being printed out on a page.

The great thing about the book more than anything else is that it captures Manahattan life among the boho's of 1945. The bars, the characters, the life style, etc. is fully expressed in this book. If the narrative is not a masterpiece, then at the very least we have here an important document of a time that is no longer with us.

So yeah it's a must of course for fans of both writers, but also, and again, it captures a moment very well - and therefore the book is very moving for that reason alone.

[Argos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beat kuşağının iki önemli ismi J. Kerouac ile W.S. Burroughs’un birlikte yazdıkları, arkadaşları David Kammerer’in (Ramsay Allen) yine arkadaşları Lucien Carr (Phillip Tourian) tarafından öldürülmesini konu alan bir roman. Olanlar aynen değil, aşağı yukarı anlatılmış, kurgulanmış. Roman ancak hikayedeki kişilerin ölmesinden sonra neredeyse yazıldıktan 60 yıl sonra basılmıştır.

Anlatıcılar J. Kerouac “Mike Ryko”, W. Buroughs ise “Will Denison”dur. Romanın gerçek bir olaydan esinlenmesi okurken belirli bir heyecanı korumaya yarıyor. Edebi olarak fazlaca bir etkileyiciliği yok. Sadece olayların anlatıldığı 1940’lı yılların bir resmini çıkarması, Avrupa savaş cehennemini yaşarken Amerika’nın savaştan bu kadar bihaber olması ilgimi çekti.

Kitabın sonunda editörün notu var, kitabın yazım ve basım öyküsünü çok ayrıntılı anlatıyor. Kitap kadar ilgici çekici. Okunabilir.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I assume any reader who has been through one or two books by either William Burroughs or Jack Kerouac (or both) has a more than occasional appetite for fiction that is beyond, or at least different from, conventional escapist entertainment.

So it’s slightly ironic to learn from the detailed afterword in And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, written by Burroughs' bibliographer and literary executor James Grauerholz, that this mildly legendary yet long unpublished chapter-trading collaboration between Burroughs and Kerouac was "written explicitly for a genre-fiction market, not for the avant-garde reader." Considering the historical gloss of Burroughs' debut novel Junkie's publication, the commercial motivations for And the Hippos comes as less of surprise.

But where Junkie, for this reader, successfully synthesized a pulp fiction aesthetic with an experientially informed first person account of heroin addiction's self destructive realities in solid, sparse and always accelerating prose, And the Hippos was, as I once heard Burroughs say in a documentary film clip, in that unforgettable, elongated nasal, St. Louis Gentleman as ghastly specter drawl of his, "not a very distinguished work."

The story’s core is the perverse push-pull relationship between the magnetically princely yet aloof Phillip Tourian (Lucien Carr) and Ramsay Allen (David Kammerer), who at 14 years Tourian’s elder and with obsessive longing for Tourian’s love on both the physical and emotional plane plays a pitiful Verlaine to Tourian’s haughty Rimbaud. In alternating first person accounts, Burroughs’ Will Dennison and Kerouac’s Mike Ryko relate the bad chemistry the two create for one another. Burroughs/Dennison, after speaking positively of each man individually in the first chapter, explains, “when they get together something happens, and they form a combination which gets on everybody’s nerves.” The combination proved to be ultimately toxic as well as annoying and the novel follows the real life events—altered and embroidered in some ways known to us as matter of deviation from public record and in others known only to Carr and Kammerer—of Tourian/Carr killing Allen/Kammerer, dumping his body in the Hudson river, and after confessing dramatically to Dennison/Burroughs and to Ryko/Kerouac, resulting in some drunken deliberation, turning himself in to the authorities with a plea of self defense.

So why bother to read a work that comes nowhere near the level of Junkie, Naked Lunch or—to throw Kerouac’s ghost a bone here—On the Road? Well, if you don’t have any curiosity about it or desire to do so, don’t.

But if you are specifically interested in either or both of these two authors’ body of work, or generally interested in the many writers (and hangers-on who eventually decided they might as well pick up writing) who have been lumped together as "the Beats," you might as well at least get And the Hippos on local library loan (like I did) and give it the fast but not unenjoyable read it invites. I certainly have no regrets about the time I invested in reading it, but I'm glad I didn't shell out any cash.

Allow me to digress a wee bit to explain that I consistently use the “either or both” construct when referring to Burroughs and Kerouac because I can easily imagine someone who enjoys reading Burroughs not having the patience for Kerouac or (somewhat more of a stretch for me most of the time) vice verse. On the whole, I myself find both writers to often be almost simultaneously innovative and limiting in the most intriguing yet vexing ways. Up until the previous paragraph, I also deliberately avoided encapsulating both Burroughs and Kerouac with the broader brush stroke of "the Beats" because I think much of what is considered the collective Beat oeuvre shares personal histories, social circles and active exchanges of ideas about aesthetics and craft much more than it reflects any common vision, like styles or similar artistic intents. The more ambitious and accomplished writers from this category of convenience deserve to be regarded on their own, especially Burroughs who—if memory serves—himself disavowed membership in any Beat literary scene.

If, like me, you are an ardent reader of the Beats always seeking their best and, in the process, learning that their A-list writers produced C grade material, if not far worse at times, you may also recognize how "Beat reading," for lack of a more elegant phrase, so easily develops into what I’d prefer to think of as scholarship but what those who don't cozy up to the Beats as readily would criticize as a fetishistic focus on minutiae.

So it was either my inner Beat scholar or my inner drooling fan-boy completist (take your pick) who was delighted to read Burroughs in this passage trying out a prototype of the cosmic cynic and ultimate outsider-by-choice stance he would eventually perfect.

”I had the feeling that all over America such stupid arguments were taking place on street corners and in bars and restaurants. All over America, people were pulling credentials out of their pockets and sticking them under someone else's nose to prove they had been somewhere or done something. And I thought someday everyone in America will suddenly jump up and say, 'I don't take any shit!' and start pushing and cursing and clawing at the man next to him.”

I read the open to Chapter Eight with equal pleasure.

”Wednesday turned out to be a beautiful day. It was one of those clear and cool June days when everything is blue and rose and turret-brown. I stuck my head out Janie's window and looked around. It was eleven o'clock yet everything looked fresh and keen like early morning.”

Who else but good ol' TiJean could rhapsodize so about looking out the window and imagining the sheen of early morning with noon only an hour away? Those who tend to dismiss Kerouac as a prolix and self indulgent flibbertigibbet (and lord knows at times he gave plenty of reasons for people to do so), tend to miss his concentrated inventiveness exemplified by the use—I assume, actually, coining—of an adjective such as “turret-brown.”

These passages are only two examples of nuggets easily mined and enjoyed if you’re reading this book in the context of a familiarity with both of the authors’ later, more developed and substantive work. If you’re reading And the Hippos for reasons other than what drove Henry Miller fans to read the posthumously published Moloch or Crazy Cock or what inspired literary enthusiasts in general to read the 1994 short story anthology First Fiction, you’re probably going to be disappointed. And if you haven’t yet read the works that forged these writers’ lasting reputations, please start there.

[Chiara Furfari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nessun ippopotamo è stato ferito per la creazione di questo libro.
L’insolito titolo prende spunto da un incidente realmente accaduto nel 1944: l’incendio in un circo del Connecticut, passato alla storia come “Il giorno in cui i clown piansero.”

Nel 1944, gli appena ventenni Jack Kerouac e William Burroughs furono arrestati per aver coperto l’omicidio di David Kammerer, avvenuto per mano di Lucien Carr a causa di presunte avances non desiderate.
A capitoli alterni e servendosi di pseudonimi, gli autori ricostruiscono i fatti a quattro mani. Si tratta di un romanzo true crime? Un mistery novel? No, nessuno dei due.
Questo racconto di neanche duecento pagine è un documento che getta le basi per tutta una generazione di scrittori con il mito di Rimbaud e della vita notturna e caotica delle città.

La storia di Lucien Carr ha condizionato per sempre la vita di Burroughs e di Kerouac, che dopo il carcere si sono gettati nelle tentazioni e nei vizi più oscuri della vita. Una volta diventati autori di grande successo, nelle loro opere hanno continuato ad inserire dei sottili richiami all’avvenimento che ha segnato la loro gioventù.
Il libro è stato scritto nel 1945; On the road sarebbe stato pubblicato soltanto nel 1957, eppure già si riconosce la voglia matta di partire di Kerouac. Nonostante il romanzo fosse stato giudicato immaturo, ho riconosciuto uno stile già ben delineato: l’atmosfera è in tutto e per tutto quella un po’ jazz degli anni ‘60 raccontata dalla Beat Generation.
“E gli ippopotami si sono lessati nelle loro vasche” vede la luce soltanto nel 2008, quando insieme ai segreti muore anche l’ultimo dei leggendari, dannati Beats.

Non penso consiglierei questo libro ad occhi chiusi. Inizialmente ci si potrebbe trovare spaesati, ma unendo i puntini ed imparando a conoscere il background di quegli eterni, giovani e sgangherati scrittori, potrebbe rivelarsi un’esperienza di lettura curiosa ed affascinante.

[lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I began to get a feeling familiar to me from my bartending days of being the only sane man in a nuthouse. It doesn't make you feel superior but depressed and scared, because there is nobody you can contact.”

And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks is a fictionalized account of David Kammerer’s murder by Lucien Carr in 1943, cowritten by Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. The crime shocked the public opinion, partly because Carr was a gifted Columbia student and partly due to his claim that he was acting on self-defense, trying to avoid the homosexual advances of the other man. Newspapers called it an “honor slaying”, ignoring every other aspect of their tumultuous relationship. What exactly went on between Carr and Kammerer is the subject of endless speculation, but both Kerouac and Burroughs were dragged into the case and the Beats were shaken by it.

And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks was written in 1945, before its authors rose to fame and remained unpublished for over sixty years. It’s not the best thing the Beat literature has to offer, but as with all of Kerouac’s books, I can’t help but notice how alive his writing is. It’s jazz and booze and New York’s late nights. Burroughs was always a bit too much for my liking (too much drugs, too much sex, too much grossness), but here, his chapters are clean, less desperate or angry, since his drug addiction hadn’t yet begun. It always makes me sad, how the Beats lost themselves in the end, one way or the other, but maybe that was their point- they were gifted but pretentious, curious about life and at the same time damned to chase after happiness, without ever reaching it.

[John Hatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

There can be no better introduction to the "beat generation" than the book that launched it all, co-written by two of the pillars of the movement. It is based on factual events and wasn't published until after both authors had died. It is an entertaining read. Essential to its understanding is the brilliant afterword by James Grauerholz.

[Rainb0warri0r · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scritta, riscritta, rinnegata, mai dimenticata, congelata nel tempo e solo adesso, morti tutti i personaggi, pubblicata, E gli ippopotami si sono lessati nelle loro vasche è la storia dell'omicidio che diede inizio alla beat generation. E non poteva essere altrimenti.
Questo strano, modesto, iperrealistico e nudo romanzo a quattro mani restituisce perfettamente quello che fu il nucleo originario della beat, a cominciare dall'ambientazione caotica e quasi bohémien della New York degli anni Quaranta: pub, salotti, locali per omosessuali, navi in partenza, e lontana, come il gracidare della radio in sottofondo, la guerra. Una guerra innocua, che sembra esserci sempre stata, al punto da non scoraggiare affatto il sogno di Jack e Lucien di salpare verso Parigi.
Narrativamente aggiunge ben poco alle figure ben note dei suoi due scrittori; stilisticamente è acerbo come solo un romanzo d'esordio non pubblicato può essere. E già qualcosa si intravede: dietro lo pseudonimo di Will Dennison si cela Burroughs, un attimo prima di tuffarsi nella tossicodipendenza, con i suoi omosessuali sbandati e la sua femme fatale; nell'irrequietezza di Mike Ryko c'è la smania di partire di Kerouac. Accanto a loro, un variegato e chiacchierone gruppo di giovani, che l'utilissima postfazione di James W. Grauerholz riconosce e inquadra.
L'omicidio del 13 agosto 1944 è lo sparo d'inizio: e mentre Kerouac comincia a correre per non fermarsi più, rincorso, instancabile, dal ricordo di quella notte, per Burroughs si incarnerà in una scimmia sulla schiena.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Δεν ξέρω πως ακριβώς να χαρακτηρίσω αυτό το βιβλίο: Αν το δει κανείς σαν ένα αυτόνομο έργο, δεν είναι κάτι ιδιαίτερο: σκιαγράφηση εκείνης της εποχής, χωρίς ιδιαίτερη ανάπτυξη στην ηθογραφία αλλά αντίθετα μια αίσθηση ότι γράφτηκε χωρίς σκοπό, χωρίς δηλαδή πρόθεση να εκδοθεί (κάτι που δεν ίσχυε φυσικά). Αντίθετα αν το δει κανείς σαν απαραίτητο συμπλήρωμα στην μελέτη της μπίτ λογοτεχνίας τότε είναι απαραίτητο συμπλήρωμα, σαν πρώιμο έργο δύο μεγάλων δημιουργών. Δεδομένου ότι δεν έχω διαβάσει Μπάροουζ (στον στρατό προσπάθησα να διαβάσω το "Γυμνό γεύμα" χωρίς επιτυχία) αλλά έχω διαβάσει τον πιο βατό Κέρουακ, προσπαθώ να το όπως πραγματικά είναι (πρώιμο έργο) αλλά δυσκολεύομαι λίγο. Σε κάθε περίπτωση είναι ευχάριστο ανάγνωσμα ακόμα και αν κάποιος το εκλάβει σαν ένα ευτελές και ασήμαντο βιβλίο.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in a day! It's a quick read. Sure learned a lot about being a merchant marine. Also sad and interesting was seeing the corruption of the cops while Will was bar tending. Right after this I watched Kill Your Darlings. (Note: Ginsburg is nowhere in this book.)

I can't give an objective review of this book right now. I somehow got so immersed in this Beat culture all I can say is "This is great!" when maybe it's not.

Great glimpses of New York in the forties, especially having to dress nice and how you got treated if you didn't. We also take AC for granted. When they say it's hot, it's really sweat pouring off your brow while you're sleeping hot. They also ate glass. Like bite into yout cocktail glass and start chewing. . . .

Not an emotional book at all, considering the subject matter. (Jack and Will are unwitting accomplices when Lucius Carr kills David Kammerer though this account is very fictionalized.) Maybe it was good therapy (along with alcohol and heroin).

[pavithra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's just men being unlikeable for 138 pages without fail

[Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aykırı akım, bana kalırsa edebiyatın en samimi ve en özgür tarafı. Yeraltı Edebiyatı, Beat Kuşağı da en çok ilgimi çeken türler bu yüzden.

Kerouac, Ginsgberg, Burroughs gibi yazarları okuduğum çok sayıda makaleden ve izlediğim filmlerden artık tanıyor gibiyim. Özellikle, Kill Your Darlings isimli güzel film, beni Beat Kuşağı'na daha da itmişti. Akımın başlamasını tetikleyenlerden şeylerden biri, Lucien Carr'ın işlediği cinayetti ve bu cinayetin perde arkası, Ginsberg'ün ve Kerouac'in hemen hemen her eserini etkilemişti.

Ve Hipopotamlar Tanklarında Haşlandılar, 1944 yılında, Jack Kerouac ve William S. Burroughs'un beraber kaleme aldığı, David Kammerer cinayetinin hikayeleştirilmiş hali. Kitabın sonsöz kısmında da olayın aslını ve Kerouac ile Burroughs'un tutuklanışını görebiliyoruz. Kitap, altmış yıl kadar bir süre yayınlanmıyor; ancak Beat Kuşağı başlayıp, yazarların kitapları büyük bir yankı uyandırdıktan ve Lucien Carr öldükten sonra, Ve Hipopotamlar Tanklarında Haşlandılar, gün yüzüne çıkıyor.

"Evet," dedim, "ama sen bir sanatçısın. Namusa ve dürüstlüğe ve minnettarlığa inanmıyorsun."

Kitabın Mike Ryko bölümleri Jack'e, Will Dennison bölümleri William'a ait. İkilinin üslupları arasındaki fark, okudukça kendini daha çok belli ediyor, yazarlara daha da yaklaşmış gibi hissediyorsunuz. Cinayetin farklı isimlerle, ayrıntısız ve biraz farklı bir versiyonu olsa da, dönemin Amerika'sı ve yazarların kalemi yine ortada. Bu kitap, hikayeye ve yazarlara biraz yakınsanız, okuması inanılmaz eğlenceli, duygulu ve merak uyandırıcı. Yani ben, Beat yazarlarına biraz aşina olduktan sonra okumanız taraftarıyım. Karakterleri tanımanız öyküyü daha ilgi çekici hale getirecektir. Ben akımın felsefesine, yazarların yaşamlarına ve yazış tarzlarına kocaman gözlerle baktığımdan, keyifli bir deneyim oldu.

Aykırı akıma ve yazarlarına ilginiz varsa, biraz tanıyorsanız ya da belki eserlerini okumuşsanız, Hipopotamlar Tanklarında Haşlandılar'ı okumanızı öneririm. Aynı zamanda hikayenin Allen Ginsberg tarafını görmek isterseniz, Kill Your Darlings'i izlemenizi de tavsiye edeceğim. O film, gerçekte yaşananların doğrudan beyaz perdeye aktarımı.

Kitabı okuduğuma çok memnunum ve bundan sonra, yine, Beat okumaya devam edeceğim umarım.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the first novel by both Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, in collaboration, this is a book of great literary significance, especially to anybody with an interest in the Beat Movement.

The two writers wrote a chapter each, alternately, and read their chapters aloud to each other before the other started work on the next one. Anybody familiar with either writer's work would easily be able to tell which chapters were written by which writer, even if they weren't told from the point of view of the fictionalised version of themselves. To anybody a bit more familiar with the Beat Movement the rest of the cast of characters are also recognisable, as this entire book is based on actual events... although to call most of the contents of this book 'events' is to stretch the term to breaking point. Until the last two chapters, most of the characters spend the book doing as little as humanly possible.

To be honest, if you strip away this book's place in the history of literature, which it holds largely due to the circumstances of it's creation rather than any great artistic merit, this novel is just OK. It's not a bad book, by any means, and I did enjoy reading it, but it falls short of actual greatness.

Oh, and, for the record, no hippos were harmed in the making of this book.

[Robert Hobkirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kerouac and Burroughs wrote this novel together, writing alternate chapters, in 1945 when they were unknowns. They never were able to get it published, being unknown, and the publishers thinking it would have no sales appeal. Welcome to the book biz. It was finally published in 2008.

Both writers used simple sentences, Kerouac not going off on his poetic riffs. I couldn't tell who was writing unless I read the chapter heading. Like all of Kerouac's and Burroughs' writing, this story was based upon a factual happening, a murder. Both writers knew the victim and the perp' and the facts about the murder. The police jailed Kerouac because the murderer told him about the homicide, but Kerouac didn't inform the police. Kerouac married his girlfriend, Edie (Janie in the story) so that her family would bail him out of jail. This bit about getting bailed out wasn't in the story, but it may have been the most interesting part.

The story was set in NY during 1944. It had this great setting, but not much of it was described. Maybe the writers took it for granted since they were living there and seeing the scene every day. Most the description was about what they were drinking - anything with alcohol.

I gave it 4 stars because Kerouac, for me, can do no wrong (except maybe Big Sur), not even getting married to get out of jail.

[Silvia ❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non si sa se questi fantomatici ippopotami si siano davvero lessati nelle loro vasche: l’episodio è riconducibile ad un incendio avvenuto durante uno spettacolo circense oppure ad una battuta sarcastica, uscita dalla bocca dello stesso Burroughs.
Il romanzo è una sorta di espiazione di Burroughs e Kerouac, poiché i due, prima di diventare scrittori affermati, sono rimasti coinvolti in un caso di omicidio, commesso da un loro amico comune, Lucien Carr (Phillip nella storia).
Ognuno dei due prende la voce di un personaggio ed è strutturato a capitoli alterni Burroughs-Kerouac, anche se lo stile dei due si fonde perfettamente come se fosse uno.
Da bravi esponenti della Beat Generation, la gioventù di cui scrivono è una gioventù squattrinata, alla costante ricerca di denaro, che poi viene letteralmente “bevuto” l’attimo dopo, in giro per locali della New York del 1945. Sembra quasi che non si preoccupino del futuro, vivono alla giornata e per loro va bene così, l’importante è che abbiano qualche spicciolo per procurarsi almeno una birra.
Persino nel finale, quando Phillip/Lucien commette il reato, il tono, da drammatico che dovrebbe essere, rimane quasi scherzoso: come se non ci si dovesse preoccupare delle conseguenze fino a confessione avvenuta.
Sono il Kerouac e il Burroughs che tutti conosciamo, anche se del periodo antecedente la loro completa affermazione nel panorama letterario: tutto ciò fa pensare a quanto fossero già dotati del loro talento, ma avrebbero dovuto aspettare un’altra decina d’anni, prima che venisse loro riconosciuto davvero.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither that good or that bad. Felt like a kind of writing exercise for Burroughs and Kerouac, which it was, and so is of interest for those who are curious about how their writing styles developed.

Based on a real-life murder (or manslaughter, or self-defence), the definitive story of what happened with Lucien Carr and his obsessive pursuer Kammerer (who ends up dead) is elusive. "Hippos" is marketed on that non-fiction hook, but the murder is actually a very small part of this text. Mostly, nothing happens, and that in itself is interesting.

[tunalizade · Rating 4 out of 5]

İki yazar bir gece barda biralarını yudumlamakla meşguldürler. Haber programını bitiren spikerin sesini duyarlar: “…ve hipopotamlar tanklarında haşlandılar. İyi geceler.” Bu belki de Amerikalıların küstah espri anlayışının bir göstergesidir ve yazdıkları kitabı adı bir anda meydana gelmiştir. Aslında anlatılan olay ise hayvanat bahçesinde/sirkte çıkan yangında hayvanların telef olduğunu ve çoğu hayvanın yanarak öldüğünü anlatmaktır.

Beat Kuşağı’nın öncü isimleri olan William S. Burroughs ve Jack Kerouac’ın beraber kaleme aldıkları kitabın Will Dennison bölümlerini William S. Burroughs yazarken, Mike Ryko kısımlarını da Jack Kerouac yazmıştır. Ta 1944te yazılan ve 2008 yılında basılan kitapta bir cinayetin öncesi, olay anı ve sonrasından bahsedilir. Üstelik bu önemli iki yazar da bir şekilde bu cinayette rol oynarlar.
Denildiğine göre kitabın başkarakteri olan Lucien Carr’ın 2005 yılındaki ölümünden sonra, onun isteği üzerine uygun bir şekilde William S. Burroughs’un ve Jack Kerouac’ın vasiyet icracıları tarafından 2008 yılında çekmecesinden çıkarılan kitap, aslında İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonlarına doğru New York yaşantısını, bu önemli iki yazarın henüz tanınmamış olduğu dönemlerdeki hayatlarını ve odağına Beat hareketinin başlangıcındaki olaylardan biri olan Columbia cinayetini oturtarak anlatıyor.

O dönemde bahsi geçen bu iki yazar tanınmıyordu çünkü daha ortada ne Çıplak Şölen(Naked Lunch) ne de Yolda(On the Road) vardı. Yani kitabı bir tür belgesel olarak bile değerlendirebiliriz.
Tasvirler de yine döneminin özelliklerinden kesitler sunan ayrıntılar eşliğinde gözler önüne sunuluyor: New York sıcağı, kanlı bir Lucky Strike paketi, vs.

Yine kitabı bir suç romanı olarak değerlendirmek biraz yanlış kanımca. Çünkü kitapta bu işlenen suçun öncesi, olayın gelişme aşaması ve sonrası üzerinde daha çok durulmuş.
Kitap hakkında ilgi çekici bir diğer özellik iki yazarının olması. Yani iki farklı ağızdan çıkan sözlerin uyumu bu ilginin haklı sebeplerinden. Geçişlerin de iyi olması kitabın bu şekilde yazılmasındaki etkinin başarısı körükler nitelikte.

Kitaptan en çok akılda kalan cümle ise sanırım: “Sonrasında kapılar çarpıldı, gürültüler oldu, döşemeler gıcırdadı; sanki 32 numaralı daire Cehennemin Kerhanesi’di.”

Sel Yayıncılık’tan çıkan kitabın çevirmeni ise Dost Körpe. Kitabın bu kadar akıcı olmasında belki de onun başarısı en üst düzeyde. 128 sayfada biten kitabın devamında da bir son söz bölümü eklenmiş. Bu bölümle de cinayetin işlenişi, o dönemde yazarlarımızın durumları, arkadaşlığı ve çevreleri, kimlerin bu cinayeti kaleme almak istedikleri hakkında bilgiler yer almakta.

Bütününde 147 sayfadan meydana gelen kitapta anlatılan cinayeti, ilişkileri geçelim, aslında Beat’çilerin özündeki “dost” kavramını anlamak için de güzel bir kitap elimizdeki.

İyi okumalar.

[Sarah]

DNF at 37%

This is so incredibly slow moving and dull, I just can't bring myself to read any more. I don't care about any of the characters, the writing is uninspiring and nothing has happened so far apart from a load of dudes getting drunk and talking about shipping out.

[L.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

uh, respectfully...wtf? absolute madness. page-turner, shocker (in a quiet way), but definitely a product of their developmental stages; nothing like Kerouac's prose in On the Road. haven't read Burroughs outside this so I can't contrast, but I wasn't a fan of the lack of variation in sentence structure, which felt more prominent in Dennison's parts. the writing sometimes felt like a subpar Hemingway (especially w/ Kerouac being a fan of him), which, again, early stages. genius title though, and 10/10 for hauling this out of Kerouac's floorboard posthumously.

the beats will always be interesting to me, even when their lore and works sometimes feel like a moral circus.

[reem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two brilliant writers, one of them I still consider a favourite (10 years after picking up On the Road and losing my mind), write alternating chapters about a murder in New York around 1944, and you expect me to give it less than 3 stars? Well, I've thought about it a lot and I think it's only fair that it gets no more than that, despite Kerouac's marvelous storytelling (Burroughs was ever so clever as well.) The big story behind the book, which was based on real events, took a long time to come through - somewhere towards the end. I was shuffling through the pages waiting for the big 'whoop!' and even though I knew the story beforehand, the way it was told was nothing short of gripping. It's like reading the news, but better. An easy read with the ever notorious members of the Beat Generation.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising and raw writing from Burroughs and Kerouac in NYC during WWII, featuring a true crime--the murder of a stalker by the stalked--both of whom were part of the two authors’ small bohemian circle.

Insights into life in NYC during the war for the working class men who were not drafted. The Great Depression is still weighing heavily and the authors take work where they can. Heavy focus on their efforts to find passage to France behind the lines working for the merchant marine.

The title comes from a story related early in the short book about a circus fire that boiled the hippos in their water tanks.

[alaaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

po prostu okej i mnie przynudzalo momentami ale rozumiem ze chcieli napisac o swoich kumplach

[Mat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burroughs AND Keroauc writing a book together? What more could you want?
This book is BRILLIANT! Loved it. As it was written at a very early stage in their careers, I must admit that initially I had doubts - which were soon dispelled by the great quality of writing from both of these legendary writers. It almost beggars belief that they were just in the incipient stages of their soon-to-be-great literary careers, when they wrote this fascinating story which affected them all in a deep way.

Kerouac was said to have had a photographic memory (whence his childhood knickname 'Memory Babe') and after reading this book, I have no doubt whatsoever that that was very very true. The detail he and Burroughs go into in relating the Carr/Kammerer story is absolutely astounding.
As I read this book, I really felt like I had been taken back in time, back to the America of the '40s and '50s. The writing lets the reader walk down the streets with Kerouac and his friends, arm in arm.

SPOILER ALERT!
Basic story: Lucien Carr was stalked by Kammerer, a homosexual in love with Carr and constantly lusting after him, who was, incidentally, a heterosexual friend of many of the beats including Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. The murder of Kammerer occurs close to the end so much of the story is actually the background of what led up to the murder, including some outrageous parties that they threw. The slightly bizarre title comes from a radio announcement they heard around that time about a fire at the zoo and......well you can imagine from the title the rather gruesome outcome for the hippos.

This book gives great insight into what the inner Beat Circle (Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Carr etc.) did, what parties they threw and what bars and locales they hung out at. What a fascinating group of 'mad ones'/intellectuals!

This book also explores Kerouac's role in the murder. Jack helped Lucien hide the murder weapon and therefore was charged as 'accessory after the fact', which also had the unforeseen consequence of him marrying Edie Parker (as her parents put up the bail money). Lucien considered Jack to be a great friend and the feeling was obviously mutual to the point where Jack almost named a book after his friend - Lucien Midnight, later changed to Old Angel Midnight, which I am currently reading.

In a sense, this is THE STORY that started it all. In a few years America would witness the birth of a movement of unforeseen scope and scale which forever changed the world and continues to change the world. Just remember, without the Beats, we would never have had the hippies and I don't think the size of the students protests against the Vietnam War would have been quite so big either. Even when I read about the Arab Spring on this day in 2012, I am somehow reminded of the Beats, even though the Beats were more about disengagement from society than open-out confrontation and rebellion.

My favourite parts of this book were, funnily enough, not related to the core part of the story (the murder) but Jack's attempts, with Lucien Carr in tow who was desperately trying to get away from the psychopathic Kammerer shadowing his every move, to get signed up to the Merchant Marine. Kerouac's and Carr's unsuccessfull attempts to ship out with the Merchant Marine were partly due to a notorious first mate, which by Jack's account, sounds like a real prick (excusez-moi mesdames and messieurs, les grots mots arretent ici). I really enjoyed reading about Jack's adventures on the S.S. Dorchester (is that the name of the ship? Please correct me if I'm wrong) to Greenland and his accounts of how they narrowly escaped the German U-boats which crop up elsewhere in Kerouac's canon such as in Vanity of Duluoz and (I think) the recently released The Sea is My Brother. Kerouac certainly seemed to have a love of the sea, which may be one reason why he admired Melville's writing so much.

If you are a fan of Kerouac, Burroughs or any beat writer (Corso, Ginsberg, Bremser, McClure, Holmes etc.) or the Beat Movement itself and its legacy, you owe it to yourself to read this. Get it. Read it. Love it. Trust me, you won't regret it.

With a beat book of this high standard coming out over 50 years after it was written, I find myself wondering...hoping...just what other hidden beat lit treasure gems might be lying in the dusty 'Beat Lit Closet'?

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was above all else an interesting bit of literary history. It was written in the mid 1940s, almost a full ten years before Kerouac and Burroughs became famous. It is written from the perspective of two characters, Dennison and Ryko, written by Burroughs and Kerouac respectively. It is fascinating to read their early work, and to see their styles play off one another. It is a fictionalized version of their experiences with the Kammerer murder by Lucien Carr, and they do it justice. In terms of style, flow, and plot it is clearly a bit more inchoate than their more mature works, but in some ways this works beautifully. The book really captures the dynamic of artists and writers of the post-war Village, just before the Beat era really became an established movement. There is a palpable stagnation about the whole book which practically made me itchy. I felt the need to be productive and eschew apathy after reading for the better part of an hour. The whole thing seems to lead to nowhere, and even after the murder takes place, nothing changes and nothing is done. The book seems without journey, destination, or lesson, and that seems to be the point. It is disturbing and yet common and true. I felt upset and very aware that at any moment, people anywhere can be doing nothing, changing nothing, feeling very litte, and contributing nothing to the greater good. Drinks can be procured, sex can be had, lives can be ended, and yet the clock ticks on and nobody will care. Although it can be a bit slow, ultimately Hippos is a fascinating read.

[Tim Orfanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το ξεκίνημα της 'beat' λογοτεχνίας!

Ένα συγγραφικό δίδυμο που εντυπωσιάζει μεν με τους αντι-συμβατικούς ήρωές του, αλλά που δεν τολμά να εμβαθύνει καθόλου στους χαρακτήρες τους δε. Το εξώφυλλο είναι χαρακτηριστικότατο της 'ψυχεδελικής' δομής της ιστορίας. Βαθμολογία: 7,8/10.

Θα επανέλθω με κανονική κριτική!

[Wiebke (1book1review) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know this existed and just stumbled across it on audible and I loved it. Especially the information on the background of the story at the end was super interesting.
A quick listen, highly recommend if you enjoy their writing.

[Logan Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun also rises New York edition

[mags · Rating 4 out of 5]

nothing can ever get between a gay person and the deep-rooted, long-winded obsession they had at 12 years old. i am a #survivor (read: obsessive viewer) of kill your darlings and this book was such a mediocrely-written tribute to my random pubescent fixation. yeah i kind of loved it

unfortunately, this would probably be a 5 if they had given ginsberg a character

[Terra · Rating 4 out of 5]

scritto nel '44 da due sconosciuti - kerouac e burroughs a dieci anni abbondanti dalla notorietà - questo libro incredibile è stato pubblicato solo nel 2008 e mai tradotto in italiano. il motivo è che parla di fatti effettivamente accaduti e di persone che, a causa del fenomeno beat, sono ora identificabili dietro i nomi fittizi. ciascuno dei due autori (k. ventunenne, b. trentenne) scrive in prima persona la sua versione dei fatti, a capitoli alterni, impersonando i rispettivi alter ego e rispettando una scansione cronologica tradizionale. il linguaggio dei due è già lievemente diverso, meno piano e probabilmente più maturo quello di b., più emozionale, è sembrato a me almeno, quello di k. la storia del delitto fu riportata dalle cronache e soprattutto coinvolse i due autori personalmente, perché il colpevole si confidò con entrambi e nessuno dei due lo denunciò: la conseguenza fu l'arresto per tutti e due (e un matrimonio forzato per k.). la pubblicazione del libro ha seguito la morte dell'assassino, l'ultimo sopravvissuto tra i protagonisti.
il libro in sé non è nulla di eccezionale, anche se anticipa umori, desideri e atmosfere della beat generation. quello che ha entusiasmato me è stato leggere la collaborazione inedita di due protagonisti di un'epoca, il fondersi di due scritture che poi si sono distanziate molto. e il titolo. gli ippopotami bolliti vengono da una notizia sentita alla radio - e finiscono dritti in copertina.