Jordan Cool Greys And the Hippos…

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They drift through each other’s dishevelled apartments drinking, necking, taking drugs, talking of love and loneliness, adventure and friendship; all of which spirals out of control to a brutal murder. This readers will recognize. It is the theme of mystery that keeps the pages turning. After numerous fall outs and arguments you will want to know who finally snapped in the midst of a crazy life and for what reason, if there was one.
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is a semi-autobiographical crime novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs; two leaders of the influential Beat Generation of the 1950’s. The novel is set in New York City in the closing stages of the war and centres around a group of friends and the indulgence and laxity of their hedonistic lifestyle spiralling into a bloody crime.
The writing style of the novel is considerably different to the works that would grant both writers their fame. There’s a minimalist feeling to the short, structured sentences. Unlike the lengthy poetical prose in Kerouac’s later novels and the cut up technique which Burroughs would go on to adopt. The Novel is also written in alternating chapters between the two, Burroughs as Will Dennison and Kerouac as Mike Ryko.
Long before Kerouac headed off on mad road trips across America to find truth and wrote On the Road,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and before Burroughs’ drug use spiraled out of control into a nightmarish look at life through glassy junky eyes in Naked Lunch, And the Hippos showed the early footprints on the tracks that each would ultimately take.
The book shows Kerouac’s desire to leave New York and join the navy to travel, before encountering difficulties, and Burroughs early experiences with morphine which lead to a long, successful career in addiction, making Hippos a coming of age story for the Beat Generation as well as a murder mystery.
Unpublished for many years, because of its content and legal matters, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks was resurrected in 2007 and finally published in 2008 after over sixty years spent beneath floorboards stewing in mythology. And it is certainly worth the wait.
Read on
The Beat Generation in New York
The Women Behind Burroughs, Kerouac and Cassady
Jack Kerouac and the Other Original Beat Writers
At the time of the murder,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in a war torn New York City, 1944, the guilty man came to both of them in search of help and guidance before giving himself up. Neither could provide more than a couple of beers and a few words. Their involvement with the murderer and their failure to report any information to the police unsurprisingly landed them both in jail.
Burroughs’ bail was paid by his wealthy St. Louis family whereas Kerouac had to remain behind bars before marrying Edie Parker (whilst still in jail), resulting in her supposedly paying Kerouac’s bail from her inheritance. The murder referred to in the novel was that of the Lucian Karr/David Kammerer case,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], both of whom were in the Beats circle of friends at the time.
Where do Kerouac and Burroughs Get Involved in the David Kammerer Murder?
And the Hippos… is The Beats Coming of Age Novel
Kerouac and Burroughs' Writing Style
However, the novel is less murder mystery than an insight to two writers who at the time were unpublished and unknown, yet they would ultimately become two of the most important writers of their time. Neither possesses their style of writing that would later bring them ingenious recognition,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but the themes are still there.