A review by jnzllwgr
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

4.0

Reading the beats at this time in life and history serves as a bit of a Time Machine. This novel is set within my own father’s life span and yet, so much has changed with culture, it’s nearly unrecognizable to me, certainly to my teenage sons. The old movies normalize it a bit more, but it is becoming increasingly foreign in nature. Further, this novel —a collaboration between two titanic literary figures before they wrote their great works that made them famous — is built upon an actual event that the two authors bore witness to. The afterword is actually far more fascinating than the novel itself! Trim sentences, crisp dialogue and a relatively simple, fast moving plot takes the reader through the summer/fall of ’44 when a group of friends while away their days with seemingly no back-pressure to get a job just to survive. The story is threaded with 2 of this ensemble attempting to get enlisted on the same merchant marine vessel headed to France, anticipating arrival and desertion (‘the war will be over by then’) to see Paris. Incredibly humorous and not directly surreal (as the title may lead you believe). A good thing to spend a rainy afternoon indoors or a sunny one on a beach reading. But don’t forget the Afterword!