"And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" and other exotic recipes.

In 1944, Lucien Carr, A friend of William S Burroughs, stabbed a man named David Kammerer with a Boy Scout knife and threw his body in the Hudson River. The next day, Carr ran to his friends William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac for help.
The story of this murder is very popular among the Beats. Allen Ginsberg has written about it, as have Marguerite Young, James Baldwin, and Truman Capote. This account, written in alternating chapters by Burroughs and Kerouac was written while both of the authors were still unpublished and unknown. The book was considered of little literary merit when submitted for publishing and disappeared until 2008 when it was finally published.
I thought this book was awesome. It's told very simply and realistically and there's something timeless about it that makes it exciting to read. Without stretching my imagination too much (something I never like to do) I could see this story happening to any of us. It's also one of the earliest samplings available of the Beat Movement, which is pretty awesome as well. It's not going to win any writing awards. You can tell both authors are still cutting their teeth, but it was a quick, fun read and a neat glimpse into the early writing of two mega-liths of American writing. Also, the title wins it extra points. Two words: circus fire. 7/10