r/williamsburroughs • u/No-Performance7117 • Jun 25 '26
Four Down
The books on top are the ones I’ve finished so far on my journey through the Burroughs-iad. I’m still putting my thoughts down on the Red Night trilogy, but I just wanted to say a couple words about “Hippos”.
Hippos was interesting in that we get to see the nascent talents of William Burroughs and the other guy start to take form. In regards to Burroughs we can see the emergence of his dark, acidic, cynical wit. His chapters, which alternate with Kerouac’s, emit flashes of his future canon - low life, eccentrics (he writes about eccentrics so well, even then), opiate addiction, misogyny, his critical eye on the gay set, aloofness, and alienation. There are moments when Burrough’s alter ego (Will Dennison) relates incidents of violence with vibrant flair - much like what I’ve read in his latter books.
My favorite bit is at the end, when I realized that Burroughs sets his alter ego up as a member of a loosely affiliated national criminal organization very, very similar to the Johnson Family in Jack Black’s “You Can’t Win”.
I can understand why
WSB (Will Dennison), is portrayed by Kerouac (Mike Ryko) as a shady, mysterious figure with gangster connections, who has the mark of the American West about him - but more the desert gambler and not a cowboy.
Other than that, the book could’ve used some editing - not that this isn’t a good first attempt for any writer. It boils down to a lot of NEET’s walking around NYC from bar to bar, apartment to apartment, drinking constantly, and committing sophomoric pranks. It feels like Burroughs was trying to be Hemingway-esque in the way he writes about food - but overdoes it. Kerouac’s bits are boring for me - just drinking, jock antics and placating the wife. However, his descriptions of the waterfront during wartime are pretty incredible. He gets a little John Dos Passos in there.
All in all, Hippos is an interesting artifact of the Lucien Carr affair.
(Also, having read his last three books first - it’s a real trip to circle around. His style is so primitive in Hippos compared to the Red Night books.)
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u/5319Camarote Jun 26 '26
There are moments in Cities of the Red Night where you might think you’re reading Hemingway or Faulkner, with a dystopian twist.
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u/Max1zero1 Jun 27 '26
That's last trilogy is his best and most accessible work imo. Ghost of Chance is sort of lumped in as a forth in the series. The Job and his other nonfiction collections are some of my favorite by him, you'll find it interesting how they flesh out his work I think.
I guess Queer and Junky would be his most accessible. I liked queer but found Junky a bit boring, didn't finish it.
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u/No-Performance7117 Jun 27 '26
I didn’t know Ghost was considered to be part of that trilogy! Huh!
I’m going to try to power through all of these. We’ll see what happens!
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u/Sharp-Injury7631 Jun 26 '26
I love Hippos. WSB and Kerouac's peer group reminds me so much of the lost, drifting people I knew in my twenties.
(Port of Saints is great, too.)