I started the book while hanging out at a local bookstore in early December and after about 50 pages, decided I'd like to read the whole thing, so I put it on my Christmas wish list.
It's an odd little document of the early days of the Beat Generation in New York City. Kerouac and Burroughs wrote alternating chapters in this story of the events surrounding the murder of one of their friends by another in their social circle in the summer of 1944.
It was rejected by publishers in 1945 and spent the next 60 years buried in a filing cabinet. The title, by the way, comes from a news report of a fire at a circus.
The book was finally published in 2008 after both authors and all of the characters were dead.
It's a fascinating period piece, with intriguing glimpses of wartime New York.
If you've read and enjoyed Kerouac and/or Burroughs, you'll probably love this book.
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