French Tour Summer 2019

For the past two weeks, I've been on the road in France for the Gallmeister release of my novel AU NOM DU BIEN (DRY COUNTY). We were at the Goeland Masque festival in Penmarc'h, the paperback festival Saint-Maur en Poche, and we've done bookstore events in Vaucresson, Orleans, Bayeux, Rambouillet. I'm exhausted but happy. Now I've got a few days off, and we'll wrap up the tour in Festival International du Roman Noir in Frontignan June 28-30.

It's been a blast so far. Great crowds and a lot of enthusiasm for the new book. Mercu beaucoup to everyone who's come out to see me. 

NO TOMORROW wins the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere

I'm thrilled and honored to share the good news that I won the big one, France's top award for mystery writing, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, for my novel NO TOMORROW.

Provided you can read French, you can read more about it here. They give out two awards, one for best French novel (which was won by Marion Brunet) and one for best foreign novel. I won for best foreign novel. You're welcome, America.

It's a remarkable honor, and one that I'm going to bask in for a while. If you need me, I'll be chugging a cheap Bordeaux and singing La Marseillaise. 

NO TOMORROW in ROLLING STONE (France)

There's a great four-star review of NO TOMORROW in the current French edition of ROLLING STONE. Reviewer Phillippe Blanchet has some nice things to say about the book. If you can read French, or if you just want to plug it into a translator, go check it out.

Bloody Fleury and the French Book Tour 2018

I’m heading back to France next week to promote my latest book SANS LENDEMAIN. While I’m there, I hope to see old friends and meet new friends. If you’re around, please come say hi.

I’ll be at the festival Bloody Fleury from February 2-4 signing books and meeting people. On the third day of the festival, I’ll be on the 3 pm panel “When Violence Generates Violence” with Jean-Luc Bizien and Jacques-Olivier Bosco, moderated by Olivier Vanderbecq.

On February 5^th, at 6 pm I’ll do a public presentation at the bookstore Richer in Angers.

On February 6^th, at 7 pm I’ll do a public presentation at the bookstore L’Embarcadère in Saint-Nazaire.

On February 7^th, at 7 pm I’ll do a public presentation at the bookstore Coiffard in Nantes.

On February 8^th at 7 pm I’ll do a public presentation at the bookstore L’Esprit Livre in Lyon.

On February 9^th at 7 pm I’ll do a public presentation at the bookstore Chroniques in Cachan.

NO TOMORROW Goes To France

My book NO TOMORROW makes its French debut next year. Here's the cover, which kicks ass and makes me really happy.

WHEN YOU GET THIS LETTER (QUAND TU LIRAS CETTE LETTRE) (1953)

This month The Gene Siskel Film Center, an adjunct of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has been hosting a retrospective of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville. It's been a thrilling line up of classics from the greatest director of French film noir: BOB LE FLAMBEUR, LE SAMOURAI, LE CERCLE ROUGE, LE DOULOS, UN FLIC, and more. (My only regret is that they didn't show the Simenon adaptation MAGNET OF DOOM.) I've been to most showings, and the highlight for me has been a film that was new to me, LEON MORIN, PRETRE (sometimes called LEON THE PRIEST). I will write about this movie soon, because it was something of a revelation to me. I love Melville's gangster films, but this intense and deeply human look at the relationship between a communist and a priest during World War II instantly became my favorite of his films. I want to see LEON again before I write about it, though. It demands my extended contemplation.

Last night at the retrospective, I had a strikingly unique experience because the Siskel showed a Melville rarity,  WHEN YOU GET THIS LETTER (QUAND TU LIRAS CETTE LETTRE). Before the show, the programmer came out to tell us that there is no existing print of the film with English subtitles. Instead, they showed the film in French while an interpreter used a computer program to seamlessly project subtitles onscreen. I have to say that this gave the showing an interesting twist. The interpreter got a well-deserved round of applause at the end.

Given the relative obscurity of WHEN YOU GET THIS LETTER in English, I thought that I should make some notes on it for Melville fans who have not yet seen it.

The film tells the story of a postulate nun named Therese Voise (Juliette Greco) who is about to take her vows when she learns that her parents have been killed in a car accident. She leaves the convent to return home to care for her sister Denise (Irene Galter) and run the family bookstore and paper shop. At the same time, Denise meets a handsome boxer named Max Trivet (Philippe Lemarie). At first, Max appears to be a roguish charmer. When Denise isn't around, he hatches a scheme with a buddy, Biquet, who works as a bellboy at a fancy hotel, to angle for the attention (and money) of rich Mme. Faugeret. Then Max sneaks into Mme. Faugeret's room at night and seduces her--and I use the word "seduces" advisedly here because although Mme. Faugeret seems to retain her agency, their confrontation is disturbingly close to a sexual assault. After this, Mme. Faugeret sort of adopts Max as a pet, but his character only seems increasingly sinister.

The turning point in the film comes when Denise unexpectedly runs into Max at the hotel and he rapes her in Mme. Faugeret's room. Distraught, the young woman attempts suicide. After she has recovered enough to tell Therese what has the happened, the older sister forces Max at gunpoint to marry Denise.

Every viewer's take on the film will probably depend a lot on how they view Therese's actions following her sister's assault. Melville was a poet of moral ambiguity. The plot of WHEN YOU GET THIS LETTER might make it sound like a melodrama (and, indeed, in some ways it is), but the director rarely overplays things (one exception to this is a scene where Therese's dress catches on fire, a scene that clobbers us with its metaphors). For the most part, the tone set in the opening scenes in the convent predominates, even when the guns, sex, and twists of fate start coming into play. Max is the wild id of the film--violent, greedy, narcissistic. When he confesses his love for the tightly wound Therese, it seems like just another scheme. Therese, on on the other hand, is the film's ego (the film's superego is probably the Catholic church), and she is the one whose actions we're most interested in. She despises Max for what he's done, so her decision to force him to marry Denise is shocking. Does she do it out of some archaic sense of propriety? Does she do it because, despite everything, her sister claims to love Max? Melville and Jacques Deval let these questions hang in the air.

The cast is excellent. Galter is winsome as Denise without making her too doe-eyed, and as Max, Lemarie gives a demonically charismatic performance that manages to veer between brutality and a weird kind of innocence. When he confesses his love for Therese, it almost seems plausible that he could mean it, that she has a mysterious pull on him. What makes this work is that Max stays Max. It's not as if his attraction to Therese somehow redeems him or makes him a good guy. It's just another facet of his character. Is the film a noir? It wasn't billed as such, but I think that even if you didn't know that Melville was the director, the noir ethos of the thing comes through in Max's character and the amorality of Lemarie's performance.

As Therese, Juliette Greco is masterfully controlled. Greco is best known as an iconic singer in France, a former lover of Miles Davis and drinking buddy of people like Orson Welles and Jean-Paul Sarte. In this film, however, she was 26 and just starting out in her career. What she carried with her into the film was the weight of WWII, during which she'd been put in jail by Nazis and lost her mother, a member of the French Resistance. Greco would become famous for her intensity, and, indeed, the defining attribute of her performance here is the feeling of passions contained. She can convey the sense of sublimated emotion without giving the impression of a lack of emotion. All the characters in this film are tortured by passions they can't really comprehend, but Greco hints at great depths and intelligence. The way she tells Max, "May God punish you for the rest of your life and forgive you at the hour of your death" perfectly captures the Catholic restraint that dominates even her rage. Later, after Max has physically attacked her with a rock, only to instantly repent of his violence, she rubs her aching shoulder with a look of fascinating ambiguity on her face. The curse of Max for her isn't some hothouse sexuality or the misplaced idea that she can redeem him. It's that, in his horrible way, he makes her feel alive. 

WHEN YOU GET THIS LETTER demands more viewings. Since it is such an obscurity, I can only hope that someone will bring it out on DVD or BluRay sometime soon. It's a haunting film. 

Back In The USA

Well, I'm back from France. It was a lovely trip. We did several cities, including Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, Lyon, Dax, Pau, Vieux Boucau, Mont de Marsan, Bayonne, and Bordeaux. It was exhausting and exhilarating, a real labor and the most fun. I loved every minute.

I should thank everyone involved--all the booksellers, readers, and organizers. You all have my sincerest gratitude. 

Book Tour In France!

France, I am coming for you.

Jake Hinkson est l'invité de la Médiathèque départementale des Landes et participera à une série de rencontres en France. Vous pourrez le rencontrer :
- le 15 septembre à la librairie Les Mots et les choses de Boulogne-Billancourt
- le 16 septembre à la Librairie du Tramway à Lyon
- les 17 et 18 septembre au Festival Le Polar se met au vert organisé par la Médiathèque départementale des Landes
- le 20 septembre à la librairie Hirigoyen de Bayonne
- le 21 septembre à la librairie Tonnet de Pau
- le 22 septembre à la librairie Campus de Dax
- le 23 septembre à la librairie Caractères de Mont-de-Marsan
- les 24 et 25 septembre au Festival Polar en cabanes à Bordeaux

For more information, check out my author page at the Gallmeister website.

Return to France

Very excited to announce I'm coming back to France this September as the guest of the departmental Media Landes. To all my friends, old and new, in France, I hope you'll drop by and say hi.

Here's where I'll be:
- September 15 at the bookstore Words and Things in Boulogne-Billancourt
- September 16 at Tramway Bookstore in Lyon
- On 17 and 18 September at the Polar Festival organized by the departmental Media Landes
- September 20 at the bookstore Hirigoyen Bayonne
- September 21 at the library Tonnet Pau
- September 22 at the bookstore Campus Dax
- September 23 at the library of characters Mont-de-Marsan
- 24 and 25 September at the Polar Festival cabins in Bordeaux

Nice Write Up And Review in MetroNews

Here is a link to a nice piece on the French version of THE POSTHUMOUS MAN in MetroNews in France. The piece has a nice little intro to yours truly and the segues into an enthusiastic  review. Pretty cool.

 

L'ENFER DE CHURCH STREET Wins the Prix Mystère de la Critique!

I'm thrilled to announce this. The translation of HELL ON CHURCH STREET has won the 2016 Prix Mystère de la Critique, the French mystery critics award.They give out two awards, one for best French language novel and one for best foreign language novel. I won, of course, in the foreign category. It's the oldest award in France for crime fiction and it's been won by hard hitters like James Ellroy, Daniel Woodrell, and James Lee Burke. It's the award THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS won back in the day, for god's sake. So I'm guessing this is a clerical error. Until they figure out their mistake, though, I'm gonna party like it's 1999. Special shout out to Sophie Aslanides, my brilliant translator!

THE POSTHUMOUS MAN Goes to France (And So Will Its Author)

I'm thrilled to announce that my second novel, THE POSTHUMOUS MAN, is being released next month in France. As with my previous book, this one has been translated by the great Sophie Aslanides. I'll be traveling to France for a book tour in September. I had the greatest time of my life there last year to promote HELL ON CHURCH STREET, so I could not be more excited to go back.

More details to come!

Orson Welles at 100: THE TRIAL (1962)

I'm over at Criminal Element with a new installment in my series on Orson Welles at 100. This time around I'm looking at one of my favorite of the director's works, 1962's THE TRIAL. 

Letter From Lyon

above: A Couple of Goons

I wrote about my adventures with Benjamin Whitmer​ at the Quais Du Polar​ in Lyon, France.

You can read "Letter To Lyon" over at Criminal Element.

Report From France PLUS A Great Article In The Arkansas Times

We're having an incredible time in France. I've done a few events with the great Ben Whitmer (PIKE and CRY FATHER), who, it turns out, is as cool as he is talented. We did an event at a Paris bookshop, then I headed to Montpellier to do some presentations while Whitmer was dispatched to some other town to do the same. Then we met up in Lyon for the huge Quais Du Polar festival where we got to meet readers and hobnob with literary lights from around the world. I sat on a panel discussion, had a solo event that was shockingly well attended, and signed books. Then we headed back to Paris for a party with booksellers last night. The level of organization here between publishers, booksellers, and readers is incredible. I know of nothing like it in the states. The reception that I've gotten here quite frankly has me stunned. It's been so warm and effusive. We sold out of my books at the festival, and I found out that I'm on the bestseller list for independent bookstores. I mean, what the hell is going on?

I'll report back and post some more pictures here when I get back to Chicago. For now, though, I wanted to post the OTHER best thing that's happened to me in the last week, this great article in the Arkansas Times ("Jake Hinkson's Arkansas Noir") by Matt Baker. I've never gotten much coverage in my home state, so it's really exciting to get such a nice write up.

French Book Tour

To my new friends in France: 

I have the announcement and dates for the French tour. I hope to see you at one of these stops.

Vous pourrez écouter Jake Hinkson samedi 28, à 11h30 à la Chapelle de la Trinité puis à 14h pour l'enregistrement public de l'émission Mauvais Genre de France Culture, au Palais du Commerce, Salle Ampère.

Jake dédicacera également son roman sur le stand de la Librairie Passages pendant le festival.

Jake Hinkson sera l'invité du Festival Quais du Polar et participera à une tournée en librairies. Vous pourrez le rencontrer :

- le 25 mars à la librairie L'Arbre à Lettres située rue Boulard à Paris.
- le 26 mars à 19h à la librairie Sauramps à Montpellier.
- du 27 au 29 mars au Festival Quais du Polar de Lyon
- le 31 mars à la librairie La Machine à Lire de Bordeaux
- le 1er avril à la librairie Calligrammes de La Rochelle
- le 2 avril à la librairie M'Lire de Laval
- le 3 avril à la librairie Obliques d'Auxerre

HELL ON CHURCH STREET Goes To France

LA JETEE (1963)

From my new piece on LA JETEE: 

Few short films have had as long a life as the 1963 French sci-fi classic La Jetée. Simply surviving and accruing a cult following over the years is a large accomplishment for a 28-minute film, but what makes this accomplishment all the more impressive is that the film itself would seem—at least on paper—to be a challenge to most viewers. It is a film told almost entirely in still photographs. It has no stars. It has no dialog. It has no action, of course, because it has no movement. Oh, and it has a bleak, hopeless ending.

And yet, La Jetée is one of those movies that pulls in viewers from the start...

To read the rest, check out my essay over at Tor.com

HELL ON CHURCH STREET And THE POSTHUMOUS MAN Go International

I'm thrilled to announce that my novels HELL ON CHURCH STREET and THE POSTHUMOUS MAN are going to France.

French publisher Editions Gallmeister is translating both books for release in Europe sometime next year. I'll post more details going forward. For now, I'll just say that it's fun to contemplate that my Arkansas noirs will soon have their French doppelgangers--actual noir noir.