Manafonistas

and, one month ago, she was lost in an American epic by Greg Iles, „Natchez Burning“, and, she also developed some sympathy for the Swedish duo Hjorth & Rosenfeldt, maybe she’s just sparing some sleep by reading their latest novel, „Die Menschen, die es nicht verdienen“. – You would like that psychologist, she said, he can  be a real pain in the ass. She laughed. She’s a nurse, and a great cook. Can’t say anything about these books, I could only explain my complete rejection of this ridiculously overrated thriller „Girl On A Train“. In British TV I liked the second season of „Broadchurch“, too, and some episodes with „Vera“. – Ha, I share this with Patti Smith, I added, the singer is keen on the English way of „noir“. She asked me about my favourites of this year, and I first came up with that excellent and creepy psycho-novel „Wolf“ by Mo Hayder, surely one of her best, wicked like hell, but that was from 2014. I told her, that it’s always a good sign when a thriller stays with you long after the closing of the last page. – More sophisticated nightmares? – Yes, Doctor, and more panic attacks! In fact, there have been some crime novels being damned good company (as opposed to fast food), so I came up with these books: R. J. Ellory – Mockingbird Songs. Claire Fuller – Our Endless Numbered Days. Brian Panovich – Bull Mountain (this one, Bull Mountain, old America, what else with that title, will be published from Suhrkamp next February). I’m sure I forgot some, let me think, ah yes, there have been really great ones by Carol O’Connel, William Shaw and Joe R. Lansdale. After „Das Dickicht“ he has written another one located in the Wild West, with smoking guns, high blood count, and a great storyline. And, well, there is at least one masterpiece in the non-fiction crime genre: „Tinseltown – Murder, Morphine, And Madness At The Dawn of Hollywood.“ The author: William Mann. – What a wonderful world we live in, Michael, she said, and we laughed out loud, and then saw the final episode of the last season of „Justified“. I saw it for the second time. What a showdown. Long live the spirit of Elmore Leonard!

Reading the new thriller by R.J. Ellory, „Mockingbird Songs“, means being transported to a decade long gone. West Texas. 1972. Life can go wrong many ways, and when trying to fix things, simple and sincere, the outcome may be some decent miles away from the nice little wish list of your mind. So: how handling premonition & desaster? R.J. Ellory has written a brilliant thriller with two eccentric guitar playing dudes who breathed in deeply their Hank Williams tunes. The rural hinterland has set the scene, too, for another guitar man, Michael Rother, whose artistic salad days all had happened in the Seventies. What he did with „Harmonia“, is well documented on a vinyl box set, including a telling photo collection – and a man called Brian Eno spending some weeks with that bunch in Lower Saxony. Magic stuff. Days ago, I found a small book in my mail box, a philosophical, sensual exploration of human emotions and the limits (options) of language to broaden the horizon. Easy reading, deep thinking. And really much more witty and illuminating than you first might think considering the old-fashioned topic. At the end of the day, when the night comes tumbling down (wind rattling, rain hitting hard, sudden fog phenomena), put on the new album „This Is Not A Miracle“ from Food (ECM Records). Electro Jazz of the vital kind, with Iain Bellamy, Thomas Stronen and regular guest Christian Fennesz: full of drama, shifting textures and colours. What do you call this music: a breathing thing, space-jazz, or dance music for the head? Whatever, its twilight beauties will reward.