the essential
Friday evening, James Ellroy was back in Toulouse, to present his new book “Les Enchanteurs”. He met
As if indifferent to the madness that stormed the bookstore yesterday at 4 p.m., James Ellroy, calm and focused, remembered his numerous visits to Toulouse. “I love this city and especially this bookstore,” he tells us. “We are always very well received there and people love the books here, you can see it, you can feel it. I knew Toulouse before Toulouse knew me” , assures the author of dark novels.
“Write a novel that takes place here? Oh no, I’m too attached to America. I don’t just write about Los Angeles, as people have sometimes written: my books paint a portrait of America too vast as America itself. On the other hand, I can tell you that I find the women sublime in Toulouse!”, he says bluntly.
James Ellroy walked the streets of the Pink City with his first publisher and lifelong friend François Guérif, where he very often met Claude Mesplède. “I was very sad when I learned of his death,” he said, his voice deep and his eyes focused on the ground. “He had an absolutely unique knowledge of black novels. I couldn’t say that he was a friend. , but he was a man that I respected enormously. I remember famous evenings in Paris! The three of us, François, Claude and I, went to the restaurant “Chez Jenny”, boulevard du Temple. sauerkraut!”
