0725 Les Énergumènes

Title: Les Énergumènes English Title: The Fanatics Canon: The End of the Night Language: French Country: France Format: Paperback Year: 1969 Publisher: Gallimard Collection: Poche Noire Collection #: 99 Cover Artist: unknown Translator: J. Hérisson

I’m always intrigued by how people from other countries view Americans. The most common thing you see on foreign MacDonald covers is big cars and palm trees and guns, although come to think of it, guns appear on lots of US covers as well. Oh, and gangsters.

Now some JDM stories deserve a gangster or two on the cover. April Evil comes to mind. And so does Murder in the Wind. The Empty Trap. The Only Girl in the Game deserves a few but I haven’t found any. The End of the Night doesn’t really have any gangsters in it but it does have a bunch of really tough characters so I guess this cover isn’t unreasonable.

But this “gangster” is sooo French-looking. Maybe it’s the flat cap. Or the cigar hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Or the tommy gun that I don’t remember being in the story (although I haven’t read it in years since I regard it as the very worst entry in the MacDonald pantheon).

Today’s cover is another example of that curious sub-genre of JDM books (all foreign) that misspell his name, in this case, “Mac Donald”.