German publisher Pulpmaster is publishing the German language edition of three of my novels--THE RAPIST, THE BITCH, and THE GENUINE, IMITATION, PLASTIC KIDNAPPING, and recently, the publisher, Frank Nowatzke, told me they want the German rights to my memoir, ADRENALINE JUNKIE, as soon as it's released this fall from Down&Out Books. THE RAPIST has been out for awhile and in June, THE BITCH will be released and hopefully the GENUINE KIDNAPPING will come out this fall. It depends on how quickly the translation can be completed.
I thought I'd share a few of the reviews German readers have posted in the German version of Amazon. I've always thought THE RAPIST in particular, would appeal to the German sensibility and that seems to have been borne out. Here they are and if anyone is interested in seeing the German Amazon site, just go here.
Customer
Reviews
FromMafölinoon the 16th of August 2017
Format: Paperback |Verified Purchase
Time is running out
for Truman Pinter. He is in jail, convicted of rape and murder, awaiting
execution. In the last hours of his life, he muses on God and the
world. Pinter, he likes to stylize himself Antichrist, nothing else can
do. He enjoys that. "I prefer loneliness and this life is made for me,"
he says. His story is unbearable. The rape is still the
self-proclaimed misanthrope and avid fly fishermen. He would not have
committed the murder of the young woman after that. Just continued to
watch and watched as she drowned after sex. Pinter considers himself a
superman, believes he can overcome gravity. On the day of his execution he
wants to fly away, the episode is one of the weakest in the novel. The
novel from the perspective of the perpetrator is disturbing. The US author
Les Edgerton, he is a classic US noir author, leads the reader in the head of
the murderer. Everything is evil, really nasty. The harmless secret
paths of the author steer directly into the heart of the darkness. The
peace of mind of the offender at confession worries. The novel is
interesting as a literary experiment. A reading that shakes.
FromBernd Alexander Schmidton March 30, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Granted, the rapist is
reading hard! The reader becomes the quasi-confessor of a psychopath, only
that he does not make a confession, but a creed. You do not read this
book, you have to endure it.
Truman is a monster. He raped and murdered a young woman, then carelessly thrown her body away. Now he's stuck in the death cell and we, the readers, with him. Chained to the rapist who relishes his own execution. He talks to us nonstop, presumptuous and arrogant. What a fine guy he is. And how little really a genius like him should take care of the laws of the people and in general: the thing with the rape was quite different.
Bad, weird, nauseating and terrible ... but terribly good!
Truman is a monster. He raped and murdered a young woman, then carelessly thrown her body away. Now he's stuck in the death cell and we, the readers, with him. Chained to the rapist who relishes his own execution. He talks to us nonstop, presumptuous and arrogant. What a fine guy he is. And how little really a genius like him should take care of the laws of the people and in general: the thing with the rape was quite different.
Bad, weird, nauseating and terrible ... but terribly good!
5.0 out of 5 starsExceptionally original
"testament" of a sociopath about the need for revolt, compassion,
megalomania & insight
FromLord Jickledyon the 9th of January 2017
Format: Paperback
The novel first
appeared in March 2013 under the original title "The Rapist" as a
160-page paperback published by New Pulp Press. The German translation
from American English was done by Ango Laina and Angelika Müller. She
appeared as a paperback volume 40 in the publishing house PULP MASTER in
Berlin. This edition contains 157 pages including a seven-page epilogue by
Ekkehard Knörer. The novel is preceded by a quotation from the British
soldier, aeronautical engineer and philosopher John William Dunne, who was,
among others, Aldous Huxley's esteemed founder of a serialism theory of
consciousness: "Past, present and future exist simultaneously, as our
dreams prove."
What a monster of book! Nobody writes a novel in which a self-centered, arrogant rapist on death row ruses his moral philosophy in twisted words, and thinks people love the novel outright. Catchy and easy is not that, but bulky and infamous. Many will have too little invitation to sympathy and Mitfiebern be present. The originality, which tramples on all stereotypes, will make the average reader boring because: not comparable to others. Les Edgerton easily disassembles any genre assignment, the novel is not a thriller, not a thriller, not even superficially exciting, neither Noir nor Hardboiled. The appropriate frame of reference is more in the direction of high literature à la Dostojewski's "Records from the cellar hole".
"I'm going to tell my story in turn, despite the fact that you're a lot younger than me and undoubtedly attracted to bland food, your attention span will be just over zero and your understanding of everything Written ones below, so I will not make it too complicated, and always one by one, so as not to confuse you. " (P. 8)
The "rapist" is the direct glimpse into the head of sociopath Truman Ferris Pinter, a megalomaniac who situates himself outside the morals of his fellow man, who believes that he is free and free to live his own rules and control everything (which will turn out to be an illusion in the end). Truman: True Man? He, who believes he can live without other people, is more dependent on them than he believes: to express his infamous (or pathetic) philosophy in an empty auditorium meant: to have a meaningless philosophy! He needs spectators, an interface to which he can express his contempt and arrogance. In this respect, he also makes the reader an accomplice with the report, trying to find a sympathizer. As a reader, you have to get along first: Some sentences seem like an inexpressible truth that has always seemed to be self-evident, but some sentences are absolutely terrible if, for example, he declares the rape to be insignificant, because he stands morally, intellectually, and socially above the victim. His report is neither a confession nor a description of the events that brought him on death row, trying not to convince innocence to assert, but is rather a kind of testament of his self, the attempt, the self-deception in the face of his death - And in the truest sense of the word, to keep upright: whoever does not stop talking is not dead. He: a sheherazade of death row; his report: a song of praise to his own perfidious morality and him, the creator of his own world. It states its unassailability. Will end up even apotheosis!
Truman, who claims to be able to use the ability of flying as a child to grow up to escape execution, simply wants to flee, but only for a brief moment to show the law enforcement officer that only his rules and his schedule apply, that he can disappear at his own discretion and then return to die "duly" on the gallows. He will actually experience his blue miracle when he finally encounters his creator in person (or at least in style). Giving these mind games all under one roof is the great strength of the novel. An intellectual fun and a kind of disclaimer for the reader. "The rapist" turns up so soon, beats the strings, swirls present, Past and future - away from "objective" stages of time to "subjective", simultaneously existing levels of consciousness, that one could almost think, a strange science fiction novel around parallel worlds in the hands to hold. A novel also about revolt. Overconfidence and - not least - realization! But also about compassion in a partly stupid, partly heartless world. With a narrative lightness and a literary daring, as I was not allowed to read for a long time, genre boundaries are torn down, a long nose is shown to all acquaintances. An extraordinary tour de force: ambitious, intellectually stimulating and incredibly resourceful. A party! So unlike most of what I have read in the field so far. And nobody says it has to be done!
What a monster of book! Nobody writes a novel in which a self-centered, arrogant rapist on death row ruses his moral philosophy in twisted words, and thinks people love the novel outright. Catchy and easy is not that, but bulky and infamous. Many will have too little invitation to sympathy and Mitfiebern be present. The originality, which tramples on all stereotypes, will make the average reader boring because: not comparable to others. Les Edgerton easily disassembles any genre assignment, the novel is not a thriller, not a thriller, not even superficially exciting, neither Noir nor Hardboiled. The appropriate frame of reference is more in the direction of high literature à la Dostojewski's "Records from the cellar hole".
"I'm going to tell my story in turn, despite the fact that you're a lot younger than me and undoubtedly attracted to bland food, your attention span will be just over zero and your understanding of everything Written ones below, so I will not make it too complicated, and always one by one, so as not to confuse you. " (P. 8)
The "rapist" is the direct glimpse into the head of sociopath Truman Ferris Pinter, a megalomaniac who situates himself outside the morals of his fellow man, who believes that he is free and free to live his own rules and control everything (which will turn out to be an illusion in the end). Truman: True Man? He, who believes he can live without other people, is more dependent on them than he believes: to express his infamous (or pathetic) philosophy in an empty auditorium meant: to have a meaningless philosophy! He needs spectators, an interface to which he can express his contempt and arrogance. In this respect, he also makes the reader an accomplice with the report, trying to find a sympathizer. As a reader, you have to get along first: Some sentences seem like an inexpressible truth that has always seemed to be self-evident, but some sentences are absolutely terrible if, for example, he declares the rape to be insignificant, because he stands morally, intellectually, and socially above the victim. His report is neither a confession nor a description of the events that brought him on death row, trying not to convince innocence to assert, but is rather a kind of testament of his self, the attempt, the self-deception in the face of his death - And in the truest sense of the word, to keep upright: whoever does not stop talking is not dead. He: a sheherazade of death row; his report: a song of praise to his own perfidious morality and him, the creator of his own world. It states its unassailability. Will end up even apotheosis!
Truman, who claims to be able to use the ability of flying as a child to grow up to escape execution, simply wants to flee, but only for a brief moment to show the law enforcement officer that only his rules and his schedule apply, that he can disappear at his own discretion and then return to die "duly" on the gallows. He will actually experience his blue miracle when he finally encounters his creator in person (or at least in style). Giving these mind games all under one roof is the great strength of the novel. An intellectual fun and a kind of disclaimer for the reader. "The rapist" turns up so soon, beats the strings, swirls present, Past and future - away from "objective" stages of time to "subjective", simultaneously existing levels of consciousness, that one could almost think, a strange science fiction novel around parallel worlds in the hands to hold. A novel also about revolt. Overconfidence and - not least - realization! But also about compassion in a partly stupid, partly heartless world. With a narrative lightness and a literary daring, as I was not allowed to read for a long time, genre boundaries are torn down, a long nose is shown to all acquaintances. An extraordinary tour de force: ambitious, intellectually stimulating and incredibly resourceful. A party! So unlike most of what I have read in the field so far. And nobody says it has to be done!
Les
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