We love this cover. It looks very much to us like the man who’s being choked was staring at a woman’s breasts and can’t take his eyes off them—even while being choked. That’s dedication. Y’en a marre… p’tite tête, by the way, means something like “fed up… little head.” Presumably that’s another of those French terms you have to be French to really understand. We’ll await illumination via e-mail.
Update: Jo B. comes to the rescue again: “Petite tête” means that you have no brain, that you forget everything you’ve got to do or that you’ve been told. It means also that you’re absent minded. On the contrary, “forte tête” which means “strong head” is used to design a person with a rough character, who doesn’t like rules, who contests everything, doesn’t like discipline and is always against the law. In roman noir, he’s a bad boy, quite a gangster, the guy who doesn’t tell anything to the police even if he’s tortured or beaten. As the expression is used on a roman noir cover, I would say that the “petite tête” is used to design a bad guy who ain’t got any future in gangster life, who will never be a “forte tête,” who will be a loser and say everything to the police if he’s arrested. It’s pejorative and insulting.
Thank you again, Jo. You’ve been a great help, and thanks so much for continuing to visit the site.
