John Niven, der Autor des American Psycho goes Brit-Pop Romans “Kill Your Friends” berichtet im britischen Q Magazine von seinen Erlebnissen einer Deutschland-Lesereise und bestätigt das alte Klischee: Briten denken immer noch, wir Deutsche würden David Hasselhoff ständig auf Platz 1 kaufen…

“It was also strange to be doing a British bookshop reading again. Let me explain. For some reason “Kill Your Friends” has been doing business in Germany (big in Germany: me and Hasselhoff) and has recently come out as a three-CD audiobook, narrated by a fellow called “Bela B”.

Now, Bela is a member of a German band called Die Ärtze (sic!), who are kind of like U2 in Germany. Only bigger. Consequently the reading I did with him at the Leipzig bookfair a few weeks back was – for a small British novelist – proper Beatlemania shit: rockshow lighting, backdrops, 500 screaming kids queued round the block, gales of applause and signings for an hour afterwards (obviously all reflected glory for me, but I am, of course, happy to bask in anything coming my way).

Cue to West London and 30 people in a brightly lit bookshop on a wet Tuesday. A bit like going from the Enormodome to the Bull & Gate.”

…und wäre zudem ein kurioser Kandidat in der vom Kollegen Heldner angedachten Rubrik “unsinnige U2-Vergleiche”…