Total Chaos (Marseilles Trilogy)

by Jean-Claude Izzo

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Description

In Jean-Claude Izzo's "Mediterranean noir" mysteries, the city of Marseilles is explosive, breathtakingly beautiful, and deadly. This first book in the Marseilles trilogy introduces readers to Fabio Montale, a disenchanted cop who turns his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism and, in the name of friendship, takes the fight against the mafia into his own hands.  Ugo, Manu, and Fabio grew up together on the mean streets of Marseilles where friendship means everything. They promised to stay true to one another and swore that nothing would break their bond. But people and circumstances change. Ugo and Manu have been drawn into the criminal underworld of Europe's toughest, most violent and vibrant city. When Manu is murdered and Ugo returns from abroad to avenge his friend's death, only to be killed himself, it is left to the third in this trio, Detective Fabio Montale, to ensure justice is done. Despite warnings from both his colleagues in law enforcement and his acquaintances in the underworld, Montale cannot forget the promise he once made Manu and Ugo. He's going to find theirkiller no matter the consequences. Fabio Montale is the perfect protagonist in for a fabled city of melancholy beauty.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member wandering_star
This interesting thriller starts with a man returning to Marseilles after an absence of twenty years drifting around the world. He, Ugo, is back to avenge the murder of one of his childhood friends, Manu - even though they had long ago lost touch. It's a very punchy opening, with the narrative
Show More
swinging from third-person to second-person, so it feels very immediate.

It's a bit of a surprise, then, when at the end of the prologue, Ugo is gunned down by the police. The narrative then switches to follow Fabio Montale, police inspector, who grew up in the working-class areas of Marseilles - he too is a childhood friend of Ugo's - and is regarded with suspicion by his colleagues because of a tendency to try and solve problems by talking to the troubled youth of the area rather than going in and breaking heads. Montale is troubled by Ugo's return. How had he found out so quickly who was responsible for Manu's death? Why were the police in exactly the right place to shoot Ugo? And how does this fit in with another crime which affects a friend of Montale's?

This was a very good noir. Even the chapter titles give a good idea of the mood: "In which, even if you're going to lose, you've still go to know how to fight", "In which dawns are nothing but an illusory impression of how beautiful the world is", "In which the way others look at you is a deadly weapon". Montale fits all the noir tropes (washed-up, despairing at the grimness of the world) but does not feel like a cliché. If anything, it's more depressing than a normal noir - because Montale is disillusioned more than anything else by the growing racism that he sees around him, France's intolerant approach to immigrants, and that's a trend I find genuinely depressing in my own country. But it was still very enjoyable to read.

My only criticism relates to one aspect of the translation. Many of the characters speak non-standard French, and this has been rendered in a sort of mixture of northern and cockney, which is quite jarring - particularly as the same mix is used for all the characters, whatever their social or ethnic background. I know slang is hard to translate effectively - whatever you choose will alienate some readers - but this really didn't work for me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
This is the first of the three policiers written by the well-known left-wing journalist Jean-Claude Izzo in the 1990s. Like Izzo himself, his Marseilles detective Fabio Montale comes from an immigrant background in a working-class district of Marseilles, has served in the army in Djibouti, and
Show More
still believes firmly in the socialist ideals of the community he grew up in, most especially in the notion of Marseilles as the French New York, a welcoming refuge for displaced people from all over the Mediterranean region. Which makes him something of an awkward fit in the modern police force, something not exactly helped by his somewhat eccentric private life and his fondness for poetry and fine Provençal cooking...

In this first book, Montale's two closest childhood friends, now small-time crooks, have both been killed within the space of a couple of months. According to the official reports, they've been caught up in a settling of accounts between rival gangs, but Montale suspects that there's more to it than that. We soon realise that the role of Montale's own colleagues in the whole affair is far from straightforward, and there seem to be links to right-wing terrorist organisations and the Neapolitan Mafia as well.

As a crime story, there are some technical weaknesses: too many awkward characters are arbitrarily killed off in the later chapters, and the necessary coincidences of the plot are slightly too visible as coincidences. But the colourful language, the Marseilles atmosphere, and Fabio's ironic and wonderfully negative reflections on life and on how a modern city works more than make up for this. Very noir, very neo (even though it's set way back in the era of the Minitel!).
Show Less
LibraryThing member lkernagh
I am really growing to appreciate Noir crime novels, a genre I used to avoid. In [Total Chaos], the first book in Izzo’s Marseilles Trilogy, the reader experiences the port city of Marseilles through Izzo’s eyes: A vibrant seaside metropolis, filled with inhabitants of all nationalities who
Show More
approach life with gusto and passion; a city populated with a crime world of enforcers, agitators and hit men that reaches into every corner and crevice; and a police force that is as corrupt and violent as the criminals they work to shut down. All the trappings for the beginning of a good crime novel. Add in a disenchanted cop (our protagonist Fabio), the violent murders of two childhood friends (Ugo and Manu, both having lived lives of crime), a missing woman (Lole), the brutal rape and murder of Leila, the daughter of one of Fabio’s good friends, it is no wonder that Fabio, a cop with scruples, feels like a loner in a city that thrums with love, lust, betrayal and hatred. In true hardboiled crime-novel style, Fabio personal search for Ugo and Manu’s killers involves Fabio eating, drinking, fishing and having his way with some beautiful women (all the while sidestepping any commitments).

For me, this one reads like a grittier, more brutal, Noir-styled version of Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano stories (if that comparison helps). There is a sentimentality to Izzo’s portrayal of Marseilles (similar to Camilleri’s portrayal of fictional small town Sicily), with a focus on the underclass communities of the housing projects and the seedier neighbourhoods. Izzo’s writing style is perfect for a hardboiled detective story: sparse on words, long on atmosphere. While the criminals became a bit of a jumbled mess in my mind – and I found parts of the ending to be a little too contrived – overall, a solid hardboiled detective story and I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lriley
Detective Fabio Montale returns to his hometown of Marseille to track down those responsible for the deaths of his two childhood friends Manu and Ugo. Manu (a gangster having already returned to avenge Ugo) is tricked into murdering an old gangster and is assassinated by a corrupt cop working for a
Show More
crime syndicate intent on moving in on the territory of Manu's victim. The late Jean-Claude Izzo concocts an action packed potboiler here in the first of the three books to be translated into English of his Marseille trilogy. The language is raw and powerful and the landscape of his hometown is evocatively painted. As a P.S. this book has been translated twice and is alternatively titled 'One helluva mess'.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bas615
Wonderful. A dark, depressing trip to the mysterious city of Marseilles. The city is a character here and is wonderfully drawn. The complexities of this ultimate melting pot are revealed in riveting detail. The conflicts inherent in such a situation are made plain. However, what makes this so
Show More
special is that Izzo has as captured the vibrancy as well. Despite the difficult nature of the story, I now want to spend time in Marseilles.

While this is technically crime fiction, I think this is also literature. The depth of feeling that Izzo can generate equals anything found in the best literary fiction. On the back of the book, there is a quote from the Le Monde review saying we are "bound to cry sooner or later." It is truly amazing how many times Izzo took me do the very edge or what I can take. My heart was breaking for Montale. I found myself having strong feelings for even the minor characters. This is part of Izzo's genius. He can paint vibrant pictures with very few words. His sentence structures are so simple and yet portray such complexity.

The story itself is so dark and so many people we care about are hurt. But we are given just enough positives to make it all worthwhile. Montale is someone we can't help but to invest in. Even though he is beat up so many times, you have to keep rooting for him.

While I am a Francophile, and so predisposed to like this kind of thing, I would recommend this to anyone interested in crime fiction or European literature in general. Yes this is crime fiction, but it I would prefer to think of it as literary fiction in which crime is used to create an environment to more fully reveal the complexity of the characters and society present.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rhondagrantham
This is the first installment in Jean-Claude Izzo's Marseilles trilogy. The city is setting and star in this detective novel. Fabio Montale is a neighbourhood copy who is impelled to find out the truth behind the deaths of his two estranged teenage friends, Manu and Ugo. In New Zealand, our cop's
Show More
hobbies seem to be rugby and defending rape allegations. The fictional French cop enjoys poetry, jazz, fishing and describing in loving detail the meals his devoted neighbour Honorine prepares for him. If you want to experience a novel where a cop eats and takes showers then this one is for you, there's also some action with the ladies...

I found some of Fabio's observations quite cheesey at times and his dialogue seemed a caricature of tough guy speak. But, the novel was fast paced and interesting because of the details about Marseilles.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Carl_Hayes
Not feeling it. Potentially interesting characters and story, but the writing (translation anyway) is pretty weak. Chandler could apply a fine metaphor, and Hammett/Cain (the OGs of hardboiled) just let the facts roll along with very little figurative embellishment, creating an atmosphere of real
Show More
brutality, usually with a fine gallows humor. It's the lack of any kind of gallows humor in Izzo's hardboiled style that ultimately doesn't work for me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
Found this extremely difficult to get into with a plethora of different characters and places to try to get to grips with and gave up in the end. Probably more interesting for someone who knows Marseilles...
LibraryThing member lloydshep
Wonderful book - think French Chandler, with jazz and pastis instead of big bands and hooch. Set in Marseilles in the 90s (I think), a racial melting pot filled with resentment, racism and rancour. Izzo writes beautifully, and his main guy, Fabio Montale, is a fabulous creation, a man who loves
Show More
women and honour and booze and food and is doomed to destroy himself with love. Very much reminded me of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books, and can think of no higher praise than that.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Paulagraph
I really liked this novel, although at times, I found the obligatory narrative devices of crime fiction a bit tedious: for example, at the end of each chapter, there's always a hook, not so much to push the plot along, but to prolong it. What interested me most were the twists and turns of Fabio
Show More
Montale’s mind, his musings on music, literature, socio-politics and above all, the city of Marseilles. My memories of that city in the late sixties and seventies drew me to the book in the first place. One of my first encounters with Marseilles was a midnight meal at the Old Port. I had just returned from a hitch-hiking trip to Spain and Portugal and had ordered my first bouillabaisse. As I and my friend were eating, a sailor ran in the door from the street; he was pursued across the dining room, through the kitchen and out the back door by another man, brandishing a long knife. My Marseille was the city of Fabio Montale’s youth, not the partially “gentrified” city of the 40ish, cynical yet still romantic, almost idealistic cop that he’s become. In the 1990s, Marseille is still a city of both big and little crime, a city of drugs, prostitution and every kind of extortion and corruption. The inhabitants of Marseille (honest citizens and gangsters alike) have roots in Italy, Spain, North-Africa, the Antilles, Vietnam, Portugal, and even France. I particularly enjoyed moments when Fabio waxes lyrical while musing about food, drink and fishing (at one point, he lists the provenance of all the different olive oils used in specific dishes by one cook in a particular bistro); such writing reminds me of novelist and poet Jim Harrison’s food columns in Brick magazine. As is de rigueur in neo-noir novels, there are plenty of distinctive, and usually gorgeous, women. Fabio knows quite a few: Honorine, his widowed neighbor and surrogate mother (always leaving something delectable for Fabio to eat); Babette, the intrepid journalist on the trail of organized crime, his former lover and current soul-sister; Leila, his young North-African lover-manqué; Marie-Lou, the beautiful prostitute who deserves a better life; and finally, Lole, the woman from his youth that he is heading towards. Lots of murder, mayhem and some really bad bad guys as would be expected in a novel titled (in English translation)Total Chaos.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kerns222
I know it is hard to be a romantic these days. Bubbles are popped everywhere.

You thought southern France might be the place to get away from all the evil, all the early 21st century mess: Marseilles has history, it has cuisine, it has sun, it has the Mediterranean.

Kiss that thought goodbye. Izzo
Show More
destroys everything you thought French, except for food and right wing ultras, which you probably had heard about, thinking they were background noise, not front and center.

So read this book and cry.

Then read the next two in the trilogy. Because Izzo can write and a shitty world makes for good mystery writing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Daftboy1
I had high hopes for this book.
I so wanted to enjoy it.
Frankie Malabe is a cop in Marseilles his 2 old friends from his younger days are dead.
Malabe wants to figure out what happened to them.
This book is good at describing Marseilles but there are to many characters and its confusing.
I finished it
Show More
but was disappointed with this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member colligan
Okay, I think I need to give this genre a break for a while. I usually take a break from more "serious" reading to relax and enjoy a good detective/crime novel. But, I'm never really ready for the downshifting of reading expectations required. Thus, this review may be undeservedly critical. I am
Show More
aware that this work is purportedly a classic of the genre.

I felt the author was trying too hard. It seemed as though he wanted to check off (multiple times) every cliche of the genre. Characters, plot, sexual encounters, locales, gourmet recipes, inner psychological turmoil. All just seemed glued together to create a "savy" detective novel. Didn't work for me. Just didn't seem natural; more like a bunch of tired cliches glued together.

Some reviewer's comparisons to Raymond Chandler are clearly undeserved.
Show Less
LibraryThing member augustau
Crime fiction is not usually a genre I am drawn to, but Izzo's portrayal of Marseille made the book for me. Under all its grittiness, and crime and corruption Marseille seemed almost regal and polished when considering the harbors, the coastal beauty, and the food. Everyone seems to be able to pack
Show More
away a lot of many varieties of alcohol also. The main characters were real to me as well. Recommended for readers interested in contemporary Mediterranean locales, and of course , crime.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lloydshep
Wonderful book - think French Chandler, with jazz and pastis instead of big bands and hooch. Set in Marseilles in the 90s (I think), a racial melting pot filled with resentment, racism and rancour. Izzo writes beautifully, and his main guy, Fabio Montale, is a fabulous creation, a man who loves
Show More
women and honour and booze and food and is doomed to destroy himself with love. Very much reminded me of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books, and can think of no higher praise than that.
Show Less

Awards

Page: 0.5323 seconds