Total Chaos [Paperback]

This first in Izzo's popular Marseille Trilogy (followed by "Chourmo" and "Solea", which are both scheduled to appear in translation in 2007) is an unflinching portrait of France's southern port, dressed up in the trappings of a crime story. Make no mistake, it is a crime story, but despite the gritty local color and bloody action, the story is suffused with a sense of ennui, isolation, and loss -- not unlike the films of Jean-Pierre Melville. The protagonist is Fabio Montale, a disillusioned policeman whose two oldest friends, Manu and Ugo, are killed within days of each other. Twenty years earlier they were growing up together in a rough neighborhood, thick as thieves, chasing girls, and headed for a steady life of crime. But Montale didn't see in a future in it and opted out, first serving overseas in the Army, and then joining the police force.

Now, he's left to pick up the pieces after Manu is killed by one of the various mafias vying for control of the city's vice, and Ugo returns from Paris only to be killed by the police in what looks to be a set-up. A subplot of almost equal importance involves the disappearance of Leila, a beautiful, bright young Arab that Montale has a chaste love for. She's only one of the many, many beautiful women that seem to hover around Montale in various forms (friend, lover, mother, hooker). In this regard, the story is a cliche, the tough loner cop who can never allow himself to truly love. In any event, the two various story strands intertwine, but the plot is so totally convoluted as to defy explanation. This is something I've found with a good deal of crime novels from outside the U.S. and U.K., they tend to either very stripped down and simple, or totally tangled and labyrinthine. However, in this case, the actual plot is of much less importance than the tone and the setting.

Like his protagonist, the author was born and raised in the seedy city of Marseille, and watched it turn from a Southern European melting pot to a post-colonial melting pot of 1.5 million people. Like his protagonist, he had a front-row seat (as a journalist, not a cop) to the major social and economic shifts of the last several decades, and the xenophobia they have engendered. Here, he takes the reader deep into the world of Italian and Sicilian mafia, Arab ghettos, corrupt cops, pimps and prostitutes of all persuasions, and a very Gallic sense of disenchantment and fatalism. It's a complicated portrait, loving and nostalgic, yet sad and angry. In that sense, the book works much better as a social portrait of a city than it does as a crime story. I'd really recommend it much more to those with an interest in Southern France or who might be visiting Marseille, than I would to crime buffs. It would also, along with the film Hate, be useful for those seeking to understand the recent Paris riots.

Note: The novel was made into a film in France under its original title, "Total Kheops", but it is not available in the U.S. There was also an Italian television miniseries called "Fabio Montale" based on the trilogy. A recent Hollywood film that shows some of the seedy side of modern multi-ethnic Marseille is The Good Thief, which is a loose remake of Melville's Bob le Flambeur.

Picked this up on the strength of the reviews and in light of a general interest in police procedurals. The fact that the book was written by a French author and set in Marseilles (a city that in my experience is so unique that it almost qualifies as a country of its own) were added bonuses.

Given the expectations set by the reviews, I would characterize my reaction to the novel as muted and somewhat disappointed.

On the positive side, the prose is spare (reminiscent of Alan Furst in some ways, as a point of comparison) and strong, and the atmospherics are powerful. The author is in his element in terms of bringing to life the feel and specifics of Marseilles, and were the reader to be satisfied with Marseilles as the end all and be all purpose of the novel, he or she would leave very satisfied.

Unfortunately, when it comes to characterization of the personalities in the book, the spareness of the prose that is an asset elsewhere becomes a hindrance. Our protagonist is conflicted and taciturn; that's about it. He isn't brushed out fully, which in many novels is fine, but here, where his motivations and single minded purpose carry the plot of the novel, the unfinished portrait doesn't resonate properly with his actions.

In terms of plot, we have a police officer seeking revenge for the murder of two of his childhood friends who long ago turned into hoods, and as the novel opens meet or have recently met their demise. Alone aside from several women with whom he has various dalliances, our police officer negotiates his way towards his revenge through the Arab underworld, the mafia, and a crooked police department. The stage and background of the novel are powerful and tangible; the protagonist and the plot he follows less so.

Of interest to this reader in particular is the author's focus on the racism within French society, and Marseilles in particular. Themes of immigration and assimilation (successful and not) run through the proceedings. The disaffection of the Arab underclass is particularly compelling, and in light of the events last summer in France, are quite interesting and apropos in today's world.

This is the first of a trilogy. Interesting but not entirely compelling. Don't know if I'll pick up number 2.

Zinedine Zidane

Jean-Claude Izzo, like French footballer Zidane, is a native of Marseilles. He was born in Marseille in 1945. Because he was the son of Spanish and Italian immigrants, Izzo was streamed into vocational school where he trained to be a lathe operator. After serving in the military he returned to Marseilles where he eventually turned to writing. His books have been remarkably successful in France and have been the subject of films and t.v. shows. He died, at age 54, in Marseilles.

"Total Chaos" is the first volume in the aptly-named "Marseilles Trilogy". The second, Chourmo, and third, Solea (Marseilles Trilogy)complete the triloy. There are two primary characters in Total Chaos. The first is Fabio Montale. Montale is a cop. The child of immigrants, Montale had a hard life growing up on Marseilles' mean streets. He ran with a "bad-crowd" a crowd that included the two friends. Manu and Ugu, with whom he shared a bond cemented by petty thefts and days spent in an around the harbor. There is also the girl, Lole, who they all loved in one way or the other. Montale escaped his childhood, joined the army and ended up a cop. The others never left escaped the life they were born into. That life results in Manu and Ugu both being killed. Montale spends the rest of the book seeking answers to the question of who killed Manu and Ugu and why. He is a cop and that is what he does. Montale knows there is no justice in the criminal justice system. He knows that life is nasty brutish and short. He knows that, even as intimate as his feelings for his city are that generations of immigrants to Marseilles from around the world (particularly now from the Middle East) are treated in much the same way as the children of Sicilian immigrants used to be treated. Montale (and Izzo of course) is both cynical and fatalistic but, nevertheless, he plods on.

The other primary character is Marseilles itself. I think it fair to say that Izzo loved his native place. Izzo's love for Marseilles imbues Total Chaos almost to the point of consuming it. However, Izzo's feeling for his city does not preclude his viewing his love through rose-colored glasses. Izzo's love for Marseilles is not the puppy love that a teenager has for his first real girl friend. No, Izzo's feelings are more those of someone who has lasted through a long marriage, who has hurt and been hurt. He sees the flaws and the pain but still can see the beauty and the passion.

I very much enjoyed "Total Chaos". This is noir, Marseilles style. While Izzo is a bit more expansive in terms of setting out in print the thoughts and feelings of his characters than a Georges Simenon for example, he does not get excessively florid. He is terser than most and that is to his credit. Izzo also provides some nice atmospherics. His references to both food (its preparation and its consumption) and to music (Montale's taste in jazz and music in general s both provocative and scene-setting) add some very nice touches to the writing. At the end of the day I think a reader's feeling about Total Chaos will depend on whether or not they like the idea of a city playing a central role in the story. It worked for me. Izzo does a remarkably good job of giving the reader a sense of place. You can almost feel the dark streets and smell the aromas of the cafes in the harbor as you read the book. In that sense Total Chaos reminded me of Naguib Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library) which left me feeling I'd actually been to the alleys in Cairo Mahouz wrote about with such passion. Comparing any writer to Mahfouz is higih praise.

Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

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