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ztkrogman's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
jwmcoaching's review against another edition
4.0
A really good French noir that is a mixture of Chandler, Ellroy and a tiny touch of Hammett, but has a unique Mediterranean flavor all of its own.
aedireads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
trees11's review against another edition
3.0
If you wondered how Philip Marlowe or any Raymond Chandler hero would be if transported to southern France, here's the answer.
A book that is Raymond Chandleresque hero transported to Southern France. Outsider, lone cop, etc. And very stereotypical portrayals of women (Madonna or mothers).
A book that is Raymond Chandleresque hero transported to Southern France. Outsider, lone cop, etc. And very stereotypical portrayals of women (Madonna or mothers).
astroneatly's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
giulia_c2001's review against another edition
4.0
Recensire un romanzo come Casino totale è davvero difficile. Si tratta di un noir con la N maiuscola. E', però, un romanzo non facile da leggere, per i tanti nomi di persona e di luoghi e per il continuo e incessante sovrapporsi di eventi che si susseguono l'uno dietro l'altro.
La vicenda è ambientata a Marsiglia, un angolo della Francia che non conoscevo affatto, che Izzo presenta con tutte le sue problematiche, il degrado, la povertà, l'immigrazione con la conseguente intolleranza.
E' un ambiente e una società che sembra rispecchiare la realtà odierna anche in Italia, nonostante sia stato scritto più di venti anni fa.
Si tratta di un noir, ma si tratta soprattutto di una storia di una amicizia, quella tra Manu, Ugo e Fabio, tutti e tre figli della strada, tutti e tre figli di immigrati. Fabio diventa poliziotto, particolare, strano, sui generis ma pur sempre un poliziotto; Manu e Ugo si fanno, invece, uccidere e a Fabio toccherà indagare sulla loro morte.
Come tutti i noir, ma qui ancora di più, l'ambientazione è cupa, la malinconia è il filo conduttore del romanzo, la tristezza e la rassegnazione pervadono ogni personaggio, dai tre protagonisti fino a coinvolgere anche le donne, Lole, la donna di Manu prima e di Ugo dopo, Leila giovane araba innamorata di Fabio, vittima anch'essa, e Babette, ex donna di Fabio che l'aiuterà nelle sue indagini.
Il tema principale affrontato dal romanzo è l'immigrazione, che viene evidenziata mediante l'accenno alla musica rap, utilizzata da sempre come mezzo di denuncia delle condizioni di vita dei vari quartieri popolari.
Altra tematica importante è la malavita; nel romanzo sono due le famiglie camorriste antagoniste che si contendono Marsiglia.
Dunque, è un romanzo duro, difficile da digerire e da metabolizzare, ma di una bellezza pura che incatena alle pagine. Alla fine della lettura mi sono sentita scossa nel profondo e sconvolta e non è stato facile affrontare una nuova lettura.
La vicenda è ambientata a Marsiglia, un angolo della Francia che non conoscevo affatto, che Izzo presenta con tutte le sue problematiche, il degrado, la povertà, l'immigrazione con la conseguente intolleranza.
E' un ambiente e una società che sembra rispecchiare la realtà odierna anche in Italia, nonostante sia stato scritto più di venti anni fa.
Si tratta di un noir, ma si tratta soprattutto di una storia di una amicizia, quella tra Manu, Ugo e Fabio, tutti e tre figli della strada, tutti e tre figli di immigrati. Fabio diventa poliziotto, particolare, strano, sui generis ma pur sempre un poliziotto; Manu e Ugo si fanno, invece, uccidere e a Fabio toccherà indagare sulla loro morte.
Come tutti i noir, ma qui ancora di più, l'ambientazione è cupa, la malinconia è il filo conduttore del romanzo, la tristezza e la rassegnazione pervadono ogni personaggio, dai tre protagonisti fino a coinvolgere anche le donne, Lole, la donna di Manu prima e di Ugo dopo, Leila giovane araba innamorata di Fabio, vittima anch'essa, e Babette, ex donna di Fabio che l'aiuterà nelle sue indagini.
Il tema principale affrontato dal romanzo è l'immigrazione, che viene evidenziata mediante l'accenno alla musica rap, utilizzata da sempre come mezzo di denuncia delle condizioni di vita dei vari quartieri popolari.
Altra tematica importante è la malavita; nel romanzo sono due le famiglie camorriste antagoniste che si contendono Marsiglia.
Dunque, è un romanzo duro, difficile da digerire e da metabolizzare, ma di una bellezza pura che incatena alle pagine. Alla fine della lettura mi sono sentita scossa nel profondo e sconvolta e non è stato facile affrontare una nuova lettura.
whats_margaret_reading's review against another edition
4.0
A dark, complex noir/detective novel, Total Chaos is as good as everyone says. Jean-Claude Izzo gets credit for the development of Mediterranean noir, and it is well deserved.
The guilty, complex, unlucky in love detective has been transformed into Fabio Montale, an officer working in a poor neighborhood of Marseilles after he opened his mouth about some of the police excessive-force issues facing the city. Montale's Marseilles is part of the troubled France that produces children of immigrants who are for all intents and purposes French but are still singled out and forces into slums, giving rise to riots like in the 2000's. Izzo did not live to see those, but the world he created gives an almost universal insight into cities facing dramatic changes. Marseilles itself is a character in Izzo's trilogy, providing a stunning backdrop to Montale's issues.
Montale's friends have been gunned down, and the daughter of a friend is missing. Violence, organized crime, police brutality all plague Montale's surroundings, not to mention his trouble with the woman of his dreams (who has left him for one of his friends, before the friend was killed). There are so many different threads in the plot that manage to come together at the end, like all good crime fiction.
While not my favorite of the Marseilles trilogy, Total Chaos is where a reader needs to start in the series of these novels, as much of the exposition here is relevant to the next two novels.
The guilty, complex, unlucky in love detective has been transformed into Fabio Montale, an officer working in a poor neighborhood of Marseilles after he opened his mouth about some of the police excessive-force issues facing the city. Montale's Marseilles is part of the troubled France that produces children of immigrants who are for all intents and purposes French but are still singled out and forces into slums, giving rise to riots like in the 2000's. Izzo did not live to see those, but the world he created gives an almost universal insight into cities facing dramatic changes. Marseilles itself is a character in Izzo's trilogy, providing a stunning backdrop to Montale's issues.
Montale's friends have been gunned down, and the daughter of a friend is missing. Violence, organized crime, police brutality all plague Montale's surroundings, not to mention his trouble with the woman of his dreams (who has left him for one of his friends, before the friend was killed). There are so many different threads in the plot that manage to come together at the end, like all good crime fiction.
While not my favorite of the Marseilles trilogy, Total Chaos is where a reader needs to start in the series of these novels, as much of the exposition here is relevant to the next two novels.
sweetjaneeyre's review against another edition
5.0
Ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ και μια συγγνώμη σε όσους φίλους με παρακαλούσαν να ξεκινήσω την Τριλογία και εγώ τους το έπαιζα δύσκολη. Τι βιβλιάρα είναι αυτή!
clairewords's review against another edition
4.0
Fabio Montale used to hang out with his friends Manu and Ugo, when they were growing up in the same neighbourbood of Marseille. He met them because they all had eyes for his cousin Angèle,as he escorted her home after a family visit. The first time he encountered them one summer evening they insulted him, he lashed out. He didn't see them again until September, when they found themselves int he same class. They became firm friends. Fast forward, they become separated during their compulsory military training, they became men.
Discovering that even hard work doesn't promise fast, easy money they think about opening a bookstore, but need money, it's the beginning of the slippery slope into a criminal life. They forgot about the shop, they were having too much fun. Until it got serious and someone got seriously hurt.
They haven't seen each other for years and now one of them Manu has been killed. Fabio isn't on the case, but he makes it his personal responsibility to find out what happened to his friend and why.
Throughout the book, he learns who the characters are involved in local criminal factions, the mafia and tries to figure out how his old friend had come between them. We also meet an immigrant family, a father and his three children, whose mother died giving birth to the youngest. Having encountered them over a skirmish in a shop in one of the projects, he befriends them. When a member of the family disappears, and these two stories begin to overlap, Fabio has another more immediate crime to solve.
Every chapter takes us to another corner of Marseille, every car ride and arrival to his home in the fishing village of Les Goudes introduces us to a segment of music, all of it creating not just a crime story to be solved, but a man immersed and entangled in his city, his boat and the sea his refuge, his neighbour, the mother figure he lacks.
It's a journey through the senses, that penetrates the heart and soul of an unforgiving city, in the pursuit of keeping a promise made in youth. And so onward to Book 2 [b:Chourmo|106808|Chourmo|Jean-Claude Izzo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347685022s/106808.jpg|102947]
Disillusioned and cynical. Slightly bitter too. We had nothing. We hadn't even learned a trade. No future. Nothing but life. But a life without a future is better than no life at all.
Discovering that even hard work doesn't promise fast, easy money they think about opening a bookstore, but need money, it's the beginning of the slippery slope into a criminal life. They forgot about the shop, they were having too much fun. Until it got serious and someone got seriously hurt.
Looking at the city from my balcony. I could hear my father snoring. He'd worked hard all his life, and suffered a lot, but I didn't think I'd ever be as happy as he was. Lying on the bed, completely drunk, I swore on my mother, whose picture I had in front of me, that if the guy pulled through I'd become a priest, and if he didn't pull through I'd become a cop.
They haven't seen each other for years and now one of them Manu has been killed. Fabio isn't on the case, but he makes it his personal responsibility to find out what happened to his friend and why.
Throughout the book, he learns who the characters are involved in local criminal factions, the mafia and tries to figure out how his old friend had come between them. We also meet an immigrant family, a father and his three children, whose mother died giving birth to the youngest. Having encountered them over a skirmish in a shop in one of the projects, he befriends them. When a member of the family disappears, and these two stories begin to overlap, Fabio has another more immediate crime to solve.
Every chapter takes us to another corner of Marseille, every car ride and arrival to his home in the fishing village of Les Goudes introduces us to a segment of music, all of it creating not just a crime story to be solved, but a man immersed and entangled in his city, his boat and the sea his refuge, his neighbour, the mother figure he lacks.
Although I was a good listener, I was never any good at confiding in anyone. At the last moment, I always clammed up. I was always ready to lie, rather than talk about what was wrong. It wasn't that I didn't have the courage. I just didn't trust anyone. Not enough, anyhow, to put my life and my feelings in another's hands. And I knocked myself out trying to solve everything on my own. The vanity of a loser. I had to face it, I'd lost everything in my life.
It's a journey through the senses, that penetrates the heart and soul of an unforgiving city, in the pursuit of keeping a promise made in youth. And so onward to Book 2 [b:Chourmo|106808|Chourmo|Jean-Claude Izzo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347685022s/106808.jpg|102947]