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A review by clairewords
Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo
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]