As I was driving to a conference on Wednesday, I heard the
sad news. Jean-Claude Izzo, Marseillais writer of three
hard-boiled novels featuring former police detective Fabio
Montale, died of lung cancer.
I only discovered Izzo's brilliant novels, _Total Kheops_,
_Chourmo_ and
_Solea_ less than a year ago, but I immediately fell in love
with the inscutable and imperturbable figure of Fabio
Montale, a tough guy who grew up in the toughest
neighborhoods of Marseille, immigrant capital of France, and
who did his best to see that justice was done when it was
most important, despite police corruption, mafia hit-men and
some of the most disagreeable derelicts I've ever read
about.
While I have to admit that the second two novels became
somewhat less hard-boiled, as Montale spent more time
thinking about his bittersweet past and less time toughing it
out on the street, I was still mystified at his rather
ambiguous death at the end of the third novel. Is he really
dead, I wondered, or was it just another close call? Now I
know.
So, dear rara-avians, sit down, pour yourself a long slug of
Lagavulin, and drink to Jean-Claude Izzo, a black pearl among
French "Serie Noire."
Cheers, --- Phil Lycé¥ Astier, Aubenas, France
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