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A review by octavia_cade
Solea by Jean-Claude Izzo, Howard Curtis
dark
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Well. This was depressing. I enjoyed it, but I think it's safe to say that this is my least favourite of the trilogy. It's very much focused on the influence of the Mafia in southern France, and the trail of dead bodies they leave behind them, and you know: I don't know anything about the Mafia, but I'm prepared to suspend disbelief and find this all plausible, because I'm fairly sure Izzo has done his research. It's not the plot points here that were losing my interest. It was Montale.
And that's a bit of a shame, because I've quite liked him (especially in Chourmo), obstreperous and morose as he is. What I think I found most sympathetic about him is how much he clearly loves his city, and for the first two books, anyway, Marseilles loomed over the narrative, this constant and redolent background presence. I don't get the same feeling of urban presence in Solea. Instead, it feels as if Montale's focus on the city has been entirely overtaken by his focus on women. I'm not opposed to romance in these books, and his regrets over lost chances came across as absolutely convincing in the first two volumes of the series. In Solea, however, there's endless moping over four different women, one of whom he's just met, and I'm sorry: it's repetitive. And the book's only short, so there's not a lot of space in which to cram all this moping... it just spills into everything. I stopped caring. Give me his relationship with Marseilles any day of the week over this.
And that's a bit of a shame, because I've quite liked him (especially in Chourmo), obstreperous and morose as he is. What I think I found most sympathetic about him is how much he clearly loves his city, and for the first two books, anyway, Marseilles loomed over the narrative, this constant and redolent background presence. I don't get the same feeling of urban presence in Solea. Instead, it feels as if Montale's focus on the city has been entirely overtaken by his focus on women. I'm not opposed to romance in these books, and his regrets over lost chances came across as absolutely convincing in the first two volumes of the series. In Solea, however, there's endless moping over four different women, one of whom he's just met, and I'm sorry: it's repetitive. And the book's only short, so there's not a lot of space in which to cram all this moping... it just spills into everything. I stopped caring. Give me his relationship with Marseilles any day of the week over this.