tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32065323.post117567122639055078..comments2024-03-23T02:59:40.776+00:00Comments on Euro Crime: Michael Dibdin RIPKaren (Euro Crime)http://www.blogger.com/profile/03678348280806062648noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32065323.post-41732786942489261232007-04-09T07:13:00.000+01:002007-04-09T07:13:00.000+01:00An especial shock considering his relative youth. ...An especial shock considering his relative youth. I wrote about Michael Dibdin on my blog's very first post, including <I>Cosi Fan Tutti</I> among my favorite "international" crime novels. I recommend it highly; it is one of the most unusual crinme novels ever written. Among the non-Zen books, I can recommend <I>Dirty Tricks</I>. <BR/><BR/>Here's what I wrote back then:<BR/><BR/>3) <B>Cosi Fan Tutti</B><I>, by Michael Dibdin, is an exception to my general distaste for novels set in "foreign" countries by writers not from those countries. Such books often degenerate into travelogues. This novel is formally daring, and talk about surprise endings! Dibdin, an Englishman, spent several years teaching in Italy, and his charmingly named protagonist, Aurelio Zen, offers a kind of Baedeker's guide to official Italian corruption and internecine rivalry, each novel set in a different region: Naples here, the Vatican, Venice, the south in other books. And Rome. Always Rome. "Zen" is a name characteristic of the protagonist's native Venice, but it also has overtones of the detachment with which this Zen moves through the sometimes deadly worlds of Italian officialdom and gangsterdom. Of course, the character's other name, Aurelio, is another clue that he is wise and given to occasional musing, if not outright meditation.</I><BR/><BR/>Aurelio is the Italian form of Aurelius, as in Marcus Aurelius, that most philosophical Roman emperor.Peter Rozovskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09977933481463759162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32065323.post-1175920149496976732007-04-07T05:29:00.000+01:002007-04-07T05:29:00.000+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Peter Rozovskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09977933481463759162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32065323.post-1175770329759595772007-04-05T11:52:00.000+01:002007-04-05T11:52:00.000+01:00What sad news. I have read all of the Zen books by...What sad news. I have read all of the Zen books by Mr Dibdin, and found them to be amongst my favourite crime fiction reads. I recommend them to anyone. The last novel shall be a mixed blessing indeed.Caravaggiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09547632938203113766noreply@blogger.com