個人資料
正文

Great Reads Courtesy of Michael Dibdin

(2022-07-31 11:39:33) 下一個

So I have been cruising the Aurelio Zen crime series in July, 11 stories in

total and not in chronical order. Reaching the last pages of the finale,

"End Games," I am sure I will re-visit.

 

It was an education in Italian cultures, less touting or flattering than tourist

guides and nonetheless ringing more accurate. The tales took me up and down the

Apennine Peninsula:

 

- Ratking (1989) - Perugia

- Vendetta (1991) - Sardinia

- Cabal (1992) - Rome/Vatican/Milan

- Dead Lagoon (1994) - Venice

- Cosi Fan Tutti (1996) - Naples

- A Long Finish (1998) - Alba

- Blood Rain (1999) - Cantania/Sicily

- And Then You Die (2002) - Lucca

- Medusa (2003) - Verona/Milan

- Back to Bologna (2005) - Bologna

- End Games (2007) - Cosenza

 

each a lesson of unique geography, history, habits, and sometimes cuisine. In

the end, I preferred the books to an actual tour.

 

My reading was interrupted by a perusal of Stephen King's On Writing where the

horror master revealed his craft. Coming back to Dibdin, I noticed right away

his thrift with adverbs and his choice of colorful words.

 

I have heard that behind every novelist is a moralist. In the last 20 years

before dying at 60, Dibdin had a lot to offer. Here are just a few quotes that moved me.

 

    Three weeks flirting, three months loving, three years squabbling, thirty

    years making do, and then the kids start again. --Medusa

    

    Every woman is Medusa. When you look into her eyes, you see the entire

    history of the human race. That's enough to turn anyone to stone. --Medusa

    

    All'Ombra delle Spade. He had lived there all his life, but what did they

    know of such things, these infantile adults in their quilted acrylic jackets

    and two-tone designer sports shoes? He tried not to despise them, although

    he knew that they would despise him. They were rather to be pitied. Yes, get

    the latest-style clothing, the latest mobile phone, the most powerful motor

    bike, the most fashionable pedigree dog. Get it all, if you can! It won't

    make you happy, but it may eventually bring you what you least desire but

    most need: the knowledge that happiness is an illusion. --Medusa

    

    Zen took her by the arm, which felt alarmingly fragile. Widowed by the war,

    his mother had affronted the world alone on his behalf, wresting concessions

    from tradesmen and bureaucrats, labouring at menial jobs to eke out her

    pension, cooking, cleaning, sewing, mending, and making do, tirelessly and

    ingeniously hollowing out and shoring up a space for her son to grow up in.

    Small wonder, he thought, that the effort had reduced her to this pittance

    of a person, scared of noises and the dark, with no interest in anything but

    the television serials she watched, whose plots and characters were

    gradually becoming confused in her mind. Such motherhood as she had known

    was like those industrial jobs that leave workers crippled and broken, the

    only difference being that there was no one mothers could sue for damages.

    --Vendetta

    

    He of all people should have realized that police work never took any

    account of individual abilities. It was a question of carrying out certain

    procedures, that was all. Occasionally these procedures resulted in crimes

    being solved, but that was incidental to their real purpose, which was to

    maintain or adjust the balance of power within the organisation itself. The

    result was a continual shuffling and fidgeting, a ceaseless and frenetic

    activity which was easy to mistake for purposeful action. ... All he needed

    to do to keep everyone happy was just to get through the motions. --Vendetta

 

The plots, thrilling as they are, are really the carrier of the author's truth

learnt through life.

[ 打印 ]
閱讀 ()評論 (2)
評論
7grizzly 回複 悄悄話 Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and commenting. Yes. The quote is about marriage.

The adverbs were needed because verbs alone could not express what the author wanted. King was most strongly against adverbs for the dialog attribution verbs.

It was a joke but Great Wall certainly beats FuManchu ;-)
暖冬cool夏 回複 悄悄話 "Three weeks flirting, three months loving, three years squabbling, thirty years making do, and then the kids start again."
-- Is this about marriage? True then that love lasts only three months:))
But I do notice a few adverbs here though, like alarmingly, tirelessly and ingeniously. I guess the key is to use "thriftily":)
Congrats on your being the Great Wall!
By the way, I learned that word "coachy", like "softy", from your last writing. Thanks.
登錄後才可評論.