Ratking - Michael Dibdin

I watched the TV series Zen earlier this year and really enjoyed it.  My posting The Books of Zen described it and I have eventually managed to get some of Michael Dibdin's books out of the library and Ratking is the first in the eleven book series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though the characters and story bear little resemblance to the BBC TV series.  They are both very good in their own right.

This first book of the series introduces Aurelio Zen, the Venetian detective who has been demoted to a desk job in the Ministry of Interior in Rome, following his working involvement in the Aldo Moro kidnapping and murder in 1978.  Someone had to carry the can and it was Zen! Now a married but separated fifty - something, he lives with his elderly mother in Rome and works as a Ministry snooper making trips to provincial capitals and typing up reports.

When a rich and powerful businessman is kidnapped and after over four months hasn’t been found, “they” need “someone” to investigate as a gesture.  Eventually they think of Zen!  All the while Zen has to watch his back and keep out of trouble.

Have to say the story kept me guessing until the end as the culprit wasn’t the same one as in the telly programme!

This is no ordinary detective story, it is very well written.  There is great humour, political comment, descriptive passages about the beauty of Italy and its cities as well as wonderful characters often typifying the different parts of Italy.  Although you have to bear in mind that the book was published in 1988 so things have probably changed a bit since then!

A mark of a good book for me is one that not only entertains me but makes me feel something about the characters and the setting.  It’s an added bonus if I learn something from it.  I certainly enjoyed this book, loved the characters and I felt as though I learned a lot about Italy and its people as well as its problems.  Have to say I particularly liked the humour and the way it is woven into informing us about Italy’s peoples.  

Zen and his mother are from Venice, the North and they are now living in Rome, the South!  (Obviously the North South divide is not peculiar to the UK!)   Well I remember learning about the Re-Unification of Italy in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries in our history lessons but I hadn’t really thought about the implications of this before, that these cities were independent until then and now Rome rules!  


There are a few really humorous conversations about this divide which I loved.  Here’s an example from the beginning of the book where Zen, a Veronese and a Roman are stuck on a train due to an unofficial stoppage.  Zen is listening whilst the Roman and the Veronese are arguing about the state of the country which the Veronese thinks is in chaos:

         ….there are worse things than chaos.”  (The Roman)

 “What might they be?” (The Veronese)

 “Too much order.”

The Veronese made a contemptuously dismissive gesture.
“Too much order? Don’t make me laugh. In this country too much order wouldn’t even be enough.  It’s always the same.  The trains are late?  Build a new railway!  The South is poor?  Open a new factory!  The young are illiterate?  Hire more teachers!  There are too many civil servants?  Retire them on big pensions!  The crime rate is soaring?  Pass new laws!  But for the love of God don’t expect us to make the railways or factories we have run efficiently, or make the teachers or bureaucrats do an honest day’s work, or make people respect the existing laws.  Oh no!  Because that would smack of dictatorship or tyranny, and we can’t have that!”

The conversation goes on comparing the North and South to order and chaos and all the while Zen is sitting thinking that although he's a Northerner, he doesn’t want to live in an ordered Northern land where everything runs like clockwork.  Life’s not about that, it’s about ordinary working people like the two working class lads in the corridor who have energy, drive and flair.  Then the two lads come into the carriage and proceed to rob them.  Brilliant!


STOP PRESS!!!


I've just read that the BBC in their wisdom????? have not commissioned a second series of Zen. How stupid can they be?  It had very good reviews and pretty successful Sunday night viewing figures. Crumbs what on earth will we be watching in future on Sundays.  At the moment it's Antiques Roadshow which isn't exactly Sunday night viewing, followed by Waking the Dead. Now I do like Waking the Dead but this is the last series!  So come on BBC get your act together!


There's a backlash against the decision and you can post a comment to indicate your support here.  They may have a change of heart.  After all ITV did with Foyle's War when enough fans complained. Otherwise we'll just have to hope some other channel has the good sense to pick it up. 

The Books of Zen!

No this is not a post about Buddhism! 

Rufus Sewell

I have a new telly favourite, Zen!

Episode 1 aired a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was quite good. After episode 2, I thought, well I really like this. Episode 3, the last one aired last night and now I'm hooked. I loved it!


I tried to figure out why I liked it so much and had to conclude that it was just different to a lot of the crime stuff that we're offered today. A breath of fresh air.

Rufus Sewell is great as Aurelio Zen, the divorced, Venetian, suave, sophisticated and honest, detective who lives with his mother. None of your shouting and swearing from Zen, if anything he underplays the role which works brilliantly.

The length of the episodes is just right at one and a half hours and allows the story to be told without that rushing to complete it in less than an hour like many crime programmes nowadays. This amount of time lets you get to know the characters which I think really does help. No ads too on the BBC so you really get your moneys worth! 


The approach to the casting and script is very quirky. All actors are English and speak with a range of English accents. Zen greets his mother with “Caio Mamma” then in his slightly Cockney accent (well sounds that way to a Northerner) asks “What time is supper”? The only actors without English accents are his girlfriend, played by the beautiful Caterina Murino who looks a little like Sophia Loren, and his mother. They do a lot of that continental double cheek kissing too.

The Italian scenery is gorgeous, it really was filmed in Rome. The parks, churches, cafes, restaurants and apartments really make a delightful change from what we usually see nowadays. Zen himself wanders about in wonderfully cut suits; he would have made an amazing James Bond!

I do like the dry sense of humour too and last night's episode really had me laughing out loud. I won’t say why, that would spoil it.

Just have to hope the series proves popular so we get to see more of Zen. Have to say it’s one of the best programmes I’ve seen in a long while, Well worth the cost, whatever it was.

I must try to get hold of some of Michael Dibdin's books to see how the adaptations compare. From what I've read Zen was a bit older in the books and not quite so cool and laid back. Well there are eleven books so plenty of material for more episodes.

If you missed Zen and can use the BBCs iPlayer I’d recommend you give it a try although you won’t get the benefit of that Roman scenery on a computer. If you can’t access iPlayer you can get a brief flavour on YouTube here, although not a lot of the lovely scenery. A bit of graffiti, a bit of a cafe and a lot of kissing!

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