The perpetual stranger.

[the_grynne]

Carl Bromley's essay on Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen in The Nation:
Imagine Aurelio Zen as the Venetian cousin of Ian Rankin's John Rebus or Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, someone resentful of the "shit for brains who carry the right party card" he has to flatter. Because he is morbidly haunted by the past, Zen is, by habit, a perpetual outsider

Comments

[furius]

You know, I've never heard of Dibdin and his notorious Sherlock Holmes story until last year...And now I've discovered he came up with a character as interesting as Aurelio Zen sounds, I'm now more determined than ever to find that Holmes story.

Rufus Sewell does indeed sound like the right sort of costume anti-hero XD

[the_grynne]

Granted that I haven't read a lot of Holmes pastiches, but that one really stuck in my mind. Maybe because it reminded me almost of Alan Moore's From Hell in its deliberate effort to shock and upset preconceived notions. I can't say I like it exactly, but I was very engaged by it.

[dorukai]

He'll work :D

[the_grynne]

I found the bit in the news release about Zen being "handsome, humorous and romantic" a little ominous, but I guess it's a more marketable angle than "middle-aged, passive and dour." :)

[dorukai]

Yeah, that's not a good description of the Zen from the books!