[MGSA-L] (no subject)

[June Samaras]

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/01/139718830/athens-cop-on-the-trail-of-modern-greece

Where Antiquity And Modern Life Collide: The Acropolis rises above
Athens, Greece, the city at the center of writer Petros Markaris'
Inspector Costas Haritos crime series. While many view Athens as the
birthplace of democracy, Markaris says that to him the city also
showcases the uglier side of modern society.

September 1, 2011

For millions of tourists who flock to Athens every year, the city at
the foot of the Acropolis represents the cradle of democracy and the
sublime art of antiquity.

But to crime writer Petros Markaris, the Athens of today is both a
peaceful Balkan haven and a symbol of the ugliness of modern, corrupt
societies. In his detective novels, he takes on the financial and
social crises sweeping Greece.

The city itself is a central character in his novels. The Monastiraki,
bustling with colorful street stalls and old-fashioned shops, is one
of Athens' oldest parts. It's also one of Markaris' favorite places.

Athens' Monastiraki neighborhood is a meeting place for Greek and
Ottoman culture. Case in point: the 18th-century Tzistarakis Mosque
(left) sits below the Acropolis (center) and serves as a focal point
for Monastiraki Square.
Enlarge Julian Finney/Getty Images

Athens' Monastiraki neighborhood is a meeting place for Greek and
Ottoman culture. Case in point: the 18th-century Tzistarakis Mosque
(left) sits below the Acropolis (center) and serves as a focal point
for Monastiraki Square.

"It still has some of the oriental. You still smell the spices. ....
This is the part of the town where ancient Greece and the Ottoman
Empire meet," Markaris says.

But the author acknowledges his love-hate relationship with Athens as
he describes the modern city of more than 5 million people as seen
from the top of Lycabettus Hill.

"What do you see? Something like hell. Everything built without any
planning, without any controls, with nothing. And in between you see
the streets with some insects going slowly along," he says.

The writer says it's as if the city is shouting at him, "Are you
crazy? Get out of here."

"But if you don't listen to the voice, and if you stay, then you will
discover the small miracles of the city," Markaris says.

It's in search of those small, quiet miracles that the character
Costas Haritos, a police inspector, spends many hours in his car
battling Athens' notorious traffic and its polluted and clogged
roadways. Markaris' books are filled with the names of streets and
squares; he's been hailed as the master writer of traffic jams.

Born in Istanbul in 1937 to a Greek-Armenian family, Markaris studied
economics in Vienna and speaks several languages. When he decided to
become a writer, he chose Greek as his creative tool. And he made
Athens his home in 1965.

He has written plays for the theater, scripts for movies, and poetry.

Then he decided to write about contemporary Greek society.

"You want to write today a social or political novel, you have to turn
to the crime novel," he says.

Petros Markaris (shown here in 2009) uses his detective novels,
featuring Inspector Costas Haritos, to explore the social, economic
and political issues of modern Greece. The Istanbul-born writer says
that his detached way of observing Greece and the Greeks is a trait he
shares with Haritos, his character.
Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press

Petros Markaris (shown here in 2009) uses his detective novels,
featuring Inspector Costas Haritos, to explore the social, economic
and political issues of modern Greece. The Istanbul-born writer says
that his detached way of observing Greece and the Greeks is a trait he
shares with Haritos, his character.

Humanizing The Inspector

Inspector Haritos first appeared in Late-Night News (known as Deadline
in Athens in the U.S.), which was published in Greece in 1995. The
character was a challenge for Markaris, a writer with left-wing
sympathies. In the Balkans, he says, especially in countries such as
Greece that have had dictatorships, policemen are seen as fascists.

"So when I decided that Haritos was my character, I said, 'How can I
write about a right-wing policeman when I hate him?' " Markaris
recalls.

He decided to take the character's uniform off, and what he found was
very familiar.

"What I discovered was somebody like the people in my family, and this
helped me to come very close to this character. Now we are best
friends, but it took some time," Markaris says.

To further humanize Haritos, Markaris took a real anecdote he was told
by a man who had been imprisoned during Greece's junta years, from
1967 to 1974.

The former prisoner described a young policeman who had offered
cigarettes and comfort to men tortured in their cells.

"He was running a bigger risk than us. If they caught him, his life
would be much worse than ours. These are the small heroes," Markaris
says.

The writer says his own cosmopolitan background allows him to view
Greek society from a distance, without sentimentality.

He says his readers sometimes ask what he and his character have in common.

"The way of observing Greece and the Greeks — this is the point where
Haritos and myself, we are the same person," he says.

Inspector Haritos and Markaris have grown to resemble each other also
in other ways. They both like to read dictionaries, and their favorite
food is stuffed peppers.

According to myth, Mount Lycabettus — Athens' highest hill — was
created when the goddess Athena accidentally dropped part of a
mountain she had been carrying to the Acropolis.


According to myth, Mount Lycabettus — Athens' highest hill — was
created when the goddess Athena accidentally dropped part of a
mountain she had been carrying to the Acropolis.

Tracking Europe's Transformations

In the six novels written so far, Haritos confronts crimes — and
murders — in various settings: the world of competitive TV in Deadline
in Athens, shady money deals in third-division soccer clubs in Zone
Defence, and corruption in public work contracts ahead of the 2004
Summer Olympics in Che Committed Suicide.

In the latest novel, Expiring Loans, Haritos comes face to face with
the financial crisis that has been rocking Greece for the last two
years.

The four murder victims are linked to banks, hedge funds and a rating
agency. All of them are decapitated — a symbolic punishment for what
the murderer sees as his victims' responsibility in poisoning Greece
into financial ruin.

Haritos himself is outraged by the draconian austerity measures —
which he considers economically irrational — that the European Union
has imposed on debt-burdened Greece and other southern European
countries.

So much so, that when he decides to trade in his decrepit, 40-year-old
Fiat, he opts not for a German or French make. Rather, in a sign of
solidarity, he buys a Spanish-made Seat.

Through the Haritos novels, Markaris has been tracking the big
transformations in European societies over the past two decades.

"What changed the European crime novel is money, is financial crime,
and what we are seeing in Greece today is financial crime," he says.

The turning point in the European crime novel, Markaris says, was the
fall of communism in the east and the opening up of borders.

"It's a globalized crime, it's all over the world, and governments are
just looking away. The cleaning process of this money, then the flow
of this cleaned money into the regular financial system, is so big
that nobody dares to touch it, and this is the big topic of the modern
European crime novel," he says.

Such vast sums of ill-gotten money, Markaris fears, could lead to
small countries like Greece losing control of their destiny.

Read an excerpt of Deadline In Athens


-- 
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com