Z by Vassilis Vassilikos 9.5 out of 10

 Z by Vassilis Vassilikos

9.5 out of 10

Alas, if you are looking for Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, the entries you find on the internet are scarce and the work that has been considered a masterpiece does not even have a Wikipedia page – whereas a multitude of futile, useless things and names have more than a page, they often have more than plenty – although it has been included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction - in the State of the Nation section.

This reader has been transmogrified by the adaptation for the big screen, directed by the marvelous Costa-Gavras, with the magnificent, radiant Yves Montand and Jean-Louis Trintignant, a magnum opus that has won two Oscars, being nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, the Jury Prize and Best Actor at the most relevant cinematic gathering, The Cannes Film Festival.

In fact, that initial impression, of decades ago, when the poignancy of the images was so powerful that the deputy who is hit with a club on the head stayed in my mind for the intervening years and unfortunately has managed somehow to overpower the rendition of the events described in the novel, which became thus one of the few perhaps no more than ten – books to be surpassed by the film, when both are magical.

One issue that one may have with the novel Z might be that it tends to be long, probably too long for the readers of this age – including the undersigned – especially if one knows the story, which I did, and the details of the process, the finding of the culprits, the overturning of initial false, incriminating statements made, in which vicious specialist said that the death of Z was caused by a fall and not by the club with which he was hit on the head, before the pickup with three wheels is driven across his body, which had stumbled to the ground.

The name of the book which is also the name chosen for the main character is fabulous in that it is a symbol and works better that a substitute for Grigoris Lambrakis, the real life deputy who had been killed in 1963, in Salonika, which has become in the meantime Thessaloniki, and Vassilis Vassilikos could have written about Alexis Gavras – by the way, Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis is yet another contemporary chef d’oeuvre, by another Greek phenomenon – but the power resting within Z is glorious.

Another reluctance that this reader has had and it prevented it from fully attaching to Z, the narrative and the ‘good personages’ within is connected with the political orientation of the camp of the hero, for albeit he seems to be rather independent, detached from the communists, those are his most fervent supporters and this is anathema for someone who has ‘benefited’ from their doctrine, the cruel, exterminating, murderous tyranny brought by the Soviets, with the slogan ‘all animals are equal’, whereas we knew in practice, and from George Orwell, that ‘some animals are more equal than others’.

The hero is presented as close to a God, an athlete with a superb physique, with achievements in competitions, convincing, brave, powerful, intelligent and able to lead the crowds, but when he arrives in the city of Salonika, the local extreme right is poised to make an example out of him and his followers, using the authority, infrastructure of the police and other local institutions to beat, abuse, eventually eliminate, throw stones at those taking part in the meeting – which was difficult, almost impossible to organize, for the local leaders pressed those in charge of the venues to refuse the requests of the leftists.

A general, the chief of police and other high-ranking officials are all involved in the murder of Z, albeit it would be difficult – perhaps unattainable. – to convict those who gave the orders, in spite of the fact that the monsters used to swing the tools of death are apprehended quite soon – against the wishes of their leaders, who try to hide at least one of them, but because one courageous, heroic individual, Hatzis, jumps on the three wheeler, just as it tries to disappear from the crime scene, after the deputy had been clubbed on the head and then driven over, and he fights with the two monsters and thus exposes them to a possible punishment by the law.

Yango Gazgouradis and his partner in crime Vango, a pedophile who abuses victims and is protected by the police, in exchange for his brutality, the force he uses on opponents of the extreme right wing, those who call themselves Friends of Peace are communists all for the mad, pro fascist forces – they have alas not gone into extinction, either in Greece, where they have the Golden Dawn, or in other places, like America, where the supremacists, extremists now have an idol, the orange buffoon that 53% of republicans a new poll shows think he is better than…Lincoln!

The goons speak loudly about what they are going to do, after all, who is going to arrest them, if the chief of police and other men in uniform are the ones who organize and press them to abuse, beat and eventually kill their opposition, with promises of money and the abolition of fines, misdemeanors and other penalties they may face, the two killers and others who have been brought to the forefront to attack those who want to participate in the meeting and get close to the heroic Z.

Killing the brave, valuable, superhuman almost hero has some mixed results and we could say that on the one hand, his departure would have a tremendous echo, would help to unite his supporters, who have such a magnificent cause now, a God-like figure, eventually they win political power, but on the other hand, without going into spoiler details, we could also point out the fact that the process of bringing justice is immensely difficult – it ever achieved – and many of those involved, from Z, who pays with his life for his ideals, to Hatzis and others who g=face abuse, discrimination and physical violence for their decision to stand for justice, human values, truth, democracy and rule of law.