Suzuki s reviews for 60 year anniversary
James Suzuki
New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
Decided to post some Bond reviews to aline with the CR 60 year anniversary . They won't be often as I would like as I am fairly busy and I'm chomping through Lord of the rings as well. I've never done this before, so I have no idea what they're going to be like. The books will be random Bond books in my collection, though fair not, I own no Bensons. Hopefully you enjoy
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Comments
While I'm writing this I am holding my copy of FRWL in my hand. The front cover is of Istanbul with Bond, his back facing the front, thinking, looking around with a gun in his right hand, slacked for just the moment. He is thinking, and that is what I love about this novel, you see Bond work, and think.Fleming wrote his fifth novel in 1957, but the age of the novel doesn't bother me as it is smoothy read (Fleming is no J.R.R Tolkien). Bond doesn't appear till chapter 11,page 129, and at first this greatly bothered me. You see, when I sit down on my sofa to read a Bond novel, I've sat there for one reason, and I've chosen that book for one reason, James Bond, the man himself. So to hear that he doesn't make an entrance to much later on is,like going to a concert,to see my favourite band Of monsters and men, to hear that they're having trouble arriving, their,plane was delayed and,that they won't arrive till an hour later. But I find out that Jack Johnson has arrived, to keep the concert going, we don't have Bond, but we have the next best thing. The characterization in these ten chapters are superb, Fleming knew what he was doing through these chapters. These entire,ten chapters go under part 1, which is called The Plan.
It's a real shame that the 1963 film of FRWL skimmed over this part of the,story as these chapters are cunningly used to heighten the,tension. Nothing grabs the reader more then hearing the fatal plan,which will end,up with our great hero,dying in great detail to seeing it play out with Bond not knowing the whole,story. It makes the,reader wanting to know when Bond is going to realise how much over the head he is if he's,ever,going to that is!
Red Grant is a menacing character and he leaves Shaws version to dead. Fleming is good at his villians most of the,time. A few of,his characters seem 2d, he,thrusts us,with a nasty backstory, wanting us to feel emotional about the,character, feel sorry for his awful up bringing? Or maybe really hate this evil, pyscho. But with most people, I hate getting someones past shoved in our face, (anyone felt that Forster tried to force the audience to feel sorry for Olga in,QOS just because she was raped on scene) With Dr No in DN, Fleming had written so much violence, pain and adventure with honey and,Bond that when we came to Doctor No we,didn't care,about his plan, about his past and about his hands, we just wanted some action. The truth is that Fleming perfectly designs the past of Grant and also of Romanova that we don't care if he's thrusting it right in our faces. It's so good,that when I get to chapter 11 where Bond is introduced, I'm missing the character development in the last part. Rosa Klebb is enough to make me sick. Her lesbian nature is worse then Pussy and when,she makes a move on poor Romanova you suddenly want her and Bond to meet, you want her to survive and to do,the,crazy salmon dance with Bond and,that is why Fleming is perfect in this novel. He didn't throw Rosa on to Romanova because then he would have been just like Marc Forster (i've heard heaps of complaints on this part of WISH)
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
Fleming just slowly places in a little scene like this to make the character feel sorry for her, and it works.
On to other parts of the book, we get the first description of Bond not counting the Hoagy Carmichael look a like comments. But nothing for fans to really compare to actors which is a shame, but also probably helps in the later years with transition between the actors. Kerim Bey is another great character, and instead of explaining his past, he just makes him interact with Bond. Fleming created this great man who we can relate to, laugh NO smile briefly about. He's no Sheriff Pepper, he ain't comic relief, but tension releaser. As Fleming realised that people might be biting their finger nails a bit too much, no kidding!
One thing that Fleming did in this novel which really places it above the ones written before hand are...
1. Plot, which is simple as any, but unique enough to not fall into the cliche middle ground.
2.Characters, is it just me or every single character has enough meat to actually be realistic?
3.The Smersh factor, the most Smersh heavy novel, more then Casino Royale. Which is great, don't you agree?
4. Tatiana Romanova, anyone think she's the best Bond girl ever like me?
I guess you could call this Bond novel a experiment such as Flemings The spy who loved me and Gardners Never send flowers and Broken Claw. But I would call it not one because it's too early, it's only the fifth one. Experiment , NO, masterpiece YES!
Like Chrisno1 AWESOME REVIEWS, I'll rate the novels too.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE=9/10
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
I'm following you! But you knew that!
After this I'm going to hunt for Never Send Flowers but that won't be till March.
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
You do that, Jim old boy! At least I've got one convert/ally!
I'm glad you enjoyed the character development which here is probably the best Fleming ever got. I'd agree too that once Part One is finished, he tends to revert to type and (other than Kerim) character's become less important. So Tatiana is developed less in Part Two, when she ought to be more central, and Bond as usual is hardly given an ounce of background. Having said that it is contestable whether we need Bond's background at all, five books into a series, perhaps we already know enough about him? Or perhaps Fleming wants him to remain an enigma, a secret character for his secret agent?
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming