The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond Novels)
by Ian Fleming
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ian FlemingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-02
ISBN: 0142003263
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond Novels)
Book Review: A Bond In Shining Armor
Summary: 3 Stars
Vivienne Michel is a pretty young woman whose tough life is about to get much worse. Caretaking a rundown hotel in the Adirondacks, she is set upon by two threatening goons. Just as they are about to brutalize her, there's a knock at the door. Who could it be?
Well, given that this is identified on the cover as "A James Bond Novel" and it's already two-thirds over, it better not be the Maytag repairman.
Nineteen sixty-two was a landmark year for Bond. That was the year Sean Connery played 007 in the first film. Yet on the page, Ian Fleming seemed still trying to kick out the jams after "From Russia With Love" set a new standard for his secret-agent series five years before. His previous two books had been a collection of short stories and a novel taken from a co-written screenplay. Could his experiment here, putting us in the head of a female character and seeing Bond through her eyes, have been another sign of fatigue?
Yet "The Spy Who Loved Me" moves at a fast clip. The story itself is a strange one, half woman's romance novel, half Mickey Spillane-type yarn, but Fleming delivers a strong sense both of place and character. You latch on readily with Vivienne as she shakes off the ennui on a rainy autumn evening, enjoying her solitude with a tumbler of bourbon while the Ink Spots play on the radio. She thinks about a life of lost virtue and broken promises, and Fleming almost makes you forget any anticipation you have about things going boom. When the bad guys show up, it's a rude surprise, especially as they are low-rent for a Bond book. But they are a real threat, and thus a source of sincere suspense, even if they are more about stealing TVs than nuclear secrets.
"Okay, sweetheart," one of them says. "So you won't give, so I'll take for myself. I reckon you've earned yourself a rough night. Get me?"
That's the one called Horror. The other is called Sluggsy. For bad-guy names, they sound right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. But you worry anyway, because Vivienne is very much alone and you have come to like her the way Fleming sets the story up. That's the good part. It's not what you expect from a Bond novel, but all the more credit for Fleming trying it and pulling it off.
Then Bond shows up. It's a funny thing to say a Bond novel starts to tail off when James Bond shows up, but that's what happens. He's not the same vivid, three-dimensional figure we come to expect. Instead, he's a stock knight in shining armor, and Vivienne loses much of her integrity as a solid character, playing instead the role of love-struck lady in distress.
"You're the most wonderful man I've met in my life!" she coos. Bond kisses her and tells her to stay out of sight while Daddy cleans up the mess.
Still there are good moments in the last third of the book. Bond has at Sluggsy and Horror in true pulp-fiction style. There's fire and a car crash, and some of the hottest sex Fleming ever put to page.
There's also oddball moments, like Vivienne's declaration: "All woman love semi-rape." Knowing Fleming, he probably had more trouble with the word "semi" than "love". "The Spy Who Loved Me" has a few gag-inducing items like that, but also some well-played moments that have nothing to do with the main battle, like Vivienne recalling a tryst in a cinema and Bond telling of his latest battle with SPECTRE (a running battle from the last novel which continues in the next).
All in all, a worthy experiment and, at times, a fine novel, although 007 fans may find it more revealing of Fleming than Bond. I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie, but Bond readers may find this change of pace to their liking. It is to mine.
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