Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming.
For the past several years, my husband and I have been involved in a James Bond movie-viewing project. We've got a few left to rewatch, but at this point, we've now seen all of them. You can read my wrap-up post here, but we're not talking about movies, right? So, when I finished the movies, I had various people tell me I should read the books. I actually read Casino Royale a few years ago, and quite enjoyed it. So, I decided to pick up where I left off, and the next book is Live and Let Die.
In this adventure, Bond is tasked with figuring out a gold-smuggling scheme and disposing of the mastermind of said scheme, who is also conveniently an agent of SMERSH, an organization against whom Bond has sworn revenge. He begins in Harlem, moves briefly through Florida, and ends up in Jamaica. His target is Mr. Big, perhaps "the first great African-American criminal," who has a nation-wide network of accomplices, all of whom are utterly terrified of him because he is believed to be the zombie of Baron Samedi, who is more or less the voodoo version of the devil. Bond is assisted by various people along the way, most notably Felix Leiter (who gets himself half-eaten by a shark) and Solitaire, who is initially Mr. Big's fortune-teller/fiancee, but who of course falls in love with Bond and changes allegiances.
The first thing to say about this novel (and possibly all Bond novels as opposed to the films) is that it was so much more subtle. In terms of plot, there are very few twists and turns. In terms of action, it's all very straightforward. There are gadgets, but they're really very practical things. A surprising amount of the narrative is Bond doing his homework - this novel deals a lot with voodoo, and with the behavior of ocean life, and Bond actually sits around reading books, learning about these things. Some of the descriptions of violence are surprisingly graphic.
Another interesting difference is that the character of Bond is much more layered and nuanced. He is genuinely fond of Leiter, in particular, and his interest in Solitaire is much more "romantic" (as opposed to purely lustful) than has ever been portrayed in film, with one or two exceptions. There's no sex at all in this novel. Bond and Solitaire discuss it several times, but generally he is too injured to make good. One gets much more of a sense that there are two sides to Bond - there's the human side and then the cold, analytical side that is the agent at work. It makes him a much more compelling character than one would expect.
The writing is fascinating. It's very straightforward, very economic, but also fairly descriptive, albeit in odd ways. I think that Fleming provides his readers with details in a way that closely mirrors what Bond himself is noticing - things that would be important for a spy to pick up on, and rhetoric that suits his experiences. Fleming himself was a Naval Intelligence Officer, and I feel as though that really comes through in his writing.
The last thing I want to say about this novel is that it's the kind of thing with which those people who get all in a huff about Tom Sawyer would have a field day. It deals very heavily with black culture, and not in a way that would be considered PC these days, having been written in 1954. There's all the talk of voodoo, lots of eye-rolling, use of the words "negro" and "negress" (only in one instance is "the n-word" used, and it's used as a slang term, not in a particularly derogatory fashion), and in particular, the speech patterns of many of the lesser characters is somewhat shocking. I don't personally find such things offensive because I feel that these depictions are merely showing us the attitudes of the time. It's all treated very matter of fact-ly, again because it's from the perspective of Bond and Leiter, who are merely doing their homework without passing any kind of judgment, but if you find such things unpalatable, Live and Let Die is not the Bond novel for you.
I, however, enjoyed it, and will look forward to reading (and reviewing!) more of Fleming's works in the future.
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