LIVE AND LET DIE
JAMES BOND
LIVE AND LET DIE
BY IAN FLEMING
The evening awaited him, to be opened and read, page by page, word by word.
In front of his eyes, the rain came down in swift, slanting strokes - italic script across the unopened black cover that hid the secret hours that lay ahead.
You get the feeling Ian Fleming knows what is going to happen next.
Is it overly descriptive? Or does it have just enough description to allow the reader to fall into the moment and play along at home?
The story is conveniently improbably. But that's not getting on my nerves... at least, not yet.
A bit too heavy on the consumption of named brand booze for my tastes.
The female lead softly conforms, bringing looks, money, and psychic abilities to the table... along with love.
Um, Mr Bond is a deeper more relaxed sleeper than I would have expected, given his chosen line of work.
The book is very matter of fact with thinly painted details. It is odd where the vagueness appears. 'There were two or three all-night diners to choose from...' being the sort of sentence construction that rings of a lie... or an author making up the details to a story as he goes along.
There's a sedan, clouted heap I expect [Bond raised an eyebrow. 'Stolen car,' explained Lieter], grey, thought to have been a Buick, no lights, engine running, waiting on the highway opposite the centre of the train. Three men get out. Coloured. Probably negro. They walk slowly in line abreast along the grass verge between the road and the track. Two on the outside carry rippers - tommy-guns.
In the above, the bracketed section [] is indicative of a late edit... you know, to my eye. While the final clarification is closer in feel to how (in my so ever humble opinion) slang should be explained - you know, as in, clarified.
1
1: Of course, superscripts and footnotes would work... but they make for a clumsier manuscript.
2
2: Not to mention, a less linear reading experience, which is why I include these comments in-line rather than as true footnotes at the bottom of the page.
There are revolving trap doors and sharks! We have sharks! Sadly, all the munching and chewing is done off-screen.
The following has the action stripped away (replaced by ellipses). But I find it to be a poetic (and/or philosophical) acceptance of death.
Which is anyway their destiny, so why worry?
...
There's nothing to do about it. You start to die the moment you are born. The whole of life is cutting through the pack with death. So take it easy. Light a cigarette and be grateful you are still alive as you suck the smoke deep into your lungs. Your stars have already let you come quite a long way since you left your mother's womb and whimpered at the cold air of the world.
...
Don't lose faith in your stars.
...
It was just to remind you that being quick with a gun doesn't mean you're really tough. Just don't forget it. This <bit of success> comes courtesy of your stars. Better thank them.
Beyond bits of philosophy (as per above), we, also, have more materialistic concerns, as much of the book (or at least, here and there) reads like an advertisement for high-quality brand name goods.
But why was Bond a best seller? Why did he become a brand name all of his own? The book is simply not
that good. But then, highly likely, nothing could be
that good.
The place setting descriptions are written as if they were inspired by tourist brochures, naturalist guidebooks, or (gads) an encyclopedia entry. So, it provides the appearance of knowledge. But the knowledge may be no deeper than the words.
Serendipitously, Bond's stars are referenced again.
But Bond had gone out on the veranda and was gazing up at his stars.
...
The stars winked down their cryptic morse and he had no key to their cipher.
From a personal level (since I have keyed in to this text), it would be great fun if the novel ended with, yet another, star {gazing, referenced, or studded} moment.
Benzedrine Tablets! Bond does speed! Um, he's not much of a role model, is he?
And in other news, James Bond may be the only man who puts on a wet suit in order to walk across the bottom of the ocean. Maybe Ian Fleming does not know that much about scuba diving. Or maybe I do not know that much about limpet mines...
Bond is stupid... but lucky. Whereas his opponents are stupid... and unlucky.
"I will leave you now," he said {to Bond} "to reflect on the excellence of the method I have invented for your death..."
It's so evil, so sinister, I can almost hear the bad guy laughing evilly (all 'Mu-ha-ha!' like), as he walks out the door.
I'll give Ian Fleming this: his chase scenes are fun, exciting, I felt my pulse quicken, as I read the lines ever faster... culminating in a death scene of gruesome proportions, complete with data points that I can only assume are accurate.
In the end, though, Bond takes too much physical damage for
the struggle to be believable. And just by-the-by, do you hate that complaint, does it seem to miss the point. Either way, it is a fact. Bond would have had to retire after this adventure, his body too damaged to ever be in peak physical condition again. But then, maybe I am thinking of a normal man and not Bond, James Bond.
There is a lot (and I mean a lot) of attention to food and drink. The novel closes at what might as well be a top end resort, with all the trimmings, including the luscious lady of the hour, you know, so one doesn't have to play Solitaire, all alone.
And if that doesn't make sense to you, take heed. The last line of the book doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.
I assume it's a pun or a back reference to something, but the intended cleverness is lost on me.
All in all, the story was fun enough, easy enough, not high minded, mind you, not complex, just a straightforward crime caper, with a little slang and the nitty-gritty thrown in for good measure. I'll read the next (as I already have it, got these two together for free, I'll have you know, as I get all my reading material for free these days), but I doubt I'll seek out anything further in the series.
Also, I should add, I read the first James Bond,
Casino Royale a few years back (in conjunction with the movie) and I liked this one better. So maybe, like a fine wine, Bond improves with age. If that's true, I'm in for a treat, as
For Your Eyes Only is the second to last Bond book, which isn't even a novel, but a collection of short stories.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
JAMES BOND
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
BY IAN FLEMING
Being a collection of five short stories.
From a View To a Kill
- Bond likes his drink.
- He's also not above paying for his women.
- Bond is old school.
- He's nostalgic and has a pre-war mentality.
- He's looking for the invisible man that hides in plain sight.
- I like the details on the gypsies and the dogs.
- So, yeah. The 'invisible man' has something to do with the gypsies.
- Or so (ten pages in), I would guess.
- Decidedly improbably.
- Oh, and if Bond ever learns about those-them-there search warrants, well then, look out.
For Your Eyes Only
- I think if I were writing this, I'd already be bored.
- Such domestic tranquillity, such bliss.
- Oh, no!
- A philosophical sort of foray.
- Do some people learn about the world, society, and customs from reading Bond?
- How much have I 'learned' that way?
- Words of advice from a Canadian Monty:
Our Commissioner's got a motto: 'Never send a man where you can send a bullet.'
- Ten pages later, Bond's advice to another, perhaps as lifted from the Chinese:
'Before you set out on revenge, dig two graves.'
- Sometimes, it pays to park nearby. Sometimes, faraway.
- In the end, I think Good Old Ian just wanted to take a stroll in the woods.
- The gun-play did not disappoint.
- And that's why we can't have women in the military.
- Leastwise, not with men like James Bond around.
- In the end, there was a lot of thought, because there weren't much plot.
Quantum of Solace
- A study of the Foreign Service.
- The down low on high society.
- 'The Death of Common Humanity.'
- It's a good line...
- a concept that hits home.
- In the end, everything else can be forgiven.
- Another phrase that means the same thing?
- A fine bit of writing.
- Seriously, I've got goosebumps from the pleasure of it all.
Risico
- Falling into the story,
- I have nothing much to say.
- Slowly going nowhere,
- I find myself enjoying the ride.
- As Ian Fleming says,
'Everyone was delighted with the scene.'
- After the Pink Drink,
- There's a Yellow Umbrella.
- Oh, bother!
- For appearance's sake (and to keep up his cover) Bond must spend money, live large, and appear to be a playboy.
- What some folks will do to make a buck.
- And/or for King and Kuntry.
- Or should that be, for Queen and Quntry?
- Per Ian, in regards to Bond:
Then he settled down in a seat in the bows and wondered what was going to happen to him.
- As does the reader, my friend.
- So scenic and picturesque...
- Killer Toads!
- Bond sure does get lucky.
- Plenty of silly theatrics...
- That won't hold up post-mortem.
- Once again, a little light conversation courtesy of Ian:
"If you get killed, you get killed. Okay"?
"That's all right."
- Why you no grab the big gun, Mr. Bond?
- 68!
- What fiendish perversion is this?
The Hildebrand Rarity
- A little Natural History, anyone?
- Bond is wise in the ways of 'whipping' a woman into shape.
- Back from a swim and Bond is in.
- As Ian says:
Bond's report, which concluded that the only conceivable security hazard in the Seychelles lay in the beauty and ready availability of the Sychelloises, had been finished a week before and then he had nothing to do but wait for the ss Kampala to take him to Mombasa.
- Or as the lyrics to that one song goes, 'The female of the species is more dangerous than the male.'
- The wonders of hypocrisy...
- by Bond's adversary, no less.
- Ian is good at stuff like this:
He {Bond} thought: this man likes to be thought a Hemingway hero. I'm not going to get on with him.
- I would assume this is said (and/or written) with a knowing smile.
- Tedious details.
- I will not be bothering to keeping them straight.
- I like the Old Man and the Sea Urchin of a Wife motif.
- Shall we all agree to dream of her, tonight?
- Methinks Bond protesteth too much.
- The (would be) villain has not behaved as rudely or boorishly as Bond (or should that be Ian) would have us believe.
- In fact, now who's being rude, Mr Bond?
- Does not a man have a right to be the captain of his own ship?
- I do, seriously, wonder if the wife beating (by leather stingray tail) is intended to be erotic or not.
- And if it is: this bad guy ain't so bad.
- I mean, are you really going to hold it against a 'feller' for trying to keep his wife in line... or reduce his tax obligations?
- Bond... is... jea-lous!
- A statement best read in a sing-song voice.
- Oh, the horror! The horror
- For me, it is a broken scene.
- The story is not working for me.
- I understand the author's intent. But it seems over the top, forced, and oddly deja vu like.
- So, either I've read this story before.
- Or it's very unremarkable.
- You know, paint by numbers plotting...
- A suitably gruesome death.
- And now, I'm reading a Murder Mystery.
- Come on, Bond!
- Well, if he's not going to care, neither am I!
Short Story End Notes
I liked the short stories best... or at this remove, having just read them, I will say that I liked them best.
Quantum of Solace may well have been the best... or least Bond like. Either way, it was nice and artsy. And it worked, which is more than I can say for
The Hildebrand Rarity.