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This chapter continues to throw Bond all the more into a criminal underworld, and Fleming’s presentation of a red-haired hunchback in the form of Tree is as bizarre and interesting an element as you’d expect from him at this point in the series.
It’s nice to get a look into how the operation under Tree is run, how the diamonds were smuggled and how men like Bond are paid for the work completed, again something that would hold up in the real world where minor transactions over time or by carefully organized chance (like under the cover of a bet at a horse race) are preferred for their apparent innocence. Part of why Fleming’s books work is that his characters act as men in those positions really would, and through that grounded sense of logic we attach to the plot.
I like the little outburst Tree has at the end when Bond makes it seem like the money has a risk of not being good, showing that the man takes his work seriously and that reputation means a lot to them. The smuggler sets Bond up at the races for his win and promises more work if he keeps his nose clean, but at this point the true momentum of the story and what it’s all leading to is unclear.
Chapter 8- The Eye That Never Sleeps
This chapter gives us a welcome reunion between James Bond and Felix Leiter, after the spy hadn’t seen his friend since the mission of Live & Let Die. I like that Fleming plays Felix up to be a villain at first, before it’s clear what is really going on and Bond’s paranoia and fight or flight mechanism softens. One thing these books get right is the relationship between these two men of similar worlds, and you can sense the camaraderie between them even as Bond worries about his friend’s physical state. Fleming does a great job of catching us up with Felix, now finding himself as a gumshoe after he parted ways with his old agency, and credibly gives him a reason to actually be in the plot, something the movies seldom do.
I like the continued look at organized crime that we get here, this time through Felix, and how horse betting is rigged, as well as how those at the races try to counteract cheating or trickery, again grounding it all in reality.
By far the most interesting and jarring revelation of the whole chapter, however, is Tiffany’s dark and abused past. Now all of her cold interactions with Bond seem logical and inevitable, fed by that moment when men like him took advantage of her as a kid. We feel Bond’s sympathy come off the page, and part of the interest in reading on through the next chapters is in seeing how this news of the woman and her history feeds his fresh interactions with her. Will his gentleness impress her, and show her that there are exceptions amidst the male gender who don’t engage in the abuse and manipulation she fears? Again Tiffany becomes a very different Bond girl, one who was damaged goods from a young age and who was destined for the rough spot she was in, almost a victim of circumstance. It was a great idea on Fleming’s part to have the leading lady of this particular story be one from the other side of the law, not only to differentiate her from the past women but also to show the innocent lives that get scooped up in crime.
Chapter 9- Bitter Champagne
This chapter has got to be one of my favorites from the entire Bond catalogue thus far, just in how Fleming is able to continue to build the character of Tiffany Case. Right from the get-go we see how forward she is, telling Bond that she wants nothing from him but a drink to avoid it seeming like she is playing him or leading him on.
She’s such a hot and cold woman, flirty or warm one moment and cold and distant the next, really the picture of an abused and conflicted woman that you’d expect to see given her history. There are so many great and witty exchanges that happen between them that become a joy to read, as the spark is there between them in a way that I don’t feel there has been with Bond and a woman up to this point in the series. Bond senses some attraction or favor in her, but one that wishes to take things slow because she is so quick to react in repulsion if a man moves on her too fast, recounting her rape at the hands of the gang.
Tiffany is used as another character, in addition to M, Vallance and Felix, who are constantly pointing out to Bond the danger of the Spang mob, yet he continues to blow them off. We can sense a feeling of annoyance or infuriation on Tiffany’s side when Bond becomes so nonchalant or care-free about the prospect of his connections with these characters, and I think that’s what kills the night. The woman felt something in this man that was maybe different from what she was used to, but instead of easing her into a night of lightness and innocuous discussion Bond harped on about their work and treated it all as a game. In many ways Bond is reversing the same kind of dynamic over dinner that he and Vesper had in Casino Royale, except this time he’s the one making light of a serious mission and Tiffany is the one urging him to get serious and open his eyes. It’s fascinating how this man loses all his faculties and common sense when a pretty woman comes around who captures his interest, and becomes hypocritical by breaking rules he once valued.
Throughout the meal it’s hard to tell where Bond is at in relation to Tiffany: does he really like her, or are his feeling an act to get her to spill her guts? I sense him being tugged at personally and professionally, but as it is Bond there is still a human side of him that he won’t allow to be crushed by his colder one. I love his comment at the end of the chapter that he could use the girl in many ways, but that her heart was off limits and not at all something he’d want to mess with. We again find Bond aiding a woman who seems in desperate need of help, and it’s beautiful to see how much he respects her past and understands why she feels the way she does about him, not taking it personally but instead seeing it as a symptom of a bad life she’s had. He knows that she instinctively expects the worst from him, and tries to be gentle and ease his way to her in response to that reaction.
The interaction between the pair that ends the chapter-and separates them for the time being-is an interesting one. It’s hard to tell what it means, with Tiffany giving Bond a kiss that was “almost without sex.” I think that it’s something akin to how Bond and Camille say goodbye in Quantum of Solace. I think that Tiffany expected Bond to act like most of the men she meets who hound after her for sex, but instead found someone who came from a similar circle that could still respect her and not force himself upon her. I also believe that Tiffany was all tension in the elevator going up the Astor because she was worried that Bond would be like all the others and force himself into her room and have her as he wanted, like the gang did to her all those years ago. It could be that their kiss was in many ways a thank you, for treating her right and understanding and listening to what she wanted.
Even when Bond started to try and bring himself closer to her to share his feelings after the kiss, which I think he misconstrued as passionate instead of as a thank you, we once again witness the sudden snap back to her cold and distant self that Tiffany experiences. It’s clear that she only wants to show that more intimate and warm side on her own terms, and when a man approaches her with an aim to go beyond kissing she gets nervous and scared and must step back before it goes to a place she’s all too familiar with. It’s tragic that every intimate act she could get from a partner is now caked in the paranoia of what she’s experienced, where, to her mind, every peck on the cheek or extension of the arms around her waist is just another step towards rape. One could tell her that her mind is playing tricks on her and that not all men can be like that, but that is a rational thought for an irrational reaction driven by fear and a loss of innocence, a trauma that doesn’t play by logic. Tiffany can’t feel differently because she is unable to see another other outcome to her interactions with men since that day; she is cracked and never got to heal.
I really commend Fleming for creating such a grounded and respectful characterization of a woman with a past like this, as I feel that so much of Tiffany’s reactions are presented as they would be in a real situation. He perfectly recreates the hot and cold temperature of an abused woman, and how moment to moment her feeling of safety shifts and she retreats when her head makes her paranoid that her past traumas are going to repeat themselves. Tiffany becomes such an easily sympathetic character for this reason, and you get closer to Bond because we share the same goal of wanting to reach this wronged woman and show her that not everyone out there wants to hurt her. We see Bond attempting all the time to reach her and make her see his good intentions, but all the red flags in the back of her head stop him from reaching her across that great divide.
Chapter 10- Studillac to Saratoga
This chapter really just serves the purpose of continuing to warm Bond and Felix to each other after their time apart-through an amusing discussion about cars-and to create a picture of the gambling world the two are about to enter.
As with Live & Let Die, Fleming uses a clipping or excerpt of writing on gambling and mob activity to feed knowledge to the reader about the topic at hand, as with voodoo in the second novel, and I’d say this one is more successful, though I still don’t like the approach. It’s nice to get a hint of the history, and I guess in this case it would’ve been hard for Fleming to show us how things were without leaning on a written source because he is taking us back to a time where the gambling was more wild and the mob more bloodthirsty and overt in their power.
How the gambling world was run as described in the article and how it appears to be in the present shows how crime grows and finesses over time, with gangs looking to hide in plain sight and take the simple money instead of risking more money through the old and loud methods of robbery or murder. It sets up that Bond is indeed facing off with a well-oiled machine that is smart and heavily protected.
Chapter 11- Shy Smile
This chapter continues to throw Bond into the world of gambling, introducing him to even more players connected to the smuggling ring around the horse stables, while also giving him a chance to frequent the betting himself.
The hook for the chapter, of a racer throwing his big shot for better money, seems to promise that we’ll see firsthand how powerful the quick and ruthless hand of the mob really is.
Chapter 12- The Perpetuities
In this chapter we get the payoff of the racing bet first mentioned five chapters back, as Bond places himself in an interesting position. He was to be paid by the win of Shy Smile, but through his run-in with Felix has found himself betting against himself and ensuring that the plan of Shady Tree and his associates fails.
It was interesting getting a snapshot of horse racing and the gambling surrounding it, as I’m not at all familiar, as well as the way that Bell was able to get disqualified while still seeming like he had no bad intentions about the misstep.
As with previous instances, Bond seems to think that this leg of his mission, a sort of diversion to help Felix, will close itself up nicely once Bell is paid and allow him to follow his own leads. I fear it’s yet another bad habit he is repeating, only to his detriment as he again underestimates his enemies.
Chapter 13- Acme Mud and Sulphur
This chapter is probably Fleming’s most descriptive of the novel so far. I can smell that disgusting mud, feel a sharp burn to the eyes from the sulfur, and even the dampness of the wet cement between my toes. It’s amazing how a strange little health spa turns into Bond’s personal hell, and it does give off that uneasy and macabre feeling with caskets full of mud lined up along the walls. Worse even than Florida’s retirement population, maybe.
I know that some members reading with us have prints of the book that completely remove the racist content that pops up in this chapter, but as has been the case for past instances, my Fleming centenary copies from the 2008 reprint keep the original content as it appeared in editions of the 50s. Not only is it strange that Fleming chose a very random time for Bond to muse on race, it’s also strange that the spy comments about his affection for black people while also counting himself lucky that he didn’t have to live with the “colour problem” from as early as schooling age like we would’ve in America. It’s a very quick section of this chapter that really has no point, and that really doesn’t go into why Bond feels as he did, making you wonder why it’s there in the first place. It’s also weird and random why Fleming chooses to make only the second connection to Live & Let Die (outside of Bond's reference to Felix's injuries) in a book jammed full with continuity by telling us that Bond called Mr. Big by the n word once. Alrighty then…
The end of the chapter depicts some masked men popping in to give Bell some punishment for falling back on his agreement with the mob, just when you thought Bond was going to be in danger of something for once. I have to say that, of all the 007 novels I’ve read so far, this one has taken the longest to pick up or manage to keep a steady and involved pace. By this point in Casino Bond was already the winner of the baccarat game and was in the middle of his torture at the hands of Le Chiffre, Live & Let Die had built up the main villain and was speeding us on to Leiter’s near-fatal experience with the gang, and Moonraker had already introduced the main villain and girl, showing us the awe-inspiring image of the eponymous rocket in all its terrible glory to show us why Bond’s mission was important and what was at risk if he failed.
This is all to say that Diamonds Are Forever is a much more empty and plodding book in comparison, with Tiffany being the real standout in all of it, and she’s not around enough for my tastes. I think the book’s issue comes with focusing so much on very regular crime with a very low amount of the twisted or bizarre, and very little danger to Bond’s life to keep us guessing. We also knew the mission and stakes of Bond’s missions in the other books relatively quickly, but here…we still don’t know exactly who he’s up against, or at the very least haven’t really had him meet them in any great capacity; because of this, there’s little to make of the stakes, if any, that are in it. We’re halfway through the book by this stage and he’s taken a plane and driven in a car while barely scratching the surface of the smuggling ring, stuck at the horse races. One wonders where it’s all going, and how Fleming will make me care more. We’re told about the power of the Spangs and their crew, but I want to see it, and want Bond to learn what happens when he underestimates people from that world.
That's an interesting cover, @Thunderfinger. I've seen a few Norwegian editions of the Fleming books here and there, but can't say that I've seen that one.
I have only one Norwegian edition Bond-book, Live and Let Die - identical to the one pictured above. Don't know much about these editions other than that they were released in 1970, and that they all shared the same cover design, with the title on the spine of the book. A bit unusual format, perhaps, as they're quite narrow.
Fleming added further information about SMERSH in FRWL, including the names of its personnel and the location of its office, but none of it was accurate. He admitted this in a letter to a fan who had demonstrated Fleming had given the wrong address:
"When I was writing From Russia With Love I was fortunate enough to be in touch with a Colonel of the M.W.D. As a result of his description of the headquarters of Smersh I boldly put in the authentication note at the beginning of the book, and I can only hope he didn't also misinform me regarding the individuals whose real names I used..."
It doesn't matter too much, because Fleming's SMERSH is a great literary creation that makes the real-life version look drab. It's a pity we never saw more of General G and Kronsteen after FRWL.
When we were on LALD, I suddenly found to my astonishment that the Bond in my head was Pierce. Despite my best efforts, he refused to vacate the premises until Moonraker.
That is actually really interesting to hear—about Fleming's redaction—especially given his introductory note "boasting" of the novel's authenticity with its slightly arrogant opening "Not that it matters but..." JFK mentioned FRWL as one of his favorite novels. You have to wonder if he took Fleming at his word and was voraciously consuming all of these "facts" about the inner workings of SMERSH alongside the fictional adventure.
And it's even more interesting that his General G. was a real figure whom he fictionalized for the story. It just further adds to this weird mash-up of fantasy and reality that makes up the world of James Bond—all these truly fantastical things that happen, battles with giant squids and whatnot, weighted by Fleming's constant strive for authenticity.
As for FRWL, it's very much a "return to form." Raymond Chandler had loved CR but told Fleming he had "disimproved" with each succeeding book. Fleming took this to heart, since he already felt he's drifted away from his first novel and lost purpose. FRWL follows up on CR more than the interim novels by restoring SMERSH to the front-and-center of Bond's rogues gallery. It does so with a vengeance--instead of having Bond battle an agent, it pits Bond against the entire organization.
Whereas DAF is plainly structured around Fleming's cross-country American travels, FRWL is plot-driven to an extent unusual for a Bond novel. It is surely the most intricately plotted of Fleming's books, which were usually written without advance planning. He obviously took more care and expended more effort with FRWL, and that explains why it became his favorite. It's also fair to say that Fleming never again put as much effort into plotting a Bond novel. I'm not sure how to feel about that. It would have been nice to have had more Bond sagas with stories as serpentine as FRWL's. On the other hand, what sets the Bond books apart from other spy novels is their wild, dreamlike, headlong quality, which resulted from a lack of advance planning--Fleming sat down to write without knowing where he would go next, prioritizing sensation above coherence.
You can t. They are all in my son s closet, except for those that my mother-in-law burned, which were quite an amount and among my best.
Okay I will @Agent_99 :-). Ooowh, and do not hesitate to vote in my poll:
https://www.mi6community.com/discussion/12509/bond-polls-2017-007-literature-contest-top-10-ian-flemings-best-work-deadline-july-30th#latest
Despite so many weaknesses I was shocked how struck I was by Tiffany from start to finish, and impressed even more by how Fleming was able to portray a woman facing trauma and a coldness to men with such reality and care. The relationship she and Bond had is actually the one that has rung the most sincere to me from all the books thus far, and the dialogues they shared were my favorite parts of the novel, far and away. Other moments, like the idea of Spectreville and Bond's final face-off with Wint and Kidd really make this a book worth reading no matter what, and redeems what can sometimes be a plodding or average book from what we expect in a Bond novel.
Chapter 14- ‘We Don’t Like Mistakes’
In the aftermath of Tingaling’s punishment, Bond and Felix discuss the incident and through this two of our minor hench-persons, Wint and Kidd, are introduced. While they seem to be pretty standard hoods in how they operate, Fleming makes them stand out by including the shock of white hair on Wint and his tendency to suck on a wart on the top joint of his right thumb, an image that makes me want to avoid food for a lifetime.
In his later call to Shady Tree to report the failure of the horse race to go his way, Bond has continued to make an argument for himself as he goes deeper into the pipeline and off to Vegas, where Tiffany also happens to be. I am excited to see her again, sharing Bond’s feelings, and that’s the main motivation I have to keep reading.
As Bond thinks about playing blackjack again there’s an aside where he also remembers “memories of big teas in other children’s playrooms.” I imagine that at this point in the series Fleming really had no idea what Bond’s past was, and hadn’t decided to make him an orphan from a young age either, which may be why he included a childhood memory for Bond that I don’t think he would’ve had if he was sent off to another guardian so early on, or even when his parents were alive and had their kid play with other children his age, so Fleming’s memory for the character could still work. Its admittance was just something I found interesting, as I don’t imagine an orphaned Bond looking back fondly on a memory like this, making it more sensible that, if it ever happened, it would be when his parents were still alive.
As the chapter closes we’re treated to one last meal and discussion with Felix, where Fleming sets up the rest of the novel pretty well. He actually gives more purpose to why Felix is still involved, and doesn’t try to force a buddy cop trip to Vegas for he and Bond because that logically doesn’t make sense. Felix is with the Pinkertons and his days of fooling with characters like the Spangs are over; on top of it he also doesn’t have the licence to kill that Bond does or the agency backing, and he has to live in America once the whole job is done and that could endanger his life all the more by toying with the big dogs. It makes more sense for Felix to go on his own mission there, and talk with Bond about his own when and if he can.
The talk sets up the mood of Vegas well, with Felix stating that all bad roads lead to “the bad town,” as if it’s inevitable that one goes there to lose big. The lights of the Strip that make Broadway look like “a kid’s Christmas tree,” the fun legend of the GI who won a massive pot at the casino and became a slogan for the idea that anyone can make it big in Vegas, and the amusing imagery of elderly ladies spending their days emptying their baskets of coins while hoping for a big score at the slot machines are all intensely descriptive stories and details that show the touristy side of the place that hides the devious goings on underneath it all. Other bits of dialogue from Felix’s side made me smile, and gave the novel a noir-type feel, including his statement about how the only law firm in Vegas is “Smith and Wesson” and how mobs don’t run liquor anymore, “they run governments.” All very lively and figurative statements, but true nonetheless. Fleming’s appreciation of the works of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler is clear here.
The image that rules the chapter, however, is the one of the crooked dealer with his hand above the desert dirt in Vegas, holding a pack of cards. It’s gives off a feeling of the bizarre and danger that has really been missing from the book to this point, and I like how Bond is serious about taking it to these people for the cruel and sick ways they operate. It sets up what I hope is a promising second half to the book that delivers a pay off to what we’ve seen building so far.
Chapter 15- Rue de la Pay
This chapter showcases Fleming doing what he did best, giving us a window into a location in the travelogue style as we follow Bond by air and by car while experiencing Vegas for the first time. I was really amused by how Bond acted while in the airport waiting for his luggage, drawn to the slots and the oxygen machine like a moth to the flame. It seems like he was openly admitting the attraction that Vegas poses even to a man of restraint on a mission, where you set up machines and watch people flock to them to test their luck. Fleming again seems to make a point about the inevitability and unavoidability of Vegas, that sooner or later you’ll go there and find yourself betting like a madman at the stakes.
The inclusion of the chauffeur driver was a great choice, as he can be our travel guide and give details on the location through his dialogue with Bond organically and not at all in a forced presentation. He’s also quite amusing, which is a plus. Cureo gives Bond a great bit of background on the location and just who he’s dealing with in Vegas, detailing the history of a city the mob built. I especially like the detail about all the big mob heads going to each other’s rival casinos and throwing some money around there as a courtesy to boost business for one another. It shows that, despite them all being in competition, they realized the salient point that comes from owning so much real estate in an area like that: the more successful they all were, the more money there would be for the taking.
Cureo’s final line, about the man who walked away from Vegas with a hundred thousand-despite walking in with half a million-is a great descriptor for the location and Bond’s chances of luck while visiting it. The spy can only hope that he walks away with more than he came in with, or at the very least enough to make it out alive.
Chapter 16- The Tiara
I really like how this chapter partly kicks off with Bond planting a recorder to track movements in his room and how, even after he’s left the room, we’re kept aware of someone coming in to toy with it. Gives a great sign that Bond is in another’s den and is playing their game by their rules.
The rest of the chapter devotes its time to really doing something I’d hoped it would: sharing Bond’s disgust for Vegas casinos. Whenever I watch the film version of Diamonds Are Forever there is a feeling of resentment and contempt and confusion I feel on Bond’s side as he walks through the casinos and sees the shows and the slots and the crowds, giving off a sense of discomfort. Though the film never has him tell us how he feels, his looks of shock or confusion as he takes in sensational shows, hack comedy and mutated gambling experiences seems to tell it all.
I was happy to see that Fleming’s Bond felt exactly how I perceived Sean’s cinematic Bond to feel, and for similar reasons. Bond is used to gambling in places of subdued eloquence with a sense of class to them, like Blades, for example. The games are played with a silence that a pin could drop during and the audiences keep tune by watching and not reacting boisterously to what is happening while the gamblers quietly compete for supremacy against the odds and with whatever vestiges of luck they’ve managed to wrestle down. When you compare that simple, refined and classy style of gambling to the loud, garish, obvious and barbaric trickery and superficial look of Vegas it’s no wonder Bond doesn’t find it to his liking. It’s a world built with what he likes-fine food, nice gambling and atmosphere-but warped and distorted into a cruel image. When James Bond walks into a casino he knows that he’s there because he wants to play and make some bets to test his finesse with other like-minded folks. When he walks into Vegas and sees how the owners have constructed the building such that you can’t leave it without crossing “the vortex of the whirring machines” and seductive gambling tables that host shouts of “Jackpot,” he sees the obvious and obscene trick at play that snares people up. The casinos of Vegas take away the gambler’s agency, not inviting you to play but nearly forcing it upon you, and you sense his distaste at the discovery.
As the chapter ends Bond seems to reach the end of his rope when it comes to his patience with the job, through with playing amateur to a bunch of “hoodlums” who don’t understand where he’s been and what he’s done. He later walks off these aggressive thoughts, but still goes out to the blackjack table with the intent of a man who has had enough and wants his results fast.
Chapter 17- Thanks for the Ride
This chapter briefly reunites Bond with Tiffany, showing off the woman’s finesse with the cards and proving that she is a true professional. It’s great to see another look inside how the Spang’s control games, where clever and skilled dealers are able to make it seem like they are shuffling a deck when they’re really just matching it to how it was originally stacked for the player’s benefit. A great touch. Bond’s feeling of jealousy as he watches the crowd envelop Tiffany is also a sign of how he’s taken to the girl, and wants her for his own.
Ultimately, I don’t know what the drive of this chapter was. At the end of the last chapter Bond seemed to want to aggressively get attention, throwing off the Spangs, but in the game with Tiffany he just plays it as it lies and accepts the money before moving on. When he plays roulette I can’t tell if his strategy there is to shake things up, or if he’s using the opportunity to just get some money for himself when he knows he has the capital and finesse to do it. I guess he thinks that by showing how audacious he can be, and by going back on Shady’s agreement, he comes off as a maverick and bold man who Spang might want to speak to? But in the same token this behavior may be seen as a liability by the mob and Bond could be cut off from the pipeline entirely, or killed, instead of being conferenced with the big dogs. I just don’t know why he’s acting as he is, or what he thinks it’ll lead to that is at all positive for the mission, especially since he is eyeing up the gang members with a, “Yeah, I’m doing this” look.
If this novel fit the usual Fleming template, which it sadly doesn’t, Bond’s confidence and daring in playing roulette with his winnings-the opposite of what the gang have ordered him to do-would ultimately result in him busting out and slipping up, driving the Spangs to get at him through his poisonous hubris. But here there is virtually no consequence or danger to anything Bond does, and no moment where his ego is ravaged and taught a lesson. There’s no moment like in Casino where he busts out, or in Live & Let Die where he waltzes into Big’s lair and thinks he can get away, or even in Moonraker where his inability to act on the red flags he sensed puts him in Death’s glare. For the entirety of the novel so far Bond has really faced no danger, and the only time he was even remotely surrounded by someone who could pose harm, like Wint and Kidd, another man was the victim and he wasn’t even on their radar.
I can only hope that very soon-as the book is winding down, somehow-Bond finally faces some opposition to his behavior as you would expect and want to see. We get told to a nauseating degree how dangerous the gang is and how Bond needs to watch out, except we never actually see these threats realized beyond a bunch of dry speeches from M, Tanner, Felix, Tiffany and Shady Tree with the exception of Wint and Kidd’s attack on Tingaling that really has nothing to do with Bond’s own safety. Come on Fleming, you’re better than this.
Chapter 18- Night Falls in the Passion Pit
We finally get to see Bond face some consequences for his actions, but one wonders if it’s a logical progression. Would Bond really risk upsetting the mobsters and jeopardize the whole mission just to make something happen quicker? The smart play would be to just wait it out and play a colder, more intellectual game than a loud and brash one. It’s not like the mission is on a timer like in Casino Royale where the baccarat game was his last shot at cleaning out Le Chiffre, in Live & Let Die when Big forced his hand to travel to the island before he was ready, or in Moonraker where Bond had a week to complete his mission due to the impending launch of the rocket. All his mission really entails is finding out who is doing the smuggling, and that’s not time sensitive at all and could be one that he took his time with. But here he acts so rashly as if he’s only got two days left to get results, and that comes off as so sloppy. All it leads to is him getting Ernie in danger and possibly leading to his death. At the end of it he’s being walked away stuck up with guns, going to a place where he’ll face immense pain almost assuredly. One must ask what the goal here was, and how Bond thought it would end any different. It’s like he has a death wish.
One thing I did like about the chapter at the very least was how Bond showed sympathy to each character he came across who was faced with peril or reprimand. He doesn’t take kindly to his barber shouting out the girl who Spang hit, he wants Ernie to drop him off and drive away when the mobsters are tailing him to avoid his harm, and even when he’s caused his enemies to wreck in the burning car, Bond seemed ready to race over and help them out of the vehicle before they died. I guess in the last example that he is more frustrated at the Spangs and those who are at their level, and not the poor foot soldiers tasked with doing their deeds. It’s a very interesting reaction from Bond regardless, who had no problem killing Big’s gang and wouldn’t have held back facing Drax’s Germans or Le Chiffre’s guards, though the latter two instances depicted radical and sadistic folks and trained and sadistic killers.
Chapter 19- Spectreville
This chapter recalls more of the old Fleming that’d really been missing for so much of the novel. Back is the danger to Bond’s life, like in his battle with the mobsters, as is the sense of place in the anachronistic and spooky Spectreville and the villain with an odd quality through Spang and his obsession with the Wild West. It’s a set of strange and, as Bond says, macabre images that give the book the personality that it lacked immensely, like it was just another crime story and not a James Bond novel.
I still get upset with how cavalier Bond is about the whole business, and how it takes him seeing an expensive train to think Spang means business (?). He’s naturally got a tendency to underestimate his villains, but there always comes a time when he realizes he shouldn’t and acts accordingly. Where’s that here? He still seems to have no worry on his side about his own condition or how he’s going to survive the trap to get the information back to M, a very unprofessional attitude. He seems to think that Spang hasn’t got reason to kill him, but how true is that? Even if his story was somehow believed and he was seen as the replacement of Franks, all that information would eventually be proven to be a lie when Franks himself was questioned, putting Bond in mortal danger again.
The credibility of the writing and stakes at this point just feels all wrong, and the character aren’t acting as they would be for real, which is annoying to read. Bond shouldn’t seem so incompetent and out of his depth when he’s seen what happens when he makes these same mistakes so many times before.
Chapter 20- Flames Coming out of the Top
The start of this chapter confused me with its random shift to what seems to be Bond’s swim at the end of Live & Let Die and a mention of Strangways, such that I did a double-take and wondered if my copy of Diamonds was printed wrong and chapters got mixed up. I guess we are to assume that the spy’s thrashing at the hands of Wint and Kidd, which we never witness in real time, simulated to him the cutting of the coral and the pressure on his body that the diving had? Even still it’s such an odd and vague reference that I don’t imagine most readers beyond the obsessed would know what Fleming was calling back to. All his other references in the book are small little whispers and implied items that don’t bog down the reading or leave questions, but this one does in a bemusing way.
It seems so strange to me that Spang and his crew would just let Bond lie there without watching him or tying him up. I guess we can assume that they don’t expect Tiffany to help him, but Spang mentioned her falling for Bond so at the same time you wonder why they trust her at all. If they had even a suspicion of her and Bond being complicit they wouldn’t have allowed them a chance of working together. The escape just feels all too easy.
Moments of convenience, like the little car Bond and Tiffany are riding on that quits just when they mention how it won’t run out, or how Felix randomly shows up in the nick of time, are almost too much and needed a bit more finessing, but Fleming did write himself into a hell of a corner and needed to employ some old Greek theatre tricks to get himself out of it.
I do love the image of Bond and Tiffany being chased by the “tiny glow-worm glimmer” of The Cannonball and how Bond stands like a duelist and shoots at Spang as the locomotive barrels along the curve to destruction. The western imagery is appreciated. This feels like a climax moment, but we still have around fifty pages left. What could be next?
Chapter 21- ‘Nothing Propinks Like Propinquity’
With their ordeal involving the Spang brother and accompanying goons survived, Bond and Tiffany find themselves ushered to safety by Felix as arrangements are made to get them to London. You can feel the appreciation Bond has for his friend as his throat goes lump at the airport, possibly with some worry about Felix staying in Vegas with such dangerous folks around and for the man’s own selflessness to help him in his time of need.
On their travel path Bond seems to be getting serious about Tiffany, and wants her for his own in the classic style, a woman at home after work hours that fits into a strange and incongruous domesticated image that doesn’t mesh with his personality in my eyes. It’s really touching that he views himself as the healer who can bring Tiffany back to her old self before the rape, to live life trusting again, as is the guilt he would feel if he did all that for her and then things didn’t work out, making him just another man who did her wrong, supporting her negative view of his gender all the more. But as always he knows the job is first and that is his main focus.
It’s funny that the cabins Bond and Tiffany have on the Queen Elizabeth are on deck M, as if it’s Fleming’s way of underscoring the spy’s desire to head home and report to his own M at Regent’s Park.
Chapter 22- Love and Sauce Béarnaise
I found this to be a lovely, really powerful chapter, since it’s really only there to further build Bond and Tiffany’s relationship with some quiet dialogue. A lot of it is filled with the sassy and playful barbs they share, but they also peel back each other’s layers to find out who they really are under it all. I was especially fascinated by Bond’s thoughts on marriage, his fears and how he thought that he could handle life better on his own. His frivolous comment about being married to a man, M, made me grin like mad and I love the humor Fleming was able to inject by making light of Bond’s duty to his boss. I was also touched that he wants to have kids, but desires to wait until retirement. He knows that death in his job is more inevitable than it is to survive it, so I love that he thinks about what that would do to a family if he were suddenly out of the picture. He only wants to make a family when he knows that he can be there for the kids and his wife in retirement, and not end up forcing pain on them when his body gets shipped back from a rough mission in Europe. Bond faces so much in the field that you can tell how much his future is clear to him, because he constantly grapples with the thoughts of death and risk more than everyday citizens, giving him more clarity and foresight about it all.
Tiffany really steals the show here, and she continues to be such a fascinating and well-framed character with so many profound things to say. Her defense that marriage is about adding up to something with someone, but how she has settled for an inhuman life and her own tragic origins with a broken family and the danger her mother’s work put her in are wonderfully crafted and powerful passages that speak to who she is and her dreams. The woman’s hot and cold nature comes to a head as Bond misspeaks and brings up her possible relationship with the Spang brother, driving her to tearfully leave him at the bar. Her allusion to Alice in Wonderland, of wanting a man who can lift her out of a pool of tears instead of dunking her under the depths, is both poetic and haunting. You feel for this woman and her life to this point, a series of traumas or abuses where she has been left in a storm of depression or melancholia about what she is doing and who she’s been made to be. Her call for Bond to understand that sometimes life makes people into who they are without their choice is very profound, and also very true for her. As an orphan who had to grow up from a young age, I think there’s a part of Bond that knows her experience all too well and understands how our environment sometimes makes us who we are without our permission or care.
Bond and Tiffany’s relationship easily amounts to the most well drawn and developed I’ve read to this point in the series, which is strange considering that everything else in the book is a step down. I just love how Fleming painted a picture of trauma in this woman, and how realistically he was able to develop her character from one of coldness to men to one who could see the good in another who meant her no harm. Through his reactions with Tiffany he was also able to really build up Bond as even more of a compassionate man, willing to spend the time getting to know the girl and making her comfortable with him before he ever tried anything remotely romantic with her. It’s great that Bond understands and respects Tiffany’s boundaries, and doesn’t bulldoze through them selfishly, intent to wait it out and allow trust to form first. I find myself saying this all the time, but this is not the behavior a misogynist would have, and Bond again shows why he doesn’t fit into that cruel box some think he inhabits.
Chapter 23- The Job Comes Second
This chapter says it all, really: Bond puts the girl in the front of his mind and his red flag in his mind regarding Wint and his job is ignored in exchange for Tiffany’s passion. I find it a bit hard to imagine that the detail-oriented man such as Bond would forget such a descriptive and sickly detail about a person, especially when he knew that Wint and Kidd were intensely involved with the Spangs and would no doubt be after them. Adding on to that the ominous betting on Wint’s side about the ship facing trouble in the Low Field should’ve told Bond everything. Why doesn’t he see the trap he’s so clearly walking into?
Chapter 24- Death Is So Permanent
Man, what a rousing chapter, and possibly the best outside of the Tiffany centric chapters in the novel. I just love the image of Bond tying a rope from sheets to try and get down the side of a speeding boat to a cabin encasing trained killers below him. Bond willing himself to make it by imagining himself as a boy climbing down a tree is an interesting image, simplifying and easing the experience.
One of my favorite moments in the series thus far must be Bond’s shootout with Wint and Kidd and how, like duelists that fit into the very western-centric style of this novel, Bond and the former share one last simultaneous attempt to kill each other. It’s a profound moment to see Bond, uncaring about the knife stabbed into his stomach, enjoying the sounds of nature that he has been fortunate enough to experience again after facing death itself. I love these moments in each novel where he finds himself appreciating something he took for granted, or never imagined seeing again, while facing his villain one last time.
Like a detective Bond sets up the scene of a murder-suicide for the police to find, a brilliant moment that speaks to who his character inherently is.
The ending is quite spooky, as I imagined that Wint’s head came back alive and spoke his warning to Bond before the spy shook his head and came back to reality. He clearly wants to go all the way with this girl, but the notion of forever in a life that has seen only the permanence of death leaves doubts.
Chapter 25- The Pipeline Closes
Fleming quite brilliantly wraps everything up here, in much the way he started it. We bookend with the man in the bush waiting to pass on his diamonds, dreaming for retirement, passing the time by inflicting cruelty on the animal life around him. All is the same except for two variables, Spang and Bond, a villain and a hero who’ve encroached on the territory of the otherwise standard operation. The pipeline was open, but now it shall close.
The chapter does a fine job of connecting us with what has happened since the business on the Queen Elizabeth, with M ordering Bond to Africa to see the job off. He calls the Double-O “James” again, something he only does when he feels guilty about setting the agent up with a bad job, much like he did in Moonraker.
The image of Bond hammering away with a giant gun, shooting his villain out of the sky, is a great one, but the quiet conclusion to the chapter that comes after the big bang is far more profound. Bond’s musings on both death and diamonds being forever is more than a callback to that corny slogan he saw in a New York jeweler. It very much underscores the nature of crime, and all crime; it will always go on, and there will always be bad men out there that need accounting for.
Tiffany’s words, “It reads better than it lives,” stay with Bond as he walks off to the ball of flame entrapping Spang’s rotored coffin. It is very much the story of the spy’s life, where his adventures would seem exciting and thrilling and fantastical to an audience reading an account of them, like the feelings we get as we are reviewing them all now. But just reading them doesn’t give the full picture, or translate the true feelings of despair, the pain of torture, the justified anxiety of paranoia, the blood on the hands, that Bond is left with the memory of each and every time. It speaks to Fleming’s motive as a writer that he chooses to have his hero face these human moments, where his exploits aren’t closed with a feeling of glorified triumph, but contemplation about the nature of the work and the feeling it leaves behind inside him.
Since I cracked into FRWL without jotting down specific notes and since the book is nontraditionally structured anyway, I'll take a different approach here with Part One: The Plan (Ch. 1-10) and provide impressions of the Russian cast.
Red Grant: Certainly one of Fleming's more elaborately fleshed out and more outlandish villains. As @Birdleson mentioned, the man is essentially a werewolf, right down to the perfectly bizarre detail of the "embryonic" tuft of hair growing where a tail might be. His eyes sometimes glow redly as well and of course there is his bloodlust which comes with the moon. Just enough fantasy to belong in Fleming's hyper-realized version of our world. His introductory chapter is yet one more example of Fleming's brilliant descriptive capabilities, concluding on a perfectly chilling note: the reveal that this marvel of muscle is "the Chief Executioner of SMERSH, the murder apparat of the M.G.B." Fleming has built up SMERSH over the past four-ish novels and now he's pitting Bond against their most ferocious weapon of all. Talk about upping the stakes from Diamonds. Curiously, Fleming spends a further two chapters simply detailing Grant's backstory before we get into the plot proper.
General G. & Friends: I'm not 100% sure whether this was Fleming's intention or not, but large parts of the chapter involving the military table talk feel unintentionally humorous. Maybe Fleming saw this was becoming the case and decided neither to go full hog with it nor do away with it. But the sight of these decorated military figures bickering with each other and puffing out their chests and ho-humming and blaming each other for things and gathering up their folders on James Bond...c'mon, it's kinda ridiculous. "Comrade, there certainly is 'a man called Bond' as you put it...James Bond...and nobody, myself included, could think of this spy's name! We are indeed forgetful. No wonder the Intelligence apparat is under criticism." I think maybe Fleming wanted to portray the Russians as a bit buffoonish—sort of a disorganized, clumsy, and infighting lot. Which doesn't gel with the rest of his fiercely drawn villains here, but as these aren't the principal figures in the caper anyway, their cartoonery doesn't really draw away from the others' villainy.
Kronsteen: This slimy bugger. It's a great scene, the chess tournament, perfectly realized in the film, and I like Kronsteen's reasoning for how he can both finish his match for the win and not be executed for disobeying orders. Simply illustrates the brilliance of his plotting. But mostly, this chapter reminded me of an interesting time clock-driven chess match I was involved in once long ago. Maybe I'll post the story here before we're through with FRWL. It has a bit of a Bondian flair to it, I guess.
Rosa Klebb: And in this same chapter we're introduced to what is, somehow, an even more outlandish, grotesque, and intoxicatingly bizarre creature than Red Grant. The cello-shaped figure with a bosom like a misshapen sandbag, the "wet trap of a mouth" that worked like a puppet's, the orange hair, the big ears, the yellow-brown eyes. Fleming simply does not relent in describing the absolute otherworldliness of this woman. First describing her as "sex neutral" in Kronsteen's estimation, only to reveal in the most horrifying and shocking of ways her lesbian inclinations as she slinks out in a see-through orange teddy with ostrich feather pom-poms on her slippers and her face garishly, clownishly caked in makeup. I had completely forgotten the impact of this scene and was taken aback afresh. Surely one of Fleming's more potent images of all time. Klebb leaves Grant in the dust as far as the bizarre. (Also, that great image of her scuttling around the dungeons for the torture sessions. Just, wow.)
Tatiana Romanova: Okay, the film did a great job of translating the essentials of the novel onto the screen without altering too much, but everything in the book, of course, is just so much more. And with Tatiana, wonderful as Bianchi indeed is, whole new facets to the character emerge in her opening pages. What struck me most tenderly about Tatiana is her poverty and her desperation and her naiveté. Of all the girls Bond has encountered thus far, she is indeed the most innocent in the ways of the world, despite having taken a small handful of lovers, and has a basically good nature. The scene wherein she wonders why she's been called and worries whether it's because of the spoon she stole and breaks down crying is one of Fleming's most profoundly real and heartbreaking scenes thus far. She is a brilliant change of pace from the other four girls. (Though Fleming once again resorts to giving her long brown hair and a wide, sensual mouth. Seriously, Fleming had it bad for this type.)
Yes, I think you're right. FRWL really is an interesting experience. In many ways, it feels like not simply another Bond adventure, but like a wartime arrow launched by Fleming into the heart of the enemy: Russia. Propaganda of sorts, though that's putting it far too crudely. It feels, really, like Fleming doing his duty.
It's pretty great; like I'm back in school and the class subject is James Bond.
I can be flexible.
Fleming original decision to kill Bond came late in the writing process: John Griswold's book states that Bond was not kicked by Rosa in the manuscript at the Lilly Library in the University of Indiana. Major Tallon at the Commander Bond forums has done research at the library and posted the following:
It would be fantastic to have editions of the novels that include such material in their appendices.
On General G. & Friends: I think there is some definite humor in this scene, which shows the endless bitchery, backbiting, and oneupsmanship among the Soviet intelligence departments (and in those of other countries--the rivalry and bad blood between the CIA and FBI helped 9/11 happen). And General G. has a fine time manipulating the reactions of everyone at the meeting, keeping everyone on edge and stoking their (justifiable) paranoia. I love the bit where they discuss the major intelligence services of the west and list their merits and demerits. You can imagine how much Fleming enjoyed making them go on and on about how great the British are!
On Tatiana: Fleming spends more time inside her head, showing us her thoughts and private experiences, then he had with any of his previous heroines. As Some_Kind_of_Hero notes, this left the screen Tatiana (lovely as she was) with a disadvantage.
Regarding Fleming's treatment of Turkey, take a look at this fascinating article that explains the context of Fleming's experiences there and how the Turkish translation of the novel was censored to remove several offensive passages.
On Saturday 12: I can give a tentative yes, but there is a sizable chance of family stuff intervening. I should also alert Bay Area Bond fans to a certain screening at the Castro Theater on Aug. 25.
Edit: The 12th, that is.
Cheers, @Minion. Your words do me good. I've really enjoyed the process so far, learning about Bond and how the films nailed some of his style more than others would argue they have, especially in what kind of man Bond is. I also never expected Fleming to so openly connect his stories one after the other with so much continuity, and that's been a real kick to read and experience for the first time.
I wish I got to do stuff like this in high school or college, but alas the readings were always predictable and never bold or interesting choices like these novels that put a lot of interesting questions forth about morality, existence and love. Of course it's best that we never had Fleming on the curriculum because I know for a fact that my passion for the character and books would be so overt and unrestrained in the classroom that no other students would be able to say a word as I droned on, or I'd constantly be refuted an erroneous claim somebody made about Bond or the themes of the books. Or worse, I'd have spoke with such frothing at the mouth that the professor would've given up and let me teach the course. Which is how it would probably be, in the end. ;)
Careful what you wish for. I owe my San Francisco-based schoolfriend a visit and I'm already lurking on your Bay Area thread.