Casino Royale

I'm a big Bond movie fan and much to my shame, I've never even cracked the spine of any of Fleming's original novels. I decided to rectify that and starting at the beginning seemed like a very good place to start.

The 2006 adaptation is one of my favourite Bond films and you can see from where the movie took many of its cues. However, the book was certainly ‘of its time' and a large amount of acceptance was required to put the often awkward racism, sexism, misogyny and older language use into a historical context. Poor old 1953 Vesper Lynd is certainly a long way from Eva Green's brilliant modern portrayal.

An interesting and enjoyable read, I'm definitely going to carry on with the other 007 books.

My audio version had an authors notes at the end and he was taking about how he felt about his first draft and he said basically what I’m still thinking, something about how this adolescent tripe and that the MC was stupid.

Bond wish women were in the kitchen and he wants to f*ck Vesper to make sure he dick works after he’s been tortured. He calls her bitch repeatedly but never to her face, he’s such a pretentious douchebag and I did think that this is some old man fantasy about being a guy, gross. Some racism as well because why not. Started early with, “Ears small, with large lobes, indicating some Jewish blood.” It was a stupid book.

Not exactly what I anticipated, but a decent read nonetheless. Very much more character-driven than I expected although there were also some very intense action scenes as well. The writing and the attitudes of the characters sometimes seemed a bit dated, but I suppose that is to be expected from a book first published in 1953.

This was my first James Bond novel, having only ever seen the character on the big screen. Originally published back in 1953 Casino Royale still has the obligatory guns, sex, violence and car chases making it a fairly attention-grabbing thriller 62 years later.

I won't outline the plot here but what first struck me about the book is how little Bond really does. Events happen to him, for example the mission itself is just a game of chance and when Bond is rescued later in the book it's just because of pure luck. Also, two sections in the book dragged for me: the first related to the tedious explanations in the casino; what each hand of cards means and how the game itself was played. The second was the last quarter of the novel which takes place after the main story has ended. Fifty pages just to get to a fairly obvious final “unexpected” twist.

There was also a distinct lack of any action, apart for a few scenes here and there. The second half of the story is about the relationship between Bond and Vesper Lynd and investigates what Bond is thinking and feeling as opposed to who he is punching, shooting or which gadget he is using (spoiler: he doesn't use any)

So what's left?

I feel that in Casino Royale what Fleming attempted to do was to develop Bond as a character; he is portrayed as a victim of circumstance: a flawed human being and he is definitely not the indestructible superhero we are used to seeing. He mistrusts his own decisions and makes mistakes. You genuinely believe at times that he won't succeed. He isn't convinced of the righteousness of his mission and is more aggressive, cruel and ruthless that you are used to seeing, with an amplified dislike of women going so far as to describing one encounter as having:

the sweet tang of rape.

It's not difficult to get a double-o number if you're prepared to kill people. That's all the meaning it has. It's nothing to be particularly proud of.

I've seen most of the Bond movies over the years, so I decided to take a look through the books that created such a phenomenon. I don't really care much for the movies, but I will admit that the more recent movie with Daniel Craig I found pretty good so, how's the book?

Things are described in detail, always. You get a vivid picture of what the scene looks, smells and tastes like. It is a story of cavalier hard men engaging in dangerous games with one another. I can see how this story (and more in the series if it continues in the same vein) would be greatly appealing to teenage and young men that are looking for something to emulate. Bond has skills, panache, and knowledge of how to act in both dangerous and classy situations. At middle age, this story doesn't hit the same so whatever.

It has some stuff that would be considered fairly racist these days and how Bond views women and how the female character acts in this seems wildly misogynist, and I don't consider a playboy secret agent bedding women left and right as particularly bad. They are portrayed as vapid objects of entertainment or horrible distractions to the dangerous game that is being played.

I give this a few stars because it really was gritty spy business and I thought the story was well done. I dock stars for treatment of women in ways that I think are kinda shitty, even for the time.