Goldeneye
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Die großartige Biografie über Ian Fleming, seine geniale Erfindung James Bond und die Rolle der Insel Jamaika in der Entstehung der Legende. Von 1946 bis zum Ende seines Lebens verbrachte Ian Fleming jedes Jahr zwei Monate in Goldeneye, dem Haus, das er an der Nordküste Jamaikas oberhalb eines schmalen weißen Sandstrandes hatte erbauen lassen. Hier schrieb er sämtliche Romane und Erzählungen rund um James Bond. Schon bei seinem ersten Besuch war Fleming von Jamaika fasziniert, das damals noch ein entlegener Winkel des britischen Empire war. Hier, inmitten bezaubernder Naturschönheiten, konnte er die englische Nüchternheit und den Niedergang des postkolonialen Großbritanniens vergessen. Auf Jamaika fand Fleming das perfekte Zusammenspiel von britischem Konservativismus alter Schule und einer Atmosphäre von Gefahr und Sinnlichkeit vor. Diese außergewöhnliche Mischung prägte auch sein Schreiben und trug wesentlich zum Erfolg seiner Werke bei. Diese Biografie zeichnet Flemings Leben und Werk anhand seiner Aufenthalte in Goldeneye nach und verbindet die Entwicklung der Person und des Werkes mit den politischen Entwicklungen der Nachkriegszeit, wie etwa dem Kalten Krieg, dem Weg Jamaikas in die Unabhängigkeit und dem Zerfall des britischen Empire.
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God knows I know what it's like to have ~problematic favorites~, and of course if you're interested enough to write a biography of someone, you probably like that person. But this book, I felt, walked an interesting line between acknowledging Ian Fleming's grossness and kind of wanting to excuse it? Like he talks more than I expected about the racism in the Bond novels, but then kind of argues that Fleming is LESS racist against black people than he is against Asian people, because of all the time he spent in Jamaica? Okay... like... maybe? But those books are still hella racist. (Props to Parker though for including an excerpt from a contemporary review from the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner that called Live and Let Die patronizing toward Jamaicans. Yeah! It was!)
He also talks a lot about how both Fleming and Bond were concerned with Britain's fading Empire, which, yes, they were. It comes across a little like Parker has also bought into the mythos of how things were simpler in Jamaica under colonial rule? EHHH but it is a biography of Ian Fleming and not postcolonial history? But it is a little bit of both, really.
Anyway, I did enjoy reading this, especially for finding out how much stuff from Fleming's personal life was put into the Bond novels, and also for the hot goss. (In Jamaica, Ian Fleming's neighbor was Noel Coward, and he asked Noel to play Dr No in the movie, and apparently Noel telegraphed back “No... no... no... no! Love, Noel.” hahaha so good!) I also loved how much Ian's wife hated James Bond.
There's a lot of great research in here. The prose can be a little dry at times, but overall there are enough interesting stories to keep it moving along. I would really only recommend this if you are very interested in James Bond, which is like... probably what you would assume from the title.
