Customer Reviews

Live and Let Die (The James Bond Classic Library)

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After "Casino Royale" (1953) introduced James Bond to the world, Ian Fleming quickly followed up with his second novel, the vastly superior "Live and Let Die" (1954). Whereas its predecessor is an apprentice work and one of the weakest of the whole series, "Live and Let Die" is fine Fleming, with all the characteristics that mark the best Bond novels: quick pacing, deft characterization, a solid plot, and Fleming's own inimitable style.

The plot is straightforward: someone is smuggling gold coins into the US and the British Secret Service wants to find out who. M sends Bond to America, where he hooks up Felix Leiter to pursue the nefarious Mr. Big, a gigantic Haitian who works for SMERSH and uses voodoo to maintain his control over his minions. Bond, of course, succeeds, but only after much death, suspense, and sexual tension with Solitaire, his delicious female companion.

I would rank "Live and Let Die" in the second-tier of Bond novels, along with "From Russia, With Love" and "Moonraker." It doesn't quite reach the level of such absolute masterpieces as "Doctor No," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," or "You Only Live Twice," but it's certainly superior to such relatively weak entries as "Goldfinger," "Casino Royale," and the disastrous "The Man with the Golden Gun." All in all, a classic Bond thriller.

This was the second Bond novel overall, but the first to feature the blueprint for the Bond novels and films to come. Unlike the superb "Casino Royale" which was almost exclusively kept to one location, LALD is a globe trotting epic dragging Bond from NYC to the Caribbean and incorporating nerve shattering adventures in planes, trains and even finishes up as a sea faring thriller. Amongst all of this, somehow Fleming finds time to establish a number of classic 007 motifs - the decadent hotels, iconic villain, sidekick villians, mastermind death plots, development of Felix Leiter's friendship with Bond, the briefing from M. To cap it off, Q branch also rates it's first ever mention, and the beginnings of the novel's gadgetry fixations begin here. LALD is most notable as being the first of it's form and it must have hit readers powerfully with it's freshness on first release. This was 007 as we now know him - brave, resourceful, invincible - master of any skill or body of knowledge. For me, and most Bond readers, familiar with the genre, it's a good read, not a great one, because it skimps on Bond's psychology which ultimately gives a level of excitement and depth that the movies can't equal (although they certainly have different advantages over the books). You need look no further than "Casino Royale" for the thrill of getting inside James Bond's mind and for enjoying his enigmatic and self centred ethics. This read is much more straight forward and dare I say it, predictable good fun. It deserves it's accolades because it was there first.

Ian Fleming readers will know what they are getting, and fans of the movie may not. This is the second Bond outing in novel form, the first being CASINO ROYALE. But like the movies, it's unnecessary to see or read them in order. There are a few references to the first novel, mostly vague "from the Royale incident" statements, but nothing major.
Bond is darker, less suave than the movie version, and it comes out in this dark novel. It's actually has more to do with the movie For your eyes Only than LIVE AND LET DIE. There's an ocean motif in this one, lots of sharks and underwater perils.
Vivid and exciting. good stuff

Fleming's second James Bond novel, Live and Let Die is a solid thriller although it certainly has room for improvement. And Fleming would improve and polish Bond's adventure very very well as time went on. Here, his prose is more terse, often feeling less descriptive than it would in later novels, but still very smooth. There is some really solid action and Bond is also given a very believable reason to go after Mr. Big, the villain (what else could he be with that name?) Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA chum, is mauled by sharks. (This part of the story was not in the film Live and Let Die but was rather used in the later film Licence to Kill.) Bond also forms a solid romance with the mysterious Solitaire and in the end...well, give it a read. A lot of fun for sure and very smooth.

Although the story of Live and Let Die was adapted to the silver screen as the seventh Bond movie (the first starring Roger Moore as the secret agent), Live and Let Die is actually the second book in Ian Fleming's series. It takes place some undisclosed amount of time after the events of Casino Royale, the first book in the series. Bond, eager to exact revenge on SMERSH, the Soviet version of the CIA or MI6, which was responsible for torturing him in Casino Royale, jumps on a mission to engage an American gangster turned Soviet agent codenamed Mr Big. Mr Big apparently uncovered a vast horde of pirate treasure and is illegally spreading the money throughout the United States to fund SMERSH activities. Mr Big is ruthless, cunning and brilliant and, perhaps more importantly, has absolute control over many of the black people in the United States (particularly Harlem) and Jamaica, through his manipulation of the Voodoo culture. As such, Mr Big is as cruel and dangerous an enemy as Bond will ever face.

The story of Live and Let Die (which, by the way, is vastly different from that of the movie) is much quicker paced and action-packed than that of Casino Royale, whose climax occurred at a baccarat table. And, while Casino Royale was certainly an enjoyable novel, Live and Let Die is a much more entertaining read.

Fleming is a strong writer who is capable of spinning a great tale. He does not waste a lot of time with description or unnecessary banter. Instead, he includes as much as he thinks is necessary to adequately advance the plot, allowing the reader to flesh out the descriptions in his mind. Fleming does, at times, devote a few pages to description, particularly that of Mr Big. His descriptions are beautifully written, telling the reader everything they need to know concisely, clearly and elegantly. Fleming's dialog, too, is pretty strong though he shies away from dialog much like he shies away from description. Often, he turns dialog into a third-person narrative in order to make it more concise. Although his dialog is snappy and realistic, it can, at times, be confusing. It is not always clear who is saying what which can cause the reader to have to re-read a passage to clarify the situation. However, this only happens once or twice and is not a big issue.

Perhaps the biggest complaint one could have with Live and Let Die is that it has become formulaic. The cruel and wicked villain, the smart and beautiful girl who somehow continues to fall into the clutches of the villain, the impossible situations that Bond manages to sidestep, and the general ineptitude of every agent or officer that is not Bond. But it is important to note that, as one of the earliest novels, this formula is not yet as cliche as it becomes over the next few books.

It is important to briefly note what many call a racist mentality present throughout the novel. Certainly, black people are usually portrayed as superstitious, poorly spoken folk, many of whom are working for a terrible black gangster. The use of the word "negro" and "nigger," which are now considered politically incorrect run rampant throughout this book. But those were the words commonly used when the book was written in the 1950s and had no racist connotations at the time. For Fleming, a British writer, telling a story about black people in America is rather difficult and it is surprising and impressive that he manages to avoid many of the typical stereotypes.

Live and Let Die is an exciting espionage thriller, with an admirable protagonist, a wicked villain, a strong plot, good storytelling and snappy dialog. The novel is vastly different from the later film adaptation and so is worth reading even if you did not like the movie. It is definitely one of the best books and a worthy addition to the Bond saga.

I only tend to review the best of the novels (From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Dr. No, Thunderball and Live and Let Die) for some reason. Most people talk about everything in the book, but I am just going to tell you that Live and Let Die is, along with the others listed, one of the best. Better than the movie, although I didn't dislike the movie that much. Worth a read.

After CASINO ROYALE, James Bond returns in the second 007 adventure, LIVE AND LET DIE, and here you'll find the basic formula that defines this series: globetrotting to exotic locations, larger-than-life villians, intoxicatingly beautiful women.

I'd read all of the Bond novels over twenty years ago as a teen and now I'm rereading them as the opening of the film version of CASINO ROYALE approaches this weekend. (The Ultimate James Bond DVD Collection is also being released--volumes one and two of four came out last week--so these are swingin' days for spy fans!).

One of the things I remembered from reading the Bond novels years ago was that I didn't think Ian Fleming really understood Americans. He saw them as either Texas cowboys or Chicago mobsters. So, as I picked up LIVE AND LET DIE, which has an African-American villian and has Bond visiting Harlem, I was prepared to find the same type of rash stereotyping Fleming had applied to everyone else in the USA.
(I nearly gasped when I saw the title to Chapter Five in these new Penguin editions and couldn't remember that from reading it before. I dug out my old copies and saw that the original Signet paperback and the movie tie-in were both changed to "Seventh Avenue").
But I was relieved that LIVE AND LET DIE wasn't rampant with racism. There are more "n-words" contained in any 3-minute rap song than the entire book and Fleming comes across as someone who's trying to understand what Bond sees in the Harlem sequences. If anyone is offended by his attempts to capture the dialogue in Harlem nightspots, I would ask if Fleming's transcriptions were any less challenging than, say, the closed caption people trying to type out what's heard on MTV's TRL show or VH1's "The Flavor of Love."
For an Englishman to write about Black culture in 1954 and not be riddled with outrageous insults is admirable, so I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone is welcome to disagree with me but I was expecting much worse!

Like the first novel, this one breezes along and the action jumps from London to New York to St. Petersburg to Jamaica. The novels are so different from the movies that they don't interfere with each other.

I've already picked up the next 007 thriller!

This is a fine novel for Bond fans, and it kicks the series into high gear after the relatively low-key "Casino Royale." We get a more operatic Bond villain (Mr. Big), an appealing heroine (Solitaire), and a good sidekick (Quarrel); sadly, the plot doesn't quite match up, revolving around pirate treasure.

There is a bit of an element of racism -- how offended you are by this probably will depend on how unable you are to put the novel in a proper histroical context. Personally, I don't think Fleming had any racist intent; if anything, he was merely reflecting a mostly racist world.

Fleming's writing style here is inconsistent, but frequently quite elegant. There is a chapter toward the end involving Bond making his way by sea-bottom to Mr. Big's lair, and this chapter is beautifully written all the way through; it's one of the novel's highlights, and shows the keen eye for detail that marked the best of Fleming's work.

The novel is only vaguely similar to the 1973 movie, but it is interesting to note that major elements and scenes from the novel that went unused in that movie were later used in both "For Your Eyes Only" and "Licence to Kill."

Ian Fleming's novel is far removed from the action-packed, surreal blaxploitation film it would eventually become. While it may be a good read it's a quiet, quaintly-xenophobic thriller with little to no action. It is very fast-paced though, to a point.

It follows the same basic premise. Bond goes to Harlem, finds himself ridiculously out of his depth, meets Mr. Big, falls for Solitaire, travels south and goes to Jamaica for a showdown. But gone is Tee-Hee's metal arm, Baron Samedi, the redneck Sheriff, the speedboat chases, the bus chase, Rosie Carver, the Dr. Kananga disguise, all of the Louisiana scenes and the satisfying ending. While this would have bulked up the novel considerably it would have been a fun read. There are also many plot elements to this novel that never made it to the film but were later recycled into For Your Eyes Only and Licence to Kill. If your a Bond fan you'll be able to easily spot them.

As I said it IS fast paced until the final act, at which point Fleming is distracted by over-describing everything about his beloved Jamaica. There is virtually three chapters of nothing happening. Instead of charging to an explosive finish the book slows down to a crawl and almost loses it. The mere fact that the ending comes very quickly after this saves it from a lesser rating.

I have to admit that Tom Mankiewicz's screenplay is actually better. But don't dismiss this book, it's a letdown after Casino Royale (movie tie-in) (James Bond 007), but still worth checking out.

While the first James Bond novel , 1953's "Casino Royale", introduced the character of 007, it was left to this, the second Bond novel published in 1954, to establish what constituted a James Bond Adventure.

"Casino Royale" kept Bond penned up in a single locale playing cards, not physically hurting anyone. "Live And Let Die" gives us a more peripatetic and lethal hero, journeying from London to Harlem to Florida and finally Jamaica leaving a trail of death behind. He's still a one-woman man, but this time it's a different woman: Solitaire, psychic consort of SMERSH's African-American ally Mr. Big.

The result is a terrific read. If not the hard-edged, rather refined psychodrama that was "Casino Royale", "Live And Let Die" is the first Bond novel that makes you want to read another Bond novel. A lot of people rate it higher than "Casino Royale". I don't, but understand the enthusiasm.

It's one thing to watch Bond kill a lot of people in a ruthless and effective manner. But even his breakfasts get your attention the way Fleming writes them, Bond noshing on paw-paw and guava jelly as he stares out across the "green flanks" of the hilly Jamaican coastlands to Mr. Big's island haven, in preparation for his final assault. Or staring blankly as an adversary gets chomped on by a shark, hearing "one terrible snuffling grunt as if a great pig was getting its mouth full."

This is Fleming the detail maven, the master of setting vivid scenes and then sending you off on what is called by his aficionados "the Fleming sweep". The best in this book carries you with Bond as he snorkles under a moonlit bay, evading octopus and barracuda as Fleming puts you so tight against his narrative you feel yourself wanting for air.

"Live And Let Die" suffers from a storyline that doesn't actually need Bond. Mr. Big's big scheme, involving recovered pirate treasure, hardly appears illegal, let alone warranting a British spy's help in upsetting it. The fact Big belongs to SMERSH, the Soviet assassin force that did Bond wrong in "Casino Royale", is a strained tangent, as is the presence of Solitaire, a pale substitute for "Royale's" haunting Vesper Lynd.

For the record, I don't think Fleming shows himself a racist with his handling of the novel's black characters; in the ways he writes of jazz, Harlem, and Jamaica's predominately black culture, he was refreshingly open-minded about things other middle-aged Brits of the period would have scoffed at or ignored.

What I enjoy most in this novel are things like the Jamaica section (Fleming's home, and it shows) and the welcome return of Felix Leiter, affecting company as the story centers on his friendship with Bond. We even get the debut of Bond's sense of humor, as when Mr. Big tells a strapped-down-and-bloodied Bond he will die at six o'clock, give or take a few minutes.

"Let's give those minutes," replies Bond. "I enjoy my life."

You will, too, reading this introduction to 007 on the go.