Customer Reviews

Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Ian Fleming's tenth James Bond number is a departure from the usual mold of a Bond story:the entire tale is told from a female viewpoint. The first third of the novel details two past love affairs of Vivienne Michel's (the main character) life. Twice she is burned by men, and she eventually decides to go to America to start a new life. There she finds employment at a cheap motel where she works as a desk clerk. This first part of the novel is probably the best part, it is a very interesting in-depth character study. Although Fleming's efforts to understand female psychology are to be commended, it just doesn't work well in a Secret Service story.
The second part of the story is definitely the worst. It introduces the "vilians", actually small-time thugs. They characters may seem scary to Vivienne but a Bond reader expects more. Some readers appreciate the change from the usual super-villain, and this is welcome, but the thugs could have been much better drawn out to be made into more menacing characters.
In the final third of the story, Bond arrives. It seems almost pointless to include him in the story at all. BOnd has no character in this novel, he is simply a "night in shining armour". He is as two-dimensional as cardboard. All the fleshing out of his character throughout the books since CASINO ROYALE seems to dissappear here, as if it never happened. Althoug this part of the book is the most thrilling, it does not measure up to Vivienne's flashbacks. Some readers criticize the gunfight at the novel's end as "just the usual, nothing special", etc. This is not true. The battle is cleverly thought out. For the first time since perhaps the fight against The Robber in Mr. Big's warehouse in LIVE AND LET DIE, Bond must plan his strategy carefully. Certain routes are covered by enemy gunfire, and Horror and Sluggsy's efficient tactics even get the reader thinking, "How is James going to get out of this one?" It simulates an actually battlefield experience. The scene with Sluggsy attempting to assassinate Bond and Vivienne at the end is quite horrifying as well.
I won't lie: I couldn't put this book down. It's pretty good. But not as a James Bond story. His inclusion seems unnecessary, and contrived. It takes away from what could have been a genuinly great suspense tale about a girl trying to survive on her own against two vicious thugs. As it stands, it's just an action/romance tale on a very small scale.

Having recently read Andrew Lycett's excellent biography of 007 creator Ian Fleming, I found rereading "The Spy Who Loved Me," his tenth James Bond novel, a very unconventional story.

James Bond doesn't appear until page 100. The novel is told from the perspective of Vivienne Michel, a Canadian woman traveling across the USA after two devastating relationships. "Viv" is an strong, sympathetic character--considering that her creator was generally the type of cad who broke her heart! She remembers her deflowering (Fleming had lost his virginity the same way) and her career before fleeing to America (like Fleming, she worked for a newspaper).

But she's a tough, resilient woman, just the type of female who would appeal to a secret agent like 007. Drawn into an insurance scam at a remote New England motel and menaced by two repellent thugs, Viv is threatened with rape and murder until a mysterious Englishman gets a flat tire on a nearby road.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" was an interesting experiment in Fleming's writing that didn't pay off for him. He discouraged any reprints and considered destroying all unsold copies. Who knows what other directions and what risks Fleming might have made if "Spy" had succeeded. In fact, when the producers of the Bond films were looking for their next entry in the series, the Fleming estate allowed them to use only the title of this one.

Reading the novel now in 2007, it appealed to me because Viv's painful past relationships and her determination not to be bitter reflect many women I know now--or wish I knew.

It was also fascinating that the unfeeling men in her past resembled the author more than the main characters. Viv was the strong, beautiful woman he wished he had. And James Bond, as usual, was the dashing super stud he wished he was. Just like the rest of us.

This novel, told from a young woman's point of view, was an attempt to do something different with Bond. Surprisingly, it is most successful when Bond is not around, and when the heroine is simply telling us the story of her life, and her travels, and her unsuccessful love affairs. Once the bad guys show up, and the "real adventure" starts, it starts to seem corny. Once Bond shows up (more than half way in) it also begins to seem strangely incongruous. Nor can it be called a spy story -- it just becomes a damsel-in-distress tale that happens to feature Bond as the Knight.

In the end, Fleming tries to add a serious edge through the fatherly warnings of the Sheriff. But this is not convincing enough, and not adequately supported by the story, to have real bite. Bond is just too NICE. The only cruel or wrong thing he does is to love a girl he meant to leave -- which is cruel enough, I guess, except that our heroine seems oddly satisfied with this outcome.

Still, Fleming's careful attention to environment, atmosphere and detail make this more rewarding than it might have been.

This is a really unusual, but most enjoyable James
Bond book. As is often the case of the Bond novels
made into movies released in the 1970's, this novel
and the 1977 film have absolutely nothing in common
other than the title. But in this case even the main
character is different. Bond does not even appear
until the final third of the book.

The story is told in first person by a woman who
ultimately crosses Bond's path. "The Spy" is Bond and
"Me" is Fleming's main character, Vivienne Michel.
She is an attractive, single, 23-year old woman who
has been shafted by two lovers as the story begins.
The very idea of a 54-year old man writing a story
from the point of view of a woman more than 30 years
his junior is interesting. However, when the older
man is Fleming and known for creating characters with
names like Pussy Galore, it is not only interesting
but amusing!

The narrator, Vivienne, uses flashback to describe the
events of her life as the novel opens. As a naive
young girl she was burned by one lover and in spite of
that experience, she allows herself to be burned
again. At the completion of her trip down memory
lane, she suddenly finds herself in the clutches of
two thugs. She has no idea what they are up to except
that they want to harm her. It is, of course, Bond
who becomes her knight in shining armor and rescues
her in spite of his admitted carelessness.

There is a story within the story here as well. Bond
describes his most recent assignment, thwarting a
SPECTRE plot involving the attempted assassination of
a Soviet defector. It is a shame that this vignette
has never been the subject of a movie. The potential
for a good action flick is there.

Although much of the book reads more like a romance
novel than a spy thriller, it is never slow. The
action is good and there are some fine
characterizations as well. Fleming uses Vivienne to
make a statement about men (himself?) and their
treatment of women. Bond is compared to the bad guys
on multiple occasions. He is cut from the same cloth
as the bad guys, but without the evil. Recommended to
anyone who has seen the same old Bond formula many
times. You may find this a pleasant surprise.

This may have been Fleming or his publisher's idea to sell more books to a female audience. If you are looking for the real Bond he is not here. This is the most sexually graphic of the Bond novels but from the female point of view. It is claimed that the first romance novel was written in 1972 but The Spy Who Loved Me preceeded it by 10 years. Instead of riding in on a white horse to save the damsel in distress he appears in a T Bird with a flat tire at a cheap motel in upstate NY. Did Fleming really write this?

Ian Fleming wrote this novel in a deliberate attempt to do something different with James Bond. There are no super villains or world-threatening conspiracies; and Bond himself does not appear until two-thirds of the way through the book. Told in the first person by the female lead, it's readable enough but seems rather pedestrian compared to the usual Bond super-saga.

Fleming himself was not at all pleased with this book and in fact refused to sell the paperback rights to it; the paper edition didn't appear until after his death. When he sold the film rights, he specifically stipulated that Eon Productions would not attempt to film this, but create another story with the same title.

As the Bond films progressed, they had less and less to do with Fleming's plots anyway; by the time Eon got around to The Spy Who Loved Me they would undoubtedly have wanted something more spectacular in any case. Still, it's interesting that the author so disliked the results of his work.

For true-blue fans of Bond, this is a passable read; but there's nothing here that develops the character of Bond in any way. We learn nothing new about him. So if you decide to skip this and proceed directly to the vastly superior "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", you won't miss much.

The Spy Who Loved Me is the 11th of thirteen James Bond novels Ian Fleming wrote before he died in 1965. It is only the second I have read. I am amazed at how little the book resembles the movie.

Fleming tells it from the point of view of the woman in the story. She is Vivienne Michel a 23 year old Québécois Canadian who, to get over two failed attempts at romance, has started out on an adventure to go to Florida on her Vespa. She only gets to Lake George, New York when she is offered a job at the motel she is staying at for the last 2 weeks it is open by the strange couple who manage it. They leave her to close up the last day and say the owner will come the next day to pay her and lock up for the winter. After they leave a fierce thunderstorm sets the mood for this young girl alone in a motel on a dirt road miles from the main road. She takes a couple of chapters to reminisce her sad lost loves in which we learn that she has trouble descriminating between love and physical desire, a trait the men she has met have taken advantage of.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door and two thugs who say they were sent by the owner to do inventory start threatening her. She is pretty scrappy but ineffectual in her attempts to hold them off. Things are just about to get really nasty when there is another knock at the door. Who should be looking for a room at such a time in such a storm and at such an out of the way location? Why, it's James Bond.

Her description of Bond is: "He was about six feet tall, slim and fit-looking. The eyes in the lean, slightly tanned face were a very clear gray-blue and as they observed the men they were cold and watchful. The narrowed watchful eyes gave his good looks the dangerous, almost cruel quality that had frightened me when I first set eyes on him, but now that I knew how he could smile, I thought his face only exciting, in a way that no man's face had ever excited me before."

This is probably the only time Ian Fleming tried to write from the female point of view. He appears to believe women are masochistic in their love for Bond. The author tries to soften the image by having her say Bond's "almost" cruel looks excited her. Later on she says: "All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that had made his act of love so piercingly wonderful." Again Fleming attempts to soften her language by saying "semi"-rape and "sweet" brutality. Yet it is his cruelty, brutality and rape that turns her on.

To find out what the two thugs were sent to do and how Bond saves and beds the heroine read The Spy Who Loved Me. Only don't expect to find SPECTRE, SMURCH, "Q" or other Bondian characteristics that the movies have caricaturized him with because you will be disappointed. As a early 1960's thriller this will please, but a 007 blockbuster it is not.

The Spy Who Loved Me is the 11th of thirteen James Bond novels Ian Fleming wrote before he died in 1965. It is only the second I have read. I am amazed at how little the book resembles the movie.

Fleming tells it from the point of view of the woman in the story. She is Vivienne Michel a 23 year old Québécois Canadian who, to get over two failed attempts at romance, has started out on an adventure to go to Florida on her Vespa. She only gets to Lake George, New York when she is offered a job at the motel she is staying at for the last 2 weeks it is open by the strange couple who manage it. They leave her to close up the last day and say the owner will come the next day to pay her and lock up for the winter. After they leave a fierce thunderstorm sets the mood for this young girl alone in a motel on a dirt road miles from the main road. She takes a couple of chapters to reminisce her sad lost loves in which we learn that she has trouble descriminating between love and physical desire, a trait the men she has met have taken advantage of.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door and two thugs who say they were sent by the owner to do inventory start threatening her. She is pretty scrappy but ineffectual in her attempts to hold them off. Things are just about to get really nasty when there is another knock at the door. Who should be looking for a room at such a time in such a storm and at such an out of the way location? Why, it's James Bond.

Her description of Bond is: "He was about six feet tall, slim and fit-looking. The eyes in the lean, slightly tanned face were a very clear gray-blue and as they observed the men they were cold and watchful. The narrowed watchful eyes gave his good looks the dangerous, almost cruel quality that had frightened me when I first set eyes on him, but now that I knew how he could smile, I thought his face only exciting, in a way that no man's face had ever excited me before."

This is probably the only time Ian Fleming tried to write from the female point of view. He appears to believe women are masochistic in their love for Bond. The author tries to soften the image by having her say Bond's "almost" cruel looks excited her. Later on she says: "All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that had made his act of love so piercingly wonderful." Again Fleming attempts to soften her language by saying "semi"-rape and "sweet" brutality. Yet it is his cruelty, brutality and rape that turns her on.

To find out what the two thugs were sent to do and how Bond saves and beds the heroine read The Spy Who Loved Me. Only don't expect to find SPECTRE, SMURCH, "Q" or other Bondian characteristics that the movies have caricaturized him with because you will be disappointed. As a early 1960's thriller this will please, but a 007 blockbuster it is not.

If I were to consider this book strictly in 007 terms, I would rate it 6 out of 10. But on its own merits this novel is quite exciting, vivid and good. All characters are humanly interesting, from the mod independent heroine to her two ex lovers, the couple of Motel keepers and the pair of assassins, Slugsy and Horror. Bond appears only in the last third of the book, with his only presence knocking a bang in the story. The novel seems a diary of everyone's life in places, with danger appearing almost naturally on the scene. The remembrances of the first chapters are excellent (with the seduction at the cinema among the better moments). And, no matter what people are induced to think by those who didn't actually read this book, 007 is in top form here, in a suspenseful battle where he stands as a true dangerous man. It's only in the series perspective that this plot seems weak, with two cheap gangsters looking small beside a man who just recently saved the world from A-bombing (in "Thunderball"). In fact, the small story Bond tells Vivienne Michel in the kitchen (involving some SPECTRE agents in Canada) is top 007 adventure. Obviously, the film keeps no resemblance with this novel. Perhaps Fleming, who didn't liked the final result of his book, would agree with the screen treatment, but I prefer the novel anyway 'cause it's pure thrill.

I'd never read a James Bond novel before, but I washousesitting one weekend and this was one of the only books in thehouse. I must say that it was very odd--not at all what I expected. I understand that the Bond films have very little to do with Ian Fleming's novels--mostly borrowing the titles and nothing more. But I wasn't prepared for how completely different this was. As some of the reviewers here point out, it's told from the point of view of a woman, and Bond only shows up in the last third of the novel. That's true, but what they don't say is that in both plot and tone it's really not an adventure novel. It has much more in common with the romance genre. Though there is some action at the end, the story is really about the heroine's coming of age, her growing wisdom about men, and her sexual awakening and growing sense of independence--as I said, the stuff of a traditional romance novel.

The action in the last third of the novel is neither convincing nor very exciting. Even Bond isn't really a very distinct character. He's sort of the tall, dark, handsome stranger who makes the heroine a woman--in fact, he's pretty interchangable with the hero of any romance novel. Since I'm not really a reader of romance novels, it may be unfair of me to give this novel only two stars. If you like that sort of thing, maybe this is a good read. But while the prose style is quite readable, I didn't think the book added up to much, and I certainly don't think it will satisfy anyone who expects a spy novel.