The Spy Who Loved Me [IMPORT] (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: lobby block, lobby building, James Bond, Captain Stonor, Miss Michel (more...)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Viking Press; First Edition edition (1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0224602071
• ISBN-13: 978-0224602075
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,908,412 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 10 in The James Bond Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Somewhat Flawed Bond Novel Experiment, June 16, 2005

By	J Bond (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond Novels) (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unconventional 007 Story, March 18, 2007

By	The JuRK (Our Vast, Cultural Desert) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond Novels) (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different, but entertaining Bond book., May 31, 2004

By	Timothy W Gannon (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond Novels) (Paperback)

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.