I got my hot fudge sundae yesterday, and it was great. I weighed myself after the race, and I had lost about five pounds, which is something like 2.7% of my body weight. I felt that I could justify a hot fudge sundae or two after that. My weight, sadly enough, is back to normal, and I have recovered fairly well from the intense race; I feel ready to race tomorrow.
But to books. When I went to the library booksale a couple of weeks ago, I had been thinking about thrillers and other sorts of genre fiction because of a couple of essays I had read recently and mentioned in earlier posts. Because of this, when I found two John le Carre novels and the reissue of Casino Royale, the first Bond book, I had to buy them. When I was in junior high and high school, I devoured international thrillers, and had quite the collection of Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, and Ken Follett paperbacks, so I was interested to see how well spy novels had aged for me.
I recently rented the new Casino Royale with the new Bond, Daniel Craig. Although it may be heretical to say, this was one of my favorite Bond films. The special effects were not intrusive, the plot more or less made sense, the gadgets were relatively low-profile, and the car was an Aston Martin DBS V12, the finest Bond car since the DB5 in Goldfinger. And a DB5 got to play a role in the new movie. In short, I like the movie because it reversed the excesses that made so many of the later Bond films so tiring for me to watch.
Casino Royale was Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, and there is some creakiness here and there to show that Fleming was still learning his trade. Although it updated many things, the new movie version was fairly close in plot and spirit to the novel. There is a certain sense of moral ambiguity beneath the surface that perhaps does not come through in many of the films (and I don’t know about the later books). Bond is not a very nice guy, and Fleming really does not seem to care all that much that his character is more than a little mean. The Cold War certainties that fueled so many bombastic speeches before the 1990s are not quite so certain.
John Le Carre writes a significantly darker sort of spy novel than Fleming. Whereas Fleming’s character seems ripe for flamboyant modifications (e.g. you will never, ever see anyone named “Pussy Galore” in a Le Carre novel), Le Carre’s spies are gray figures who melt into the background, and in reading The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, I kept thinking of the very, very excellent movie, The Lives of Others (awesome, incredible, go-see-it-now movie–it won a richly-deserved Oscar). Both are set in East Germany, and both feature characters who have some sort of decency buried deeply within but that rarely has a chance to come out.
Le Carre’s vision is bleak and modern, seeming to belie the relatively early publication date–1964. It had the feel of a book written later, when the Cold War had dragged on interminably and the desperate foolishness of the intelligence games had become tiresome. The plot twists and turns so many times that I was not sure if I saw the events coming or if I was caught completely by surprise. The ending, though, did shock me–a dark, dreary, bleak vision indeed.
So, how did the spy novels stand up for me? I was not as blindly entertained as I had been reading something like The Odessa Files or The Matarese Circle back in the early 1980s. The light shining through the thin characters was more obvious to me now than it was when I was 14, and the actions of the intelligence agents seemed more painful and desperate than romantic and daring. That said, however, I am looking forward to reading Smiley’s People, which I will get to later this summer. I’ll be finishing up The Ox-Bow Incident soon, and then I will regale you with my thoughts on the “recovered” Richard Bachman/Stephen King novel, Blaze. It came in the mail today, and I can hardly wait to read it. Stay tuned.
The Hobgoblin of Little Minds 
I have a weakness for the Bond films (which my mother doesn’t quite understand), but I have to agree with you: I thought Casino Royale was a breath of fresh air in the Bond legacy. I was wondering if you’d ever read “Intrigue” by Allen Hepburn–it’s a critical work on espionage novels and society/culture, quite interesting–I’m using it for a piece I’m writing on Judith Coplon, an early Cold War spy…
Growing up, I used to have a bunch of Fleming hardcovers, and I read them all well before seeing any of the movies. I remember being astonished, when I saw “Dr. No” at age sixteen, that the producers had cast Sean Connery as Bond. I had this image of him, from the books, as being kind of a nasty, ruthless person – a great spy, but not someone you’d ever want to have lunch with.
I enjoyed Casino Royale and thought Daniel Craig was very good in it – I just kept expecting it to end and then there was a bit more, and a bit more, etc. I’ve often wondered about reading one of the books. I always wanted to read that great big novel of Ken Follett’s and have yet to get around to it.
Sarah–that does sound like an interesting book. I think a lot of the spy thrillers are quite a bit more critical and complex than the stereotypical image of them. Boxofbooks–I agree with you–Bond really does seem to be a very nasty person. Somehow, that’s part of his strange appeal, I guess. Litlove–I liked Craig, too; he seemed like a real Bond to me. Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth is interesting and entertaining–not quite as smoothly written as his other works (he has trouble with the historical fiction tone, I think) but a decent read nonetheless.
I love Le Carre’s books, but do keep Smiley’s People for a sunny day, for it’s a dark and bitter tale. I look forward to reading your take on it though!
I used to love Ludlum, but lately he has been writing the same book over and over and I have grown tired of it. So I don’t pick him up much any more.
I am a big fan of the Bond books and recently introduced my husband to them, so now we have an almost complete set of the reissues. I think I would like to have lunch with James Bond – you’d know at least that the wine would be excellent and he might be charming (if in the right mood). But his absolute ruthlessness is inescapable. I thought Daniel Craig was a great Bond. I have hopes of more remakes that are closer to the books.
I’m not a thriller type person, films or books. But I have been interested in Ian Fleming’s books. Your post got me to wondering: What is the definitive spy novel and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
LK–I’m not sure what the definitive spy novel would be. I have heard some say that Le Carre’s The Spy who Came in from the Cold is the ultimate Cold War spy thriller. I’ll have to think about it more.
I guess I’ll have to start with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold when I finally read le Carre, which Bob has been urging me to do for years, if it compares to The Lives of Others, my favorite film of 2007. I haven’t actually read any Fleming, either, but I, like you, loved the movie version of Casino Royale.