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Comments
The last three or four chapters really floored me in a way where I am not exactly sure whether it's positive or not.
What a strange book.
Strange and weird in a good way, though, I believe. Very Gothic in nature. It's certainly one of Fleming’s most bizarre books and all the better for it in my opinion.
Yes, I remember being amused by the sex merchant part as a youngster and showing it to a friend. This was before I'd read the novel in full. You've brought back a long repressed memory there! :D
I'm glad I'm not the only one. :-) I'm sure TMWTGG could have benefited from some polishing, but I think the novel has a lot of tension to offer and especially the "standoff" between Bond and Scaramanga is a true high point.
I was certainly glued to it for those last few chapters and I am sure it will stay in my mind for quite some time. That in itself makes it a successful book in my eyes.
I'm just still overwhelmed by the amount of "wait, what?" moments at the end there.
One of the strangest to me being how in the Questioning Chamber, Bond suddenly becomes full on Connery from one paragraph to the next. There I sit, after reading 10 books with this brooding spy at their center, who doesn't really resemble the screen Bonds to a point that I don't see any of the actors in my mind's eye when reading the books and bang! Suddenly he is quipping and giving Shatterhand shit while being in the most dire of circumstances and it is full-on Sir Sean for like two chapters.l!
I still remember the shock of first reading YOLT--there are so many unprecedented events in this book, shocking developments that never happened before in any Bond story. Bond falls to pieces and turns into an alcoholic wreck at the beginning, gets shouted at by M, kills Blofeld in a full-on bloodlust, loses his memory and sex drive, gets a woman pregnant, and heads to Russia! And then you more crazy stuff like have Blofeld going insane and shacking up with Irma Bunt, the horrifying and eerie Garden of Death, Bond's obituary, the supernatural elements with the nodding Gods, etc. YOLT seems to exist in a world separate from any other Bond story.
Put me down as another fan of The Man with the Golden Gun. I love that it's different. Perhaps because it isn't so polished it really breezes along and provides a smaller scale, more localised real world plot. Things are more at the planning stage than the "ticking down to the bomb going off or the missile being fired" stage. I like that kind of change of pace.
Finished Wood's The Spy Who Loved Me, earlier. Being honest, I sort of lost momentum, for a few days, so I decided to restart the book.
I think Wood took a good stab at dropping Fleming's Bond into this TSWLM. Was Christopher Wood never given the option to write his own Bond? He did an admirable job in capturing the Fleming Bond.
I suppose it was because they wanted a more down to Earth film (quite literally after Moonraker) with For Your Eyes Only and Christopher Wood was not exactly synonymous with that type of writing in his prior two Bond films.
I suppose they wanted to return to the Bond films of old (From Russia With Love was cited as the main influence). In that regard, Richard Maibaum was a tried and tested Bond writer who could write in various styles of Bond film. Changing from Wood as the main writer signalled a complete break with what had went immediately before.
I don't think there were any good reasons to keep him. MR is a retread of TSWLM, whose screenplay likely owed more good qualities to Maibaum and the thousand other people who worked on it than Wood (even Mankiewicz did an uncredited pass!). Maibaum came back for FYEO and probably wouldn't have been happy to work with Wood.
the style of Fleming himself. Also I'm a fan of Col Sun, a great continuation
Novel.
Put me down as another tmwtgg fan, for the same reasons. If anything it takes you even more into the atmosphere of what's going on than fleming-usual. I love the setting, Bonds decisions (sitting in the back of the car) etc. The end is epic as well.
I still think that is a valid point. Or rather, I didn't find the first half of YOLT - the travelogue part - as engaging as Fleming's previous writing on destinations. With this one I got much more of a feeling of "this is a tour of the country I did and things I have seen and I will tell you my thoughts on it" and less of the lived in feeling that other books have. Which is logical, because that is exactly the way it was for Fleming (and come to think of it Bond). He visited Japan once (I think) whereas he had many more experiences in the Caribbean, the US and of course continental Europe. Accordingly, both Fleming and Bond have f.e. a favourite place to eat and an opinion on the way one should drink in Paris, whereas in Japan it's more that someone presents him with something and he either likes it or doesn't, but usually at least thinks it's strange.
It certainly pales in comparison to the wild ride that is the second half.
I agree wholeheartedly, and am amazed that the first half would have such a prominent effect on people.
Don't think I have a lot to add about it. It is a smaller book and parts of it feel a bit like re-hashes of previous story beats.
The Group is kind of a less interesting mix of SPECTRE and the consortium of crooks in Goldfinger.
The train showdown.
I might start Licence Renewed later, just to keep my momentum going.
Just finished this myself this week. Agree that it’s an improvement on the film. And interestingly, my mind’s eye picture of Bond while reading was often Sean rather than Roger.
Don’t think it’s as good as Wood’s TSWLM, but still one of the best impressions of Fleming’s Bond that I’ve read.
I don't really picture one particular Bond, but a... weird amalgamation
I'd go along with that sentiment. It's a credit to Wood that he manages to make a more sensible MR.
It is weird, isn’t it? I don’t know if it’s the fact that I recognise certain scenes from the film, or if it’s Wood’s mixture of literary and film Bond.
Reading Peter Vollmer’s Per Fine Ounce next. Not a Bond book, but vaguely connected at least.