The Man From Barbarossa - An experiment too far for Bond?

SIULHOUETTE_MAN

I would like to hear MI6 HQ's members’ opinions on The Man From Barbarossa – John Gardner’s most experimental, realistic and densely plotted novel – it is also (in the UK at least, the US Putnam version being heavily edited and vastly shorter) his longest novel. In many ways The Man From Barbarossa is John Gardner’s The Spy Who Loved Me or Doubleshot – the one novel where he was allowed a free reign by Glidrose to write James Bond in his own image, free of the shackles of formula writing to enjoy the green pastures of literary freedom – his version/conception of James Bond as a modern day secret intelligence officer/operative in 1991, set against a real-world back-drop which presiently predicted the start of the Iraq War in 1991, the coup d’etat in Moscow in the Soviet Union on 19-21 August 1991 by an all-to real (and recently deceased) General Yevgeny Yuskovich hardline-Comminist type character. (Deputy to Gorbachev, Gennady Yanaev) See You Tube video here:



Gardner also stated on very many occasions that it was also his favourite novel as he really broke the mould here with making his plot so contemporaneous (late 1990-early1991) that it could have been lifted straight out of the newspapers and other media of the time. Its plot concerns show trials, Nazi war criminals, The Scales of Justice terrorist organisation cover, Soviet general hardliners, Stalinist nostalgia apologisers like General Yevgeny Yuskovich – rather like the drug baron Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill (film and Gardner novelisation) – lifted straight from the contemporary headlines – a modern target for James Bond’s deadly aim. What are our thoughts on this James Bond novel here at MI6 HQ – does Gardner present a picture of a modern secret intelligence officer (rather than the romantic spy or secret agent monikers) working in a coalition of the willing – MI6, Mossad, KGB, DGCE etc. to any great effect?

Does John Gardner do James Bond justice in this novel?

To those US fans who have only read the US Putnam version you should read the complete UK version – it really is the only true copy of the novel in existence. The Putnam version is a travesty – much shorter with many passages edited out altogether.

Your thoughts on this novel are very much appreciated, as always.

This novel is the subject matter of a future article on The Bondologist Blog – so I’d like as many replies as possible, in order to collate representative James Bond fan opinion on these issues. I’m very interested in the controversial aspects of the James Bond literary continuation at the moment, as you may have noticed of late!

BondWillReturn

I have not read this one, but after reading your information about it, I really want to!
Could you maybe tell me why the US version is cut? What is cut? Sex, gore, stuff like that, or political content?

Bentley

Fellow Agents,
an interesting question. IMHO, with TMFB, Gardner tried to write a serious spy novel that featured Bond.
Anybody that knows Gardner's work outside of Bond, knows that John was a serious heavyweight in the Deighton/Forsyth/Le Carre league who wrote books like "Secret Generations" and he probably wanted to get back to that and tried to use TMFB to do it.
It failed because Bond novels are heavily stylised and a huge part of their attraction lies in Fleming's high old tone were Bond with his sex, violence and snobbery is central to the story.
They are not good espionage novels that happen to feature a character called Bond (as is the case with Le Carre's Smiley books). They are books about Bond that happen to be great thrillers. There is a difference.
Regards,
Bentley

Dragonpol

Any further interest in this JB novel where Bond meets Reality in the wake of Skyfall etc. I think that there are some very interesting links back to Goldeneye too!

Creasy47

We already have a thread on this:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4618/the-various-influences-on-the-john-gardner-james-bond-novels/p1

Dragonpol

Creasy47 wrote:

We already have a thread on this:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4618/the-various-influences-on-the-john-gardner-james-bond-novels/p1

Again, this is a different thread question from influences on the John Gardner novels. I'm sure that you can see that?

Creasy47

Dragonpol wrote:

Creasy47 wrote:

We already have a thread on this:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4618/the-various-influences-on-the-john-gardner-james-bond-novels/p1

Again, this is a different thread question from influences on the John Gardner novels. I'm sure that you can see that?

And again, you may be right and the mods can decide that. Like I said, they may just want it singled down to one topic, but it's up to them.

Dragonpol

Creasy47 wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Creasy47 wrote:

We already have a thread on this:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4618/the-various-influences-on-the-john-gardner-james-bond-novels/p1

Again, this is a different thread question from influences on the John Gardner novels. I'm sure that you can see that?

And again, you may be right and the mods can decide that. Like I said, they may just want it singled down to one topic, but it's up to them.

Exactly, when the mods act, then I will follow their lead. Until then, I'd like to return to the topic in hand, please.

Dragonpol

I'm looking again at this novel and it'd be great if we could discuss this one more. See this interesting film on the Moscow coup of August 1991:

Dragonpol

Any further interest on this one? I find it fascinating as a sort of time-capsule Bond novel.

MajorDSmythe

Having since moved onto Death Is Forever, I have to say that I really didn't like The Man From Barbarossa. I found the book to be immensely dull. So far, in my literary Bondathon, it's my least favourite.

Dragonpol

MajorDSmythe wrote:

Having since moved onto Death Is Forever, I have to say that I really didn't like The Man From Barbarossa. I found the book to be immensely dull. So far, in my literary Bondathon, it's my least favourite.

Yes, well there are a few too many scenes in hotel rooms for sure and too much talking, briefing and debriefing in general.