Live and Let Die

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Once you get past all the racist jabs, you’re left with a pretty good book. Some unnecessary filler slows down the story, but Mr. Big as the villain, fun action sequences and Bond actually Bond-ing about makes up for it.

I don't think I've ever heard of a great negro criminal before," said Bond. "Chinamen, of course, the men behind the opium trade. There've been some big time Japs, mostly in pearls and drugs. Plenty of negroes mixed up in diamonds and gold in Africa, but always in a small way. They don't seem to take to big business. Pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought except when they're drunk too much." Wow. Forty years really makes a lot of difference in how things look. I never liked Simon Templar...I mean Roger Moore!...as Bond. From the get-go, I found him too TV for the role of the big screen's biggest baddest spy. What was charming and roguish in other performances was slippery and oleaginous in Moore's performances. But I had no memory of how revoltingly racist this film was. I shudder to say it, but I was probably blind to it because it was...ulp...the way I saw the lily-white privileged Republican world I lived in.When comparing the movies to the books, it's tough on the books (at least what I've read so far). The movies are designed to squeeze every bit of excitement they can out of the story. Here, the books are a little more leisurely when it comes to the action. Perhaps Fleming was remembering his own experiences working for and with intelligence agencies during the war. It was no doubt not half as exciting as it's portrayed in the movies. Lindner, Christoph (2009). The James Bond Phenomenon: a Critical Reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6541-5. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023 . Retrieved 26 October 2020. Another cool final line to a chapter on p191. ‘The stars winked down their cryptic morse and he had no key to their cipher.’ After our first run in with Mr. Big, which was fairly early on, we don’t get another Bond and Big interaction until the very end. He was an awesome villain and I would have loved to have seen more of him. When it comes to the finale, Bond versus Big, it wasn’t the showdown I was anticipating. All Bond really does is attach a bomb to a boat and lives long enough for it to explode. I was really hoping for a boss fight between Mr. Big and Bond, which I think would’ve been great!

It is an unashamed thriller and its only merit is that it makes no demands on the mind of the reader.

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In the movies, we all saw what happened when Bond allowed his emotions to get in the way of his mission. He becomes someone else. Not quite Bond as we know it. I genuinely find it odd that Ian Flemming's works have been accused of being racist. Or even misogynistic. He writes with the knowledge of the times, in the true soul of the times. He writes from a point in history that's very different from the present. Any perceived prejudices in his writing would stem from his use of certain phrases and terms that would be termed by some- not all- as derogatory. Upton, John (August 1987). "The James Bond Books of Ian Fleming". The Book and Magazine Collector. London: Diamond Publishing Group (41). When a few years ago I was told that my work was sending me to New Orleans, my immediate need was to find a copy of Live and Let Die, because, well, a part of the film is set there and the surrounding swamps of Louisiana - and I like a Bond story.