Rereading 007 - Moonraker
If some film or TV studio decides in future to remake all the Bond stories as period pieces set in their own era, Moonraker has got to be first in the queue. It's a cracking story, all set in one beautiful English location, and left completely untouched by the Roger Moore film - it's crying out for a quality period remake.
The story opens with one of Fleming's trademark gripping card games. I prefer this to the one in Casino Royale because there's less self-conscious toughness in the writing and more self-awareness and humour. James Bond is off-duty, attending Blades gentleman's club to do his boss a favour, and in a reflective mood that makes him good company. His description of Blades is fascinating, although admittedly it looks irksomely privileged to modern eyes.
The other reason the card game at Blades beats that of Casino Royale is the quality of the villain. Hugo Drax, war survivor, millionaire and builder of the Moonraker rocket, is one of Fleming's best villains - larger than life and terrifyingly grotesque, yet at the same time courageous, intelligent and charismatic. Fleming is able to present him - and Bond to see him - as both hero and villain through most of the book, something of an achievement.
As the leader of men who pettily cheats at cards. Drax is fascinating in the opening scene, and Bond's defeat of him is professional, unshowy and admirably efficient, compared to the histrionics of Royale. Job done, Bond walks away - only to be called back in when there's a shooting at the Moonraker plant. Although Bond has started the story reflecting that he will never have to work in England, now he will.
The Sussex coastline where the Moonraker plant is based is beautifully and simply depicted. Bond arrives, ingratiates himself with his reluctant host and Drax's two sidekicks and meets Drax's secretary and undercover policewoman Gala Brand. I like Gala - she's a professional like Bond and she doesn't mess it up like Vesper. Some of the story is told from her perspective, and more convincingly than that of Solitaire in Live And Let Die - I guess Fleming found it easier to put himself in the position of a British policewoman than a French-Creole aristocrat raised in the Caribbean and given psychic powers by her nanny, then held captive by a gangster and forced to do magic for him... Gala comes across as intelligent, honest and likeable and she does a great job undercover, apart from getting caught picking Drax's pocket at a crucial moment.
Before this point, Bond does some careful and efficient detective work - this is possibly the first time we've seen him actually use his professional skills, after the gambling in Casino Royale and the reckless Commando tactics of Live And Let Die which almost got him killed several times over. Here, 007 picks filing cabinets, takes and identifies fingerprints, observes odd details and builds up hypotheses, just like Sherlock Holmes.
The only problem with his painstaking approach is that it is too slow. By the time he and Gala have decided they really do need to alert Scotland Yard and the Service that something is wrong (even nearly being killed in a cliff fall did not raise a warning flag), it is almost too late. Drax's villainy has been laid bare and I salute the cleverness both of his idea (it's rare for a Bond villain to have an evil plan that is so neat, economical and elegant) and of Fleming's misdirection. Bond was worrying about someone sabotaging the rocket when he should have been worrying about - well, enough said.
Of course, fixing things in time requires a mad dash. Everyone rushes to London, then rushes back to Sussex again - a logistical headache that could surely have been avoided. Bond and Gala are locked up in Drax's study with the usual squeamish reluctance to kill them and they escape with reasonably plausible ingenuity. It's worth it for Bond's matter-of-fact courageousness about proposing to get blown up along with the Moonraker to save the day, and Gala's ingenuity in finding an alternative.
The aftermath is one of quiet, studied calm and also of a bittersweet farewell. Bond has made plans to spend his leave with Gala, but he has made the fatal mistake of assuming her engagement ring was part of her cover, when she is in fact about to marry someone else. She's apologetic, he's bravely stiff upper-lipped. It's a refreshing riposte to all those who insist that Fleming and Bond are brutal womanisers who use and throw away women like dolls. That's twice in three books that Bond has been the one left heartbroken by a woman.
Overall, Moonraker is a taut, efficiently-told tale in which Fleming seems to restrain his more self-indulgent instincts as a writer. No huge meals, no ridiculous settings, no implausible gangsters. Perhaps he took all the spare flamboyance and poured it into his next book - the anything but taut and efficient Diamonds Are Forever.
The story opens with one of Fleming's trademark gripping card games. I prefer this to the one in Casino Royale because there's less self-conscious toughness in the writing and more self-awareness and humour. James Bond is off-duty, attending Blades gentleman's club to do his boss a favour, and in a reflective mood that makes him good company. His description of Blades is fascinating, although admittedly it looks irksomely privileged to modern eyes.
The other reason the card game at Blades beats that of Casino Royale is the quality of the villain. Hugo Drax, war survivor, millionaire and builder of the Moonraker rocket, is one of Fleming's best villains - larger than life and terrifyingly grotesque, yet at the same time courageous, intelligent and charismatic. Fleming is able to present him - and Bond to see him - as both hero and villain through most of the book, something of an achievement.
As the leader of men who pettily cheats at cards. Drax is fascinating in the opening scene, and Bond's defeat of him is professional, unshowy and admirably efficient, compared to the histrionics of Royale. Job done, Bond walks away - only to be called back in when there's a shooting at the Moonraker plant. Although Bond has started the story reflecting that he will never have to work in England, now he will.
The Sussex coastline where the Moonraker plant is based is beautifully and simply depicted. Bond arrives, ingratiates himself with his reluctant host and Drax's two sidekicks and meets Drax's secretary and undercover policewoman Gala Brand. I like Gala - she's a professional like Bond and she doesn't mess it up like Vesper. Some of the story is told from her perspective, and more convincingly than that of Solitaire in Live And Let Die - I guess Fleming found it easier to put himself in the position of a British policewoman than a French-Creole aristocrat raised in the Caribbean and given psychic powers by her nanny, then held captive by a gangster and forced to do magic for him... Gala comes across as intelligent, honest and likeable and she does a great job undercover, apart from getting caught picking Drax's pocket at a crucial moment.
Before this point, Bond does some careful and efficient detective work - this is possibly the first time we've seen him actually use his professional skills, after the gambling in Casino Royale and the reckless Commando tactics of Live And Let Die which almost got him killed several times over. Here, 007 picks filing cabinets, takes and identifies fingerprints, observes odd details and builds up hypotheses, just like Sherlock Holmes.
The only problem with his painstaking approach is that it is too slow. By the time he and Gala have decided they really do need to alert Scotland Yard and the Service that something is wrong (even nearly being killed in a cliff fall did not raise a warning flag), it is almost too late. Drax's villainy has been laid bare and I salute the cleverness both of his idea (it's rare for a Bond villain to have an evil plan that is so neat, economical and elegant) and of Fleming's misdirection. Bond was worrying about someone sabotaging the rocket when he should have been worrying about - well, enough said.
Of course, fixing things in time requires a mad dash. Everyone rushes to London, then rushes back to Sussex again - a logistical headache that could surely have been avoided. Bond and Gala are locked up in Drax's study with the usual squeamish reluctance to kill them and they escape with reasonably plausible ingenuity. It's worth it for Bond's matter-of-fact courageousness about proposing to get blown up along with the Moonraker to save the day, and Gala's ingenuity in finding an alternative.
The aftermath is one of quiet, studied calm and also of a bittersweet farewell. Bond has made plans to spend his leave with Gala, but he has made the fatal mistake of assuming her engagement ring was part of her cover, when she is in fact about to marry someone else. She's apologetic, he's bravely stiff upper-lipped. It's a refreshing riposte to all those who insist that Fleming and Bond are brutal womanisers who use and throw away women like dolls. That's twice in three books that Bond has been the one left heartbroken by a woman.
Overall, Moonraker is a taut, efficiently-told tale in which Fleming seems to restrain his more self-indulgent instincts as a writer. No huge meals, no ridiculous settings, no implausible gangsters. Perhaps he took all the spare flamboyance and poured it into his next book - the anything but taut and efficient Diamonds Are Forever.
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Susan in Perthshire
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May 14, 2018 05:53AM
Love your review! I have never read any James Bond but I am beginning to realise I may have missed out. My views have always been tainted by the films. (Not to say I don’t like a good James Bond film - just they never tempted me to try the books). An ideal opportunity to revisit Fleming’s work and hopefully discover a new writer to follow!
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Oh, I hope so, Susan! I love them. There is inevitably some violence, some sex, some gender issues and of course many of the villains are of other nationalities and are depicted in a rather cartoonish way. But in all these senses, they are very much of their time and as I've said often, I actually think Fleming was a rather sensitive and imaginative writer of female characters - I certainly prefer his efforts to those of Ambler, Greene, Le Carre etc. But the main reason for recommending him is that I think that like Chandler, he was just a very creative and talented writer and his characters and settings simply leap off the page.Of course I'm realising now that these blog-posts are terrible spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the books (which are sometimes similar to the films but not always, as in the case of Moonraker). I did put a spoiler alert at the top of the first couple of posts but then stopped. I hope I haven't ruined anything for you. Annabel xx
Annabel wrote: "Oh, I hope so, Susan! I love them. There is inevitably some violence, some sex, some gender issues and of course many of the villains are of other nationalities and are depicted in a rather cartoon..."I am impressed with the comparison to Chandler because I just love his writing! I don’t think the spoilers will ruin my enjoyment Annabelle. I am now really interested to read how he treats his female characters! Susan xx
