Rereading 007 - From Russia With Love
This was famously one of JFK's top ten novels but it's not even in my top five of the Bond books. Yes, it recovers a bit from the sprawling mess that was Diamonds Are Forever, but it's terribly slow.
We're over a third of the way in before we really get started on the plot. The Russians want to embarrass a foreign spy service. We're introduced to their top killer, which is reasonably entertaining - 'Red' Grant makes an intriguing and terrifying villain and it's a pity more isn't made of him - but the meeting between the Russian ministry heads is an illustration of the fact that just because an author is well-informed, it doesn't make what they have to say any more interesting. I'm guessing Fleming knew a bit about the workings of the Russian state, but I'm also guessing he knew very little about diamonds or heraldry before he started writing about them, and his stuff on them is far more interesting.
The main reason for the Russian meeting seems to be so they can praise the British secret service and remark on how good-looking Bond is. The latter is something we can all agree on, so thankfully we can move on to a tense scene in which a champion Russian chess-player is revealed to be a SMERSH planner and we are introduced to the grotesque Rosa Klebb and the beautiful and innocent Tatiana Romanova. And finally, we head to London.
It comes as a huge relief to move to Bond's POV because he brings humour, intelligent curiosity and emotional maturity to his reflections on his own life and the world around him. None of this is what you'd expect either from the character Fleming described as a cardboard booby or from the worldwide cultural phenomenon of James Bond created by the film series, but from reading the books in order, I'm coming increasingly to appreciate what a thoughtful, funny and intelligent character he is. (No doubt a lot of his thought processes are really his creator's, but reading Fleming's letters - I highly recommend The Man With The Golden Typewriter -
, he also comes across as interesting company.) I wonder whether the original book versions of Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne are as interesting. The only fictional spy I can think of offhand who compares is the hauntingly anxious protagonist of Ambler's Epitaph For A Spy
.
Anyway, so I we get Bond having breakfast and being uncharacteristically inattentive when his housekeeper tells him about the strange electrician's union man hanging around. The reason for his distraction is that Tiffany Case has left him for another man, even though he was contemplating marrying her. Again, this is a far cry from the typical view of Bond - he has had terrible luck with women in the first few adventures. Vesper was a double agent and killed herself. Gala Brand was engaged to someone else. Now Tiffany has ditched him. I wish he had chosen Solitaire, although perhaps she wouldn't have taken to cold, foggy London life.
Off to the office, where Bond learns about a crazy new mission - a beautiful Russian cipher clerk has fallen in love with him and wants to come over to Britain, bringing the new cipher machine. Cue lots more conversation with M about how good-looking Bond is and he is off to Istanbul to meet her.
FRWL shows the merit for Bond novels of picking one exotic location and sticking to it. In the 1950s, Istanbul is more than enough to satisfy the armchair traveller's needs and there's a long section set here. Admittedly I skipped most of the stuff about Darko Kerim - Fleming's fondness for hearty men with a big appetite for life is all very well but they are invariably horribly sexist. There are two of them here, Kerim and the Russian Vavra and I felt no need to refresh my memory about their tiresome attitudes to women and their love of fights between gypsy girls. Bond comes across as positively modern, showing unease about the gypsy fight and ultimately asking for it to be called off. Vavra says Bond's heart is too soft for him to be a true fighter, which is an endearing notion, although Bond disproves it immediately with his efficiency at the gypsy camp fight and the assassination of the Russian targeting Kerim, which seems to be only there to use an idea about a Marilyn Monroe poster.
It has to be said that the plot is ridiculous. It was absurd that M and Bond swallowed the proposal about the girl and the cipher machine, which is clearly a trap. It's even more ridiculous that Kerim, who knows the Russians and this part of the world much better than them, also swallowed it. Even when they spy on the Russians smirking approvingly at Tatiana, they don't clock what's going on.
Tatiana turns up in Bond's bed and he is gentle and funny with her, rather than brutal or self-serving. He also accepts without argument her insistence that they travel on the Orient Express, even though his previous experiences on other slow, grand methods of transport like the Phantom train and the Queen Elizabeth liner should have told him this is not going to go well. This time, it's Kerim who suffers from Bond's bad choices. And while I find Kerim annoying, his death is sad (especially for all his children) and doesn't seem entirely necessary.
Bond should be properly on his guard now but instead, he idiotically accepts a random man who turns up claiming to have been sent by M, just because he knows the code of the month. Red Grant makes a terrible 'posh British' spy and I cannot see why he could not simply have posed as a spy of Irish descent, which would have been far more convincing. But given that Bond can apparently tell he's mad just by looking at him, perhaps it still wouldn't have worked.
Anyway, Bond inexplicably decides to trust him anyway and even gives him his gun. And then wakes up in the middle of the Simplon Tunnel to discover he's meant to be assassinated as part of a weak 'spy scandal' plot. This reminds me of how unambitious a lot of the early plots were. This time, it's the Russians' turn to try and expose a capable opposite number through scandal rather than simply kill him. It seems a lot of trouble to go to for one man. Only Moonraker really got it right in my view with its terrifying atomic warhead plot - a book that's as close to perfect as any Bond novel.
Anyway, Bond's peril is immediate, if only really a problem for him and Tatiana. His reaction under fire is, as you would expect, cool, courageous and effective and he manages to get the better of Grant. (But what's the point of the book gun? Why not just carry a gun?)
Interestingly, in his conversation, Grant has specified the name, location and time of his rendezvous with his boss, the deadly Rosa Klebb. Bond is therefore able to intercept her at her hotel in Paris. The poisoned knitting needles and shoes are quite fun but it must have been disconcerting for the book's first readers that it apparently ends with Bond about to die from poisoning from one of those killer blades.
In conclusion, FRWL perhaps suffers from Fleming knowing a bit too much about Russia and letting his research show. And the Tatiana plot (and Bond/M's belief in it) feels implausibly sentimental. But it's still entertaining stuff and I find myself wistfully hoping that once Bond has recovered from Rosa Klebb's poisoning, he will find Tatiana waiting for him. He deserves a bit of happiness.
We're over a third of the way in before we really get started on the plot. The Russians want to embarrass a foreign spy service. We're introduced to their top killer, which is reasonably entertaining - 'Red' Grant makes an intriguing and terrifying villain and it's a pity more isn't made of him - but the meeting between the Russian ministry heads is an illustration of the fact that just because an author is well-informed, it doesn't make what they have to say any more interesting. I'm guessing Fleming knew a bit about the workings of the Russian state, but I'm also guessing he knew very little about diamonds or heraldry before he started writing about them, and his stuff on them is far more interesting.
The main reason for the Russian meeting seems to be so they can praise the British secret service and remark on how good-looking Bond is. The latter is something we can all agree on, so thankfully we can move on to a tense scene in which a champion Russian chess-player is revealed to be a SMERSH planner and we are introduced to the grotesque Rosa Klebb and the beautiful and innocent Tatiana Romanova. And finally, we head to London.
It comes as a huge relief to move to Bond's POV because he brings humour, intelligent curiosity and emotional maturity to his reflections on his own life and the world around him. None of this is what you'd expect either from the character Fleming described as a cardboard booby or from the worldwide cultural phenomenon of James Bond created by the film series, but from reading the books in order, I'm coming increasingly to appreciate what a thoughtful, funny and intelligent character he is. (No doubt a lot of his thought processes are really his creator's, but reading Fleming's letters - I highly recommend The Man With The Golden Typewriter -
, he also comes across as interesting company.) I wonder whether the original book versions of Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne are as interesting. The only fictional spy I can think of offhand who compares is the hauntingly anxious protagonist of Ambler's Epitaph For A Spy
.Anyway, so I we get Bond having breakfast and being uncharacteristically inattentive when his housekeeper tells him about the strange electrician's union man hanging around. The reason for his distraction is that Tiffany Case has left him for another man, even though he was contemplating marrying her. Again, this is a far cry from the typical view of Bond - he has had terrible luck with women in the first few adventures. Vesper was a double agent and killed herself. Gala Brand was engaged to someone else. Now Tiffany has ditched him. I wish he had chosen Solitaire, although perhaps she wouldn't have taken to cold, foggy London life.
Off to the office, where Bond learns about a crazy new mission - a beautiful Russian cipher clerk has fallen in love with him and wants to come over to Britain, bringing the new cipher machine. Cue lots more conversation with M about how good-looking Bond is and he is off to Istanbul to meet her.
FRWL shows the merit for Bond novels of picking one exotic location and sticking to it. In the 1950s, Istanbul is more than enough to satisfy the armchair traveller's needs and there's a long section set here. Admittedly I skipped most of the stuff about Darko Kerim - Fleming's fondness for hearty men with a big appetite for life is all very well but they are invariably horribly sexist. There are two of them here, Kerim and the Russian Vavra and I felt no need to refresh my memory about their tiresome attitudes to women and their love of fights between gypsy girls. Bond comes across as positively modern, showing unease about the gypsy fight and ultimately asking for it to be called off. Vavra says Bond's heart is too soft for him to be a true fighter, which is an endearing notion, although Bond disproves it immediately with his efficiency at the gypsy camp fight and the assassination of the Russian targeting Kerim, which seems to be only there to use an idea about a Marilyn Monroe poster.
It has to be said that the plot is ridiculous. It was absurd that M and Bond swallowed the proposal about the girl and the cipher machine, which is clearly a trap. It's even more ridiculous that Kerim, who knows the Russians and this part of the world much better than them, also swallowed it. Even when they spy on the Russians smirking approvingly at Tatiana, they don't clock what's going on.
Tatiana turns up in Bond's bed and he is gentle and funny with her, rather than brutal or self-serving. He also accepts without argument her insistence that they travel on the Orient Express, even though his previous experiences on other slow, grand methods of transport like the Phantom train and the Queen Elizabeth liner should have told him this is not going to go well. This time, it's Kerim who suffers from Bond's bad choices. And while I find Kerim annoying, his death is sad (especially for all his children) and doesn't seem entirely necessary.
Bond should be properly on his guard now but instead, he idiotically accepts a random man who turns up claiming to have been sent by M, just because he knows the code of the month. Red Grant makes a terrible 'posh British' spy and I cannot see why he could not simply have posed as a spy of Irish descent, which would have been far more convincing. But given that Bond can apparently tell he's mad just by looking at him, perhaps it still wouldn't have worked.
Anyway, Bond inexplicably decides to trust him anyway and even gives him his gun. And then wakes up in the middle of the Simplon Tunnel to discover he's meant to be assassinated as part of a weak 'spy scandal' plot. This reminds me of how unambitious a lot of the early plots were. This time, it's the Russians' turn to try and expose a capable opposite number through scandal rather than simply kill him. It seems a lot of trouble to go to for one man. Only Moonraker really got it right in my view with its terrifying atomic warhead plot - a book that's as close to perfect as any Bond novel.
Anyway, Bond's peril is immediate, if only really a problem for him and Tatiana. His reaction under fire is, as you would expect, cool, courageous and effective and he manages to get the better of Grant. (But what's the point of the book gun? Why not just carry a gun?)
Interestingly, in his conversation, Grant has specified the name, location and time of his rendezvous with his boss, the deadly Rosa Klebb. Bond is therefore able to intercept her at her hotel in Paris. The poisoned knitting needles and shoes are quite fun but it must have been disconcerting for the book's first readers that it apparently ends with Bond about to die from poisoning from one of those killer blades.
In conclusion, FRWL perhaps suffers from Fleming knowing a bit too much about Russia and letting his research show. And the Tatiana plot (and Bond/M's belief in it) feels implausibly sentimental. But it's still entertaining stuff and I find myself wistfully hoping that once Bond has recovered from Rosa Klebb's poisoning, he will find Tatiana waiting for him. He deserves a bit of happiness.
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