Casino Royale

Most of the the one and two star reviewers of this book were sadly disappointed, expecting that the glitzy movie version of Bond would be found in Fleming’s actual books. But, with the exception of Sean Connery’s Bond in the first three movies, and Daniel Craig’s back-to-basics interpretation in the first three of the current series, the movie Bond character for the most part has been nothing more than escapist fantasy. The literary Bond isn’t the superhero of the movies. He’s a flawed, cold killer in the service of his country in a dangerous time.

Written during the height of the Cold War, Fleming’s Bond novels were based on actual people and operations that Fleming had first hand knowledge of because of his highly placed role in British Naval Intelligence during WW II.

Rather than judge Casino Royale, or any of Fleming’s Bond novels, by what you’ve seen in the movies, instead first learn about the real Operation Goldeneye; the real Operation Tracer; the real Operation Ruthless; the real No. 30 Commando Unit; the real Special Operations Executive; the real 10th Light Flotilla; the real “Smyert Shpionam”; the real Dusko Popov. The tradecraft, operations, units, events, and involved individuals were the very real WW II sources that Ian Fleming used in creating Bond and the world in which he moved. In chapter four of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, John Le Carre also alludes to a small group similar to Fleming’s 00s as: “…about a dozen men, they worked solo, there to handle the hit-and-run jobs that were too risky” for Secret Intelligence Service agents stationed abroad.

Fleming’s romanticized works have a ring of authenticity recognizable to anyone familiar with or who may have participated in events that occurred during those times. Read Casino Royale; travel back to a time when French was the only international language; a time when Joseph Stalin and the Soviet NKVD represented a very real threat; a time when people feared that threat; and a time when the governments of the Free World had very real people on the payroll like Fleming’s fictional James Bond to counter that threat. Perhaps you’ll see the same things in it that caused the first three printings to sell out quickly in the U.K., and that later made it a favorite of a Harvard graduate who happened also to be President of the United States.
At the time of Casino Royale (1951), Bond is about 30 years old and has held the 00 number for about six months. He earns the U.S. equivalent of about $5,600 annually (or about $50,000 in 2016 value), and drives a supercharged 1930 Bentley coupe that can reach 100 mph on a good day.

He spends what he earns. He knows that statistically he will have at least 10, probably 20, and as many as 30 very tough assignments before the mandatory 00 retirement age of 45. Too many. He knows the odds of his surviving the coming ten years are slim to none. And that depresses him. How do I know? Ian Fleming tells us so in Chapter One of “Moonraker” (third book in the series).

That’s the Bond that Ian Fleming created. Much more interesting and gritty and real and human. That’s the Bond Sean Connery portrayed until the Hollywood idiots ran amok after Goldfinger. It’s the Bond Daniel Craig resurrected until the new crop of Hollywood fools screwed it up again with November 2015’s Spectre.

I’ll stick with the books, thank you very much!

Fleming’s writing style, while perhaps not rising to the expectations of modern pedantic poseur literary critics, is easy to read and follow. As would be expected from a successful journalist writing for educated U.K. citizens of the 1950s, his audience would have been quite comfortable with his style; his adding color by use of some French terms and phrases in a novel that, after all, takes place in France; and whom would not have needed sub-titles to understand their context. I didn’t find that aspect disruptive at all to the flow of the narrative.

If you want entertaining glitz, stick with the movies; if want something more, read the books! I’ve enjoyed them all immensely in the context of the time period in which they take place.

Bond fans may want to check out flemingsbond.com, a treasure trove of factual information upon which Fleming relied in writing the Bond novels, and “Ian Fleming’s James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies” by John Griswald.

There are two versions of this book for kindle, a 63 page version and a 189 page version. The 63 page version does not say that it is abridged. It claims to be just “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming.

The 63 page version is also a bad scan job riddled with typos.

This is a shortened, sanitized version of a classic spy novel. Don’t waste your money unless that is what you are looking for.

Possible spoilers below-
This kickstarter to the James Bond novels is written very well. From the start, Fleming creates a bond (no pun intended) between the reader and the cold, calculating spy that is James Bond. The atmosphere of the novel is indeed tense, and the expressions on the characters’ faces are easily imagined. I was particularly impressed with the Le Chiffre character, who is written in a clear and convincing way. Fleming describes his facial expressions and mannerisms in a way that you feel almost familiar with him, and it’s somewhat terrifying.
There is a torture scene that is quite difficult to read, but its aftermath is what makes the novel. Despite all his coldness, James Bond’s humanity is revealed in his romance with Vesper Lynd. You can feel his happiness at possibly having found a soul mate, his frustration when the relationship sours, and most of all, his bitterness and deep hurt when Vesper denies both of them happiness by committing suicide and revealing herself to him in a suicide note.
In the end this is an enjoyable novel, though it feels a tad rushed, and is not really a “spy novel” per se. Only about half the book contains the “meat”- the poker battle with Le Chiffre and the later confrontation that sees Bond brutally tortured. The rest is more of a love story, but still provides valuable insight into the Bond character.
The physical book is well put together, I might add. I prefer the modernized look and design to the rather suggestive covers normally used on Bond novels in the past.

This must be considered a significant book. In many ways, it does not matter if it is good or bad, as a piece of literature it is the point that marks the beginning of something that would become a pop culture phenomenon: James Bond 007.

This is a book that I first read many years ago and was one that I decided to read again, remembering just how much I loved the Bond books and, of course, to look at through more world-weary eyes.

It seemed to start a bit jerkily as though Fleming was coming to terms with his writing, but it smoothed as it went along. Ive seen various things written about the book, decrying it for vulgar sexism (it is sexist but I did not think it was as bad as some people have declared), that it goes into far too much detail about the culture of casinos and gambling (not as much as I thought it would and what there was seemed interesting) and that Bond is not the clear-cut hero his modern image shows, in fact he is a bit of a bastard. (He is).

For me the book was an excellent read, and rather than looking at it through modern eyes with modern sensibilities I tried to look at it as it was written, a contemporary piece that has, by the passage of time, become a period piece. It is a rather interesting look at another time, when the memories of war were that more immediate, where the men had been shaped by that conflict, when sexism was just part of the culture, a good decade off from really starting to change although the seeds are being sown. (Id imagine Fleming would have been against this.)

In short it is a snapshot of a time and place that has long gone, where casinos are no longer exotic places the big ones probably still are, but they have been diluted through depiction by film and TV, and by the more commercial ones that appear on streets.

The core of the story is a strong one though, something that can be attested to by the more recent movie of the same name. Cleverly the writers of that have kept the main beats and plot points in place, and updated them for a modern audience.

The novel deals with something that is in some ways simple, but as with most things, simple works best. An agent of a foreign power has squandered funds he should not have done and is trying to recoup that loss through card play. The good powers are determined to exploit this weakness and send Bond along to break Le Chiffre.

It is a rollercoaster of a ride, with the baccarat part of the novel written well enough that you can follow how the game works, and causing tension to build nicely as the cards are played. It is what happens after that steals the book though, with a damaged and somewhat cornered animal striking out, but even this does not deal with the increasing twists that just keep coming.

It is an old-world story, that catches the feel of its era. Everyone smokes heavily, there is a sense of style that is part of that bygone era.

Bond himself is not a particularly likeable character. He treats women with the sort of contempt that today would be totally unacceptable at one point basically saying that they should be in the kitchen and house. He is brutal, a shark swimming through a sea of lesser beings. It is only as the book progresses that we see him soften and almost become likeable. This could, of course, be a reaction to the torture he suffers, but all the same it is this humanising of his character that gave him the potential to become the cultural icon he has.

On a final note, there is perhaps a sense of justice, in for all his attitude towards women, that virtually all the men miss the fact that the best spy among them is not male.

Overall well worth a re-read.

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