CommanderBond.net

Felix (09 Feb, 2002 10:19 p.m.):(edited)


Probably not, because while it acknowledges the adventures in the Fleming books, and even the Markham novel, it regards them as "fictionalized" retellings of actual events...

From You Only Live Twice Ian Fleming (1964) Chapter 21: Obit:
...The inevitable publicity, particularly in the foreign press, accorded some these adventures, made him, much agaimst his will, something of a public figure, with the inevitable result that a series of popular books came to be written around him by a personal friend and former colleague of James Bond. If the quality of these books, or their dergree of veracity, had been any higher, the author would certainly have been prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. It is a measure of disdain in which these fictions are held at the ministry that action has not yet--I emphasize the qualification--been taken against the author and publisher of these high-flown and romanticized caricatures of episodes in the career of an outstanding public servant...

Blofeld's Cat (09 Feb, 2002 01:56 a.m.):
Should it be called a "proper" novel?

It does, however, set up an interesting adventure at the end, with Bond heading out to Australia to capture Irma Bunt, who is waging biological warfare against the country.

True. However You Only Live Twice also acknowledges that the Fleming books are fictionalised.



So does that mean that we shouldn't consider YOLT a 'proper' novel?

Have wanted to read this book for years, and am now doing so thanks to the happy fact that it's finally back in print and in paperback.

With both the films and the books, we seem currently to be going through an era (about to be broken, of course, by DEVIL MAY CARE, although even then Faulks' effort will fit into the Fleming timeline rather than follow the adventures of 007 in the early 21st century) in which James Bond can for some reason be served up only in origin story form ("Read about Bond at school!", "See Bond being given his first mission by M, who grumbles that she knew it was too early to promote him!"), or, as I gather the MONEYPENNY DIARIES have it, with the explanation that Bond was real (which of course makes the events of the Fleming series fake!) and that there was a chap called Ian Fleming in the shadows who somehow manipulated the Bond puppet in print.

In which light, it would appear that what zencat calls "the least known James Bond continuation novel" has actually been extraordinarily influential. The first, or at any rate one of the first, instances of what I'd call Bond With A Twist™, JAMES BOND: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY feels remarkably fresh. Indeed, it could quite literally have been written today. I mean, everyone else who's professionally producing 007 fiction seems to be knocking out just this type of genuflecting-at-the-past stuff! And so well does the script of CASINO ROYALE and Craig's performance chime with Pearson's descriptions of a slightly unbalanced (even before Vesper), fiercely arrogant young Bond who's both attracted to the good life among the playgrounds of the rich and disgusted by its decadence, wearing his fine suits with more than a hint of disdain, that it's hard to believe that the makers of the last Eon film did not take plenty of inspiration from THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY. Craig's Bond seems in many ways more Pearson's than Fleming's.

I'm only about halfway through, but the Bond of this book comes across as a colder, darker figure than I've encountered in any of his adventures. Indeed, he's a nasty piece of work, and vanity-ridden with it (and his first kill is a shockingly Stuntman Mike affair). In parts, THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY feels like the sort of origin story that might have been penned by a Fleming with a Churchillian black dog gnawing away at him. These parts are, of course, pure delight for Fleming fans.

However, there's often the sense of Pearson trying to be a little too clever for his own (or, more importantly, for the book's) own good, the feeling of an overconcern for myth-busting (that's not bold, merely gratuitous and show-offy). Pearson both builds Bond up and tears him down. The 50-something semi-retired Bond is an unattractive character, and reading about his "faintly discoloured teeth" fair made me choke on my Benzedrine. Elsewhere, the child Bond is described in terms that would seem more appropriate to an account of the boy Gordon Brown (Pearson notes that at one point he was "immensely fat", or something). This is all very well, but.... do we need it? Or rather, do we want it? Personally, I don't.

And not that I've read that far yet, but I suspect that the bits where Fleming starts sticking his oar in as a character and Pearson begins to really mess with our heads about what was real and what wasn't.... I suspect that those sections will not necessarily be among the book's high spots.

spynovelfan has, I believe, called this the best of the continuation novels. I can see where he's coming from, chiefly because it'll give you a Closest-Thing-To-Fellming Fix™ like nothing else.... but, to me, it isn't even a novel so much as an episodic filling-in of some Flemmmmingian blanks, mixed with a DIE ANOTHER DAY-esque Bond's Greatest Hits™. Not, I suppose, that you could reasonably expect anything else from a book calling itself JAMES BOND: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY, but, still, it's undeniably missing something. Rich in anecdote and detail, it's undernourished in drama, and there's next to no narrative sweep. It's a treat for Fleming fans that'll really serve only to make 'em want to rush back to Fleming (to be fair, this is also true of many of the other continuation novels, and may well be true of DEVIL MAY CARE, excellent though I'm certain it is).

Ultimately, it's a concept, not a book. It feels as though Pearson is just dipping his toe in the water, uncertain as to whether or not it's really worth going through with, and calculating that, in the event of the sort of sneering reviews that I gather Amis received for COLONEL SUN, he can pull a few clever tricks to make it look as though it was all just a bit of a lark.

Which is a longwinded way of saying that I'd rather he'd written a "proper" Bond novel. He certainly had (has? Is he still with us?) the talent. Hopefully DEVIL MAY CARE delivers the sort of goods that THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY merely teases us with.

There's plenty to quibble with, but also much to enjoy, and this book is certainly an essential purchase for Bond fans.