451 replies to this topic

[Iceskater101]

I would love to join too! I want to get into more of the James Bond novels and I have only read Casino Royale and I loved that one.

[Major Tallon]

The book club hasn't been active in a long time, I'm afraid, but let me encourage you to read the books and post your reactions and questions in the appropriate section of the literary forum.  I imagine that at least some of us will have responses, so it should be possible to generate some dialog. 

 

Your next book will probably be Live and Let Die, and I'll be interested to read your reactions.  You'll find that Fleming does a lot of racial stereotyping, and you're going to find that strongly offputting, if not downright offensive, and so you should.  Fleming was a product of his times, and a certain class of Englishman at the time tended to divide the world into those who were English and those who weren't.  If you read on in the books, you'll also find stereotyping of Asians (particularly notable), Russians, and Italians.  What you won't find in Live and Let Die is race-based hatred, a loathing of the people of Harlem or Jamaica based upon their race.  That may not be enough to redeem Fleming in your eyes, but perhaps you'll seem him as something different than an absolute bigot.

 

One more thing.  Live and Let Die is a violent book.  Bond was never going to be a man of peace (a phrase I'm lifting from Kingsley Amis, my favorite analyst of Fleming's writing), but the degree of violence would be toned down in many of the later books. 

 

I hope you'll keep reading and that you'll enjoy the books.  They really are wonderful thrillers.