A Failed Experiment?: The Man From Barbarossa (Nice job, Ross!)

A Failed Experiment?: The Man From Barbarossa

by Ross Sidor

1991 brought the release of John Gardner's tenth James Bond novel entitled The Man From Barbarossa. It was one that would prove to be the most controversial Bond novels among fans since The Spy Who Loved Me. Both are what are often referred to as an "experimental" book in that they completely break away from the established, standard Bond formula, The Man From Barbarossa, even more so than Fleming's experimental novel, to try to do something completely new. This article will explore these experimental elements of The Man From Barbarossa and how it makes for such a unique outing, not only for Gardner's tenure, but the James Bond series as a whole.

Just from the opening of this story, one senses that this will be a new change of tact. It's not every Bond novel that begins describing the horrors that Russian Jews faced at the Nazi death camps during the Second World War and the acts of an SS officer. This dark and gloomy prelude continues into the present where we witness the mysterious kidnapping of an elderly man in his New Jersey home. The following excerpt sums up the entire novel fairly well:

Nobody could possibly have foreseen that the abduction of an old man in New Jersey would be the prelude to a drama played out on the world's stage. Or that it was the first step in a plot, so ingenious and skillful that the stability of nations would rock wildly to its adroit tune. One missing old man, and the fate of the free world would be at stake.

-The Man From Barbarossa, Chapter 1

The key word in the above text is "drama". The Man From Barbarossa is a drama, not a spy thriller or an action adventure story that everyone expects from Bond, but a more realistic story focusing on character and story development and less so on action. The only real bit of action does not come until the climax, in which Bond and his allies prevent the transport of missiles. Much of the story is compromised with (a. Briefing scenes, either with M, or Boris Stepakov of the KGB, discussing the mission and the possible intents of the villains, The Scales of Justice, and what they might hope on accomplishing with their scheme of launching a mock trial for a war criminal, or (b. court scenes after Bond, with a KGB and Mossad agent, posing as a camera crew, are taken out to the Lost Horizon where the trial is taking place. It is here where elements of a legal thriller mix into the plotline.

Speaking of the story, it is important to note that it is also, aside from the John Grisham elements, much more political than most other Bond stories are. Here, the villain, General Yevgeny Yuskovich, is motivated purely by political reasons. He has no wishes to get rich but to overthrow the Russian government, using the mock trial to embarrass them, and to become head of the Soviet Empire, making Russia powerful again, as well as offering assistance to Iraq during the Gulf War to cripple the American forces, oh, and not to mention detonating a nuclear weapon over Washington D.C. . The result of these political and legal thriller elements is a complex storyline, tying in with the end of the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, and World War II. The story also incorporates realistic espionage, and in some ways can be looked as what someone like Bond would be doing in the real world. M

#1 zencat

#2 Mister Asterix

#3 Mister Asterix

#4 RossMan

#5 mccartney007

#6 MicroGlobe One

#7 RossMan