The Spy Who Loved Me Reassessed

There is an excellent reassessment of The Spy Who Loved Me in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/26/when-ian-fleming-tried-to-escape-james-bond#start-of-comments

Interesting to see this most despised of Fleming's novels getting a more sympathetic treatment.

Definitely a good appraisal. Thanks for that, Ambler. It always seems the one of the Bond books to be glossed over and put to the bottom of the list. It's almost as though the creator of James Bond shouldn't be allowed to create a character like that and be a good writer, but Fleming was a good writer. Short sentences that packed a punch, plots obviously written with a very visual sense of what is going on, great description and scene setting, and brilliant pace. Looking at Fleming in a purely mechanical sense, he was a bloody good writer.

That was Fleming's Reuters background: the house style was keep the sentences short and make the words matter.

One reason why sub-editors often become successful thriller writers is that they recognise less is more.

A really good review. Good find Ambler. I am starting up TSWLM right now. Havent read it in ages but I always appreciated the experiment.

I've always thought Spy is as well-written as any of Fleming's novels. The description of the storm that falls upon Dreamy Pines Motor Court is brilliant. And Sluggsy Morant is one of Fleming's greatest creations. Incidentally, somebody named their racehorse Sluggsy Morant.

I've been plotting a Mills and Boons novel for a friend and she commented how well The Spy Who Loved Me conformed to the accepted M&B template. Probably not the recommendation Fleming would have wanted. :)

For a long time I have had a fascination with the "ordinary people" who inhabit fantastic fictional universes. The construction crews who have to clean up after a Godzilla attack, the bystanders in a superhero battle, etc. I always wanted to do a movie about the trials and tribulations of an ordinary guy who when driving to work one day gets completely totalled by a sudden passing action movie chase scene.

For these reasons SPY and its unique structure have a definite appeal.

Thanks for making this available!