My copy of this book quotes The Saturday Review on its cover, saying “The sparks fly in this one.” Yeah, I guess that’s one way of putting it.
This is the fourth James Bond book I’ve ever read, and until this point, I hadn’t really noticed a whole lot that would have made my parents say, “Never will you watch a James Bond movie!” Well, I sort of understand them now.
Ian Fleming opens this book by suggesting that the manuscript found its way onto his desk one day, written by a woman who knew that, due to Fleming’s close relationship with 007, he might be able to make use of it. Thus, the entire book is written first-person from the perspective of Vivian Michel, a French-Canadian who happened to cross paths with one Bond, James Bond, in the deep woods of New York State, USA.
Viv had been schooled in Europe, but after two troubling relationships had returned Quebec only to find it entrenched in a silly cultural war of snobbery. Wanting to make a new life for herself, she purchased a white Vespa and determined to drive herself southward to Florida, making petty cash as she could along the way.
She finds a job at a motel of cabins in the New York woods and promises to take responsibility of closing up shop for the winter, while the despicable caretakers take off early. She endures a wicked autumn storm and reflects on her past relationships, but soon finds herself taken hostage by a pair of hoodlums, only to be rescued by a debonair Englishman.
The tale is as engrossing as any of Fleming’s books, but it is also far too graphic in its description of Viv’s earlier sexual relationships, from her first kiss to her only abortion. It’s an R-rated book, to be honest, so for that reason I’d have to say “For Adult Eyes Only.”
I write this review, though, not to suggest this is perfectly healthy fare for Christian readers to enjoy. Far from it. Instead, I wanted to point out one line from Chapter 14, a line that floored me. In fact, I had to read it three times over just to make sure I read it correctly:
“All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken.” (128)
Now I realize that we live in the post-#MeToo era, and women are finally being heard in their cries against sexual abuse and harassment. I’m not necessarily calling an author to task today for something he wrote 60 years ago. But we also live in the post-Shades-of-Grey era. This is an era where sexuality—especially sexuality in all its various perversions—has become a near-religion, where your middle-school children know more about sex acts than many unmarried adults did in the 1950s.
So my question is this: does this line still shock readers today, on only me? Does it stand out to anyone else, or was it just another ho-hum throw-away piece of internal dialogue from some chick in a novel?
Bear in mind, there was no “Viv Michel” who thought up this line while she lay in bed with James Bond. It came from the twisted mind of a dirty old British man, a man who sat down tapped into his typewriter thoughts he figured a woman would probably think. “All women love semi-rape.”
How does that sit with you? I’m definitely NOT asking for agreement or disagreement with the claim itself, but rather far honest reflection on how such a phrase hits your conscience. I appreciate your thoughts.
©2021 E.T.
Read More from Ian Fleming:
- Casino Royale (1953)
- Moonraker (1955)
- Diamonds are Forever (1956)
- From Russia with Love (1957)
- Doctor No (1958)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
But he wasn’t a dirty old man…just an old man of his time who understood the time of which he was writing.
Certainly not today’s time, happily, but his time.
I don’t think anyone who didn’t experience the 1950s…and yes, 1960s would understand the emotional repression back then. The fabled 1960s didn’t happen until the 1970s for some…much later for many.
Sadly in some circles I believe this comment to be true. Why, do men and women do what they do? The mystery or so called thrill (imaginative). Even worse I believe the #metoo movement was fake. I wish people actually were trying to get rid of sexual exploitation. Unless we stand tall the porn industry will continue to go mainstream.
You’re of course entitled to your opinion, but characterizing Ian Fleming, one of the greatest English Thriller writers of his generation as a “dirty old British man” reveals more about your shortcomings than Fleming’s personality.
Using your knee jerk logic, perhaps you’re just ‘another up-tight religious fanatic’ who hasn’t properly matured and views everything in life through the myopic view of Christianity?
I just finished the book some two weeks ago and there’s not a single profanity, not a single four letter word in the entire book.
“Far too graphic” ?!?!?!
What church pew have you been hiding under? I’m in my 70s and had, as a boy, heard also heard that “TSWLM” was supposedly a work verging on pornographic, but ala, those accusations were as baseless then as yours is today. There’s absolutely nothing “graphic” in any sense of the word. There’s no expressions ever even used as slang for Sex or any variation of it.
None.
Zero.
So I’d ask you to, as a Christian, stop your lying.
Fleming was a product of his time, as we are of ours. While I can see the sentence being viewed as objectionable, remember that he was writing for an audience made up of perhaps 99% young males and his errand, was to give them what he felt they wanted back then. Would I have, as his editor allowed it? Probably not, but it was 1 single sentence in a book of 221 pages. So please stop getting your panties all twisted up and calm down.
The amount of sex in the book wouldn’t even fill a thimble but thanks to reviews written by reviewers like yourself, if I was a young man reading this review, all your review would have the effect of doing, is making me want to read this rather slim yawner of a novella, even more.
So thanks for making this dated novella, and slim story line, ten times more enticing than it is.
Thank you for the interaction. I wouldn’t call myself “a religious fanatic,” but I’ll gladly wear the brand you offer, that I haven’t “properly matured to view everything in life through the myopic view of Christianity.” It’s an honor to know that I haven’t “matured” downward to appreciate wanton sex with strangers, abortions, loving semi-rape, and (as you pointed out) old men who help young men fantasize about it.
I appreciate your reading this book review, which obviously comes from a Christian perspective—but if you knew that perspective going in yet still took the time to respond this way, I’d argue that bundled panties might be more your problem than mine.
Incidentally, you’re the second commenter in a day to name their age as an excuse for arguing with one of my posts, which makes me wonder if either 1) someone sent a memo to the Old Folks home that it’s time for you all to start trolling, or 2) if AI suddenly learned how to comment intelligently and you’re not a real person. Either way, thanks for the comment.