Casino Royale (and a bit of Live and Let Die)
Casino Royale by Ian Flemming
Narrated by Dan Stevens
Duration - only 5 hours
Bond. James Bond. I do believe I've seen every Bond film but I've never read any of the books so I thought it might be good to start at the beginning. I'm glad I did too (more on that later).
James Bond is a Double O agent for the British Secret Service. He explains that to be given the illustrious status, he has to have two confirmed kills in cold blood. Casino Royal brings him to a casino in Northern France to bankrupt Le Chiffre aka The Cipher aka The Number. Le Chiffre is an agent of the villainous Soviet Union so bankrupting him would be a humiliation for the government.
Casino Royale is a quick jaunt at only five hours long.
It was written in 1953 and it definitely shows it age, particularly in how it treats women. Vesper Lynd is Bond's Number 2 on this mission much to his initial dismay. "She has black hair, blue eyes, and splendid ... er . . . protuberances. Back and front," says Mathis of the French Gov't. Maybe's it's just the male characters saying those types of things so it's a reflection on how they are sexist, but I'm not so sure. I think the way it's so persistent and casual that it's deeper ingrained in the story, especially when she is demonstrated to be absolutely competent. I suppose it was a different time but, yeesh.
As a quick note, after listening to this one, because it was so short I thought I might move on to the next in the series, Live and Let Die. I got about an hour through before I turned it off. It was the line, "It was a smart, decisive bit of driving, but what startled Bond was that it had been a negress at the wheel, a fine-looking negress in a black chauffeur's uniform..." And I think we're done with that one.
I couldn't help but compare it to the 2006 movie of the same name starring Daniel Craig. I remember the promos for that movie were saying that "this new James Bond makes mistakes, he's not like the invincible Sean Connery." It's funny because James Bond in Casino Royale messes up a fair amount. He narrowly avoids death twice really because of luck. He lets someone get kidnapped. The game he plays is largely based on luck (unlike the movie which has more skill involved). He's a lot more of an every man than I expected.
The version of the audiobook that I listened to had an afterward with the narrator. He described the book really nicely in that it's split into 3 parts: an exciting casino scene, a torture scene, and a love scene. Each part had a distinct tone and it was fun to listen to. So aside from some of the more antiquated parts of the book, Casino Royale was fun.
I wonder about the racism and sexism and where my lines are. Why was it the case that Bond's consistent attitude towards Vesper didn't bother me as much as the consistent racism? Is it because the racism was worse? Am I more conditioned to look for it? Should I have turned off Casino Royale once Vesper was discussed like that? I'll think about this more and I'm sure it'll come up again. What do you think?
Thanks for reading!
Narrated by Dan Stevens
Duration - only 5 hours
Bond. James Bond. I do believe I've seen every Bond film but I've never read any of the books so I thought it might be good to start at the beginning. I'm glad I did too (more on that later).
James Bond is a Double O agent for the British Secret Service. He explains that to be given the illustrious status, he has to have two confirmed kills in cold blood. Casino Royal brings him to a casino in Northern France to bankrupt Le Chiffre aka The Cipher aka The Number. Le Chiffre is an agent of the villainous Soviet Union so bankrupting him would be a humiliation for the government.
Casino Royale is a quick jaunt at only five hours long.
It was written in 1953 and it definitely shows it age, particularly in how it treats women. Vesper Lynd is Bond's Number 2 on this mission much to his initial dismay. "She has black hair, blue eyes, and splendid ... er . . . protuberances. Back and front," says Mathis of the French Gov't. Maybe's it's just the male characters saying those types of things so it's a reflection on how they are sexist, but I'm not so sure. I think the way it's so persistent and casual that it's deeper ingrained in the story, especially when she is demonstrated to be absolutely competent. I suppose it was a different time but, yeesh.
As a quick note, after listening to this one, because it was so short I thought I might move on to the next in the series, Live and Let Die. I got about an hour through before I turned it off. It was the line, "It was a smart, decisive bit of driving, but what startled Bond was that it had been a negress at the wheel, a fine-looking negress in a black chauffeur's uniform..." And I think we're done with that one.
I couldn't help but compare it to the 2006 movie of the same name starring Daniel Craig. I remember the promos for that movie were saying that "this new James Bond makes mistakes, he's not like the invincible Sean Connery." It's funny because James Bond in Casino Royale messes up a fair amount. He narrowly avoids death twice really because of luck. He lets someone get kidnapped. The game he plays is largely based on luck (unlike the movie which has more skill involved). He's a lot more of an every man than I expected.
The version of the audiobook that I listened to had an afterward with the narrator. He described the book really nicely in that it's split into 3 parts: an exciting casino scene, a torture scene, and a love scene. Each part had a distinct tone and it was fun to listen to. So aside from some of the more antiquated parts of the book, Casino Royale was fun.
I wonder about the racism and sexism and where my lines are. Why was it the case that Bond's consistent attitude towards Vesper didn't bother me as much as the consistent racism? Is it because the racism was worse? Am I more conditioned to look for it? Should I have turned off Casino Royale once Vesper was discussed like that? I'll think about this more and I'm sure it'll come up again. What do you think?
Thanks for reading!
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