Diamonds Are Forever

Death is forever. But so are diamonds

And so my project to read all of the original series of James Bond novels in 2015 continues! Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth book by Ian Fleming and was initially published back in 1956. In the book Bond smashes a diamond smuggling operation, the pipeline of which originates in the mines of Sierra Leone and ends in Las Vegas. Along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the criminal gang, Tiffany Case.

It was interesting to compare the plot of the book to the 1971 movie of the same name. In the novel there's no Blofield clone or Blofield in drag, no moonbuggy and no exploding oil rig. Tiffany Case is portrayed as intelligent, strong and a survivor and is probably Fleming's most fully fleshed out female character so far but in the movie she is portrayed as shallow, dumb eye candy.

Bond's character is expanded further in Diamonds Are Forever and builds on the details revealed in the previous three novels. Bond actually falls in love with Case, the first time he has done so since Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. We also get to see his sensitive side too. After learning about Tiffany's back story from Felix Leiter, Bond is surprisingly rather sensitive. He becomes protective and treats her sympathetically and delicately. Typically, he knocks women about a fair bit and is generally a misogynistic swine. He also steps in to defend an innocent woman (a manicurist) who is being verbally and physically abused: good for him!

As expected there is a degree of unacceptable language used, but thankfully nowhere near the excruciating level that was present in Live and Let Die. Jews, Italians, blacks and homosexuals are all mentioned in a very derogatory manner. Also, the villains were somewhat feeble: Jack and Serrafimo Spang were described as being the hardest of the criminal gang but are never given enough time to prove this. Perhaps it would have helped to have Bond's torture scene portrayed as unlike Casino Royale the incident is skipped. I thought that it was a shame as it was one of the best parts of Casino Royale and gave the reader an insight into how Bond thinks and acts when he was under pressure and in significant distress.

The book also describes a lot of travel in a fair amount of detail; multiple locations are visited, for example New York City, Saratoga Springs, Las Vegas, etc. and while I'm sure this was of interest to readers in the 1950s who never set foot outside of the UK it meant that there was no real geographical anchor to the story. But it is interesting to hear Fleming's observations and musings on the USA and the American way of life from a mid-fifties perspective.

Fleming's action set pieces are full of tension and excitement and are what really makes the book. The ones earlier on, for example the mud bath scene are better than the ones later on, the train chase through the desert for instance. Unfortunately, yet again we get drawn out gambling scenes explained in excruciating levels of detail. I have to confess that this tends to bore me and in Diamonds Are Forever we have the added “thrill” of not only card playing but horse racing too.

So in summary, probably the weakest of the Bond novels so far with too much exposition about the mechanics of diamond smuggling and I felt that Bond succeeded in his mission primarily by luck and violence alone. Yes, it has the usual ethnic and racial faults plus we get far too much detail on the minutia of gambling (yet again) but it's the first novel where Bond is actually nice to women. Criticisms aside it was still exciting, plus it contained enough action to keep me entertained. Like the name of the novel itself: this book is a gem albeit perhaps not the most sparking one.

I'm enjoying reading the Bond books, especially as I know the movies so well. James Bond will return!