Goldeneye

God knows I know what it's like to have ~problematic favorites~, and of course if you're interested enough to write a biography of someone, you probably like that person. But this book, I felt, walked an interesting line between acknowledging Ian Fleming's grossness and kind of wanting to excuse it? Like he talks more than I expected about the racism in the Bond novels, but then kind of argues that Fleming is LESS racist against black people than he is against Asian people, because of all the time he spent in Jamaica? Okay... like... maybe? But those books are still hella racist. (Props to Parker though for including an excerpt from a contemporary review from the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner that called Live and Let Die patronizing toward Jamaicans. Yeah! It was!)

He also talks a lot about how both Fleming and Bond were concerned with Britain's fading Empire, which, yes, they were. It comes across a little like Parker has also bought into the mythos of how things were simpler in Jamaica under colonial rule? EHHH but it is a biography of Ian Fleming and not postcolonial history? But it is a little bit of both, really.

Anyway, I did enjoy reading this, especially for finding out how much stuff from Fleming's personal life was put into the Bond novels, and also for the hot goss. (In Jamaica, Ian Fleming's neighbor was Noel Coward, and he asked Noel to play Dr No in the movie, and apparently Noel telegraphed back “No... no... no... no! Love, Noel.” hahaha so good!) I also loved how much Ian's wife hated James Bond.

There's a lot of great research in here. The prose can be a little dry at times, but overall there are enough interesting stories to keep it moving along. I would really only recommend this if you are very interested in James Bond, which is like... probably what you would assume from the title.