Goldfinger

Despite having seen many of the films, this was my first exposure to one of Ian Fleming's Bond novels. The plot, basically, involves Bond having to stop the dastardly Auric Goldfinger from stealing all of the bullion in Fort Knox and using the money to finance anti-American spy interests. [return]The book is an amazing document of its time - in addition to the Red Menace of Communist influence over Western politics, there are also discussions of the inherent genetic cruelty of Korean people, and how lesbianism is an unfortunate but predictable outcome of allowing women to vote. In these regards it's so ludicrous you almost can't get offended (I mean, seriously, how does one come out against SUFFRAGE?!?), but I'm sure some would be prevented from enjoying the book on those grounds. Overall, though, it's a fairly interesting but straightforward spy story. Fleming's Bond is an interest character, because he shows absolutely no hesitation when required to kill, but at the same time, he feels guilty about it afterwards. That's an interesting quirk that you don't see in enough modern action heroes, and it was nice to find it in what was otherwise a constant stream of stiff-upper-lippism.