Goldfinger

Goldfinger - Ian Fleming

My project to read all the original Fleming Bonds continues!

Published in 1959 Goldfinger is the seventh book in the original James Bond series. Yet again (as with Live and Let Die and Dr. No) we see Bond having to sort out an American problem; plus he offends most readers along the way, for example:

* Bond bemoans “giving the votes to women”
* Bond is such a man that lesbian Pussy Galore falls for him (the “cause” of lesbianism being child abuse or woman winning the right to vote)
* Koreans are sub-humans
* Avoid all homosexuals and Mexicans, and
* People who suffer with cleft palates are generally unintelligible

There are lots more examples of sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and racist passages, these are just the highlights (or lowlights). But like I've said in previous reviews that these books should be set into context of the time in which Fleming wrote them. I tended to mentally skip over them allowing me to enjoy Goldfinger as a thrilling and enjoyable adventure.

The book is almost like three short stories which Fleming glued together. The first “Happenstance”, concerns Goldfinger cheating at cards, next we have “Coincidence”, containing the extended golf match (more of which below) and finally “Enemy Action”, the raid on Fort Knox. While there are common threads running through the whole narrative it is at times a little wordy and sprawling. Towards the end of the book the suspense starts to dip and the story struggles a little as Bond seems to be more of an observer as opposed to an instigator or driver of the action.

The novel opens with Bond musing over life, death and how he fits into the world. The literary Bond is much more philosophical than the cinema version and unlike From Russia With Love the focus of Goldfinger is on Bond himself. This allows the reader to gain insights into the self-doubts which plague Bond showing him to be a fallible human and not at all a superhero.

In Goldfinger we also see more humour than normal, especially the scene where Bond believes that he's dead and worries about how all his girlfriends are going to react when he's with them all in heaven.

Also at the start of the book, somewhat unusually, Bond shows mercy on a man who has become embroiled in a drug ring. He believes that he's a good person who got caught up with the criminal underworld. He also takes pity on Jill Masterton too as he tries to help her escape from Goldfinger and gives her $10,000 to help her start afresh. These displays of humanity are uncharacteristic and it helps to flesh Bond out as a character.

Speaking of characters, I felt that Auric Goldfinger could have could have been developed a little more. Sure he gives good villain speeches but why is he giving gold to the Russians, after all he was trying to flee from them earlier in his life? Strange? Also, apart from Bond comparing Oddjob to a variety of animals we know almost nothing about his henchmans backstory. And finally, Pussy Galore is the most underdeveloped woman in the entire novel. We scarcely get to know her at all.

There was a heck of a lot of cards in previous books, such as Casino Royale and in Goldfinger this is swapped with golf. And believe me there are a lot of pages about golf. While Fleming tries to keep it interesting it's still golf. So if you like the sport then you'll likely love this part, if you don't then make sure you drink a couple of espressos to prevent you from nodding off.

It's interesting to see how much the 1965 film of the same name mirrors the book. In fact there are a lot of similarities: the cheating at cards, the round of golf and the laser /circular saw threat, Pussy Galore and her flying lesbians, Oddjob and his lethal hat and the raid on Fort Knox. Also what I've also noticed by this point in the original series is that while Bond likes to bed ladies, he's not as prolific as he is in the movies. He typically sleeps with one or two women in the books whereas in the films it's there is no limit.

So, in summary Goldfinger is a worthy addition to the Bond series and helps to develop Bond further putting him in real danger against one of the all-time classic scoundrels.