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bruinuclafan 's review for:
Casino Royale
by Ian Fleming
Having watched the film several times, the story was familiar to me from the start. But the book has a different focus, different direction, and perhaps a different message. The film was adapted to carry themes relevant to a modern audience--terrorism, mostly--and the story as it turns out was completely re-written. M is a man in the book, and the game is baccarat, not poker.
What we have in the book is a story set in the Cold War. Le Chiffre, a Soviet agent of the fearsome organization SMERSH, was entrusted with a large sum to manage and control a French communist trade union. Le Chiffre oloses the money investing in brothels, which are outlawed shortly after he invests, and must find a way to make the money back. So he obviously goes to the casino, because that's easy money.
British intelligence (and others) catch wind of this development and send Bond to play in Le Chiffre's high-stakes baccarat game to ensure that he loses all his money--thereby ebbing the the creeping threat of communism in France. The service sends Vesper Lynd to assist Bond.
Overall, I was surprised by the quality of the writing. I enjoyed the untranslated French especially as adding to the overall mood of the book. Bond or Fleming (hard to say) have some especially problematic views toward women, which seem over-the-top and unnecessary reading the book 70-some-years later.
Nevertheless, the plot is short and moves along nicely. The end (I won't spoil it) is shocking. A good, quick read.
What we have in the book is a story set in the Cold War. Le Chiffre, a Soviet agent of the fearsome organization SMERSH, was entrusted with a large sum to manage and control a French communist trade union. Le Chiffre oloses the money investing in brothels, which are outlawed shortly after he invests, and must find a way to make the money back. So he obviously goes to the casino, because that's easy money.
British intelligence (and others) catch wind of this development and send Bond to play in Le Chiffre's high-stakes baccarat game to ensure that he loses all his money--thereby ebbing the the creeping threat of communism in France. The service sends Vesper Lynd to assist Bond.
Overall, I was surprised by the quality of the writing. I enjoyed the untranslated French especially as adding to the overall mood of the book. Bond or Fleming (hard to say) have some especially problematic views toward women, which seem over-the-top and unnecessary reading the book 70-some-years later.
Nevertheless, the plot is short and moves along nicely. The end (I won't spoil it) is shocking. A good, quick read.