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A review by jdglasgow
On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming
4.0
Despite having possibly the most boring title of the bunch, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE is one of the better Bond books… it’s still got the requisite amount of misogyny and James Bond being a moron, because it’s Fleming, but the action set-pieces in particular are exciting.
It starts with Bond at the casino of CASINO ROYALE, absolutely plowing Tracy, a suicidal mafia heiress (but he won’t discover that she’s connected to the mafia ‘til Chapter 3!). She had asked him to treat her “like the lowest whore in creation” because of course she does, it’s Fleming. We later find out that she’s the product of rape, but her mafia father assures Bond that it’s cool because Tracy’s mom told him candidly that she guesses she kinda *wanted* to be raped, subconsciously. Given how often Fleming writes that “women actually want to be raped, you know”, I’m starting to worry this is some kind of sick confession a la Woody Allen or Louis C.K.
Bond gets taken at gunpoint to see Tracy’s dad, Marc-Ange Draco, who knows exactly who Bond is (i.e. knows he’s a secret agent) and claims he’s totally cool with Jim railing his daughter—we’re all just animals anyway! Bond takes all of this at face value because, like Kerim Bey or Enrico Columbo in “Risico”, Bond easily falls in love with terrible men if they are charming enough. Marc-Ange asks him to keep his interaction hush-hush from the guys at Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Bond readily agrees. Now, surely anybody can see that Marc-Ange is *livid* about Bond’s, er, “activities” with his daughter and… oh, I’m sorry, nope, nope, it turns out he is completely sincere and acts as Bond’s accomplice later in the book because they’re such good friends.
It starts with Bond at the casino of CASINO ROYALE, absolutely plowing Tracy, a suicidal mafia heiress (but he won’t discover that she’s connected to the mafia ‘til Chapter 3!). She had asked him to treat her “like the lowest whore in creation” because of course she does, it’s Fleming. We later find out that she’s the product of rape, but her mafia father assures Bond that it’s cool because Tracy’s mom told him candidly that she guesses she kinda *wanted* to be raped, subconsciously. Given how often Fleming writes that “women actually want to be raped, you know”, I’m starting to worry this is some kind of sick confession a la Woody Allen or Louis C.K.
Bond gets taken at gunpoint to see Tracy’s dad, Marc-Ange Draco, who knows exactly who Bond is (i.e. knows he’s a secret agent) and claims he’s totally cool with Jim railing his daughter—we’re all just animals anyway! Bond takes all of this at face value because, like Kerim Bey or Enrico Columbo in “Risico”, Bond easily falls in love with terrible men if they are charming enough. Marc-Ange asks him to keep his interaction hush-hush from the guys at Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Bond readily agrees. Now, surely anybody can see that Marc-Ange is *livid* about Bond’s, er, “activities” with his daughter and… oh, I’m sorry, nope, nope, it turns out he is completely sincere and acts as Bond’s accomplice later in the book because they’re such good friends.