Not exactly sure why I'm reading the first of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, Casino Royale, but I am. For some reason the library at work features quite a number of the series and I picked this one, which I never read as a teenager, at the same time I took out the Stephen King novel that wonderfully occupied me until I finished it yesterday.
I can't say I'm gripped by Fleming's debut fiction but there is a sort of fascination in trying to figure out why a lot of other readers were fascinated by it circa 1953. The sense of sophistication is wafer thin, but I suppose it beguiled his readership in those early post-war years. Even as a younger reader I could never figure out why it was that talented writers like Kingsley Amis were fans of the series and I'm certainly no wiser now.
No comments:
Post a Comment