SPECTRE, Bond and SOLO

So, I recently finished Any Human Heart by William Boyd, and really loved it. With SPECTRE coming up (haven’t been yet but can’t wait!), I wanted to get in the mood and read some Bond books.

Any Human Heart

William Boyd’s masterful new novel tells, in a series of intimate journals, the story of Logan Mountstuart—writer, lover, art dealer, spy—as he makes his often precarious way through the twentieth century. From the Trade Paperback edition.

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Any-Human-Heart--by--William-Boyd--63024

I could have gone for Ian Fleming of course — that would be traditional. Thunderball would have been on target. That’s the book where SPECTRE first makes their appearance. And it’s always interesting to contrast Fleming’s Bond with Cinema’s Bond. Fleming famously wanted Bond to not be a classic hero figure. In The New Yorker, he was quoted thus:

”When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument … when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.”

Thunderball

“ He was one of those men one meets perhaps only two or three in a lifetime who seem almost to suck the eyes out of your head. He was their Supreme Commander almost their god’ b> PECTRE is a merciless new enemy a group of the world’s toughest criminals, headed by the brilliant Ernst Stavro Blofeld. When two NATO atom bombs go missing, Bond must unravel SPECTRE’s intricate plans and prevent a global catastrophe, in Fleming’s ninth 007 adventure.“

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Thunderball-(James-Bond)--by--Ian-Fleming--23741

Of course Judi Densch went on to call him a “blunt instrument”, but he’s hardly dull and uninteresting in the movies.

So instead, as part of my 3 month Scribd experiment (more on that in another post), I decided to go for William Boyd’s SOLO, a post-Fleming addition to the canon, which was fortunately in Scribd’s catalog. I was curious to see what a “real novelist” would do with Bond.

Solo

It’s 1969, and, having just celebrated his forty-fifth birthday, James Bond—British special agent 007—is summoned to headquarters to receive an unusual assignment. Zanzarim, a troubled West African nation, is being ravaged by a bitter civil war, and M directs Bond to quash the rebels threatening the established regime. Bond’s arrival in Africa marks the start of a feverish mission to discover the forces behind this brutal war—and he soon realizes the situation is far from straightforward. Piece by piece, Bond uncovers the real cause of the violence in Zanzarim, revealing a twisting conspiracy that extends further than he ever imagined. Moving from rebel battlefields in West Africa to the closed doors of intelligence offices in London and Washington, this novel is at once a gripping thriller, a tensely plotted story full of memorable characters and breathtaking twists, and a masterful study of power and how it is wielded—a brilliant addition to the James Bond canon.

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Solo-A-James-Bond-Novel--by--William-Boyd--63029

Echoing Skyfall (SOLO was released after Skyfall), Bond is aging (45), starting to get tired, but just as ceaselessly on the prowl for women, spies and conspiracies. He’s off to West Africa where fictional Zanzarim (a standin for Nigeria) is in the throes of a violent civil war. He’s met by his local contact, Blessing Ogilvy Grant, who for all the world seems like Skyfall’s Moneypenny, as played by Naomie Harris. Bond is undercover as a French journalist and is soon in the thick of it.

Boyd (re) captures Bond well. Relentlessly fussy about food and drink, dismissive of American coffee, a voluminous consumer of alcohol, and constantly aware of the women swirling around him. Boyd does give Bond some self-control — especially regarding the women. Reliable characters make their appearance — one armed Felix Leiter, a bit the worse for wear than he appears in Casino Royale, but still in the mix.

The plot is relatively standard Bond stuff, but Boyd’s time in Nigeria allows him to paint an accurate, if gruesome, picture of the world of African civil wars, tribe on tribe, with mercenaries from other countries in the mix (and often running the show). The villains are wonderful. I didn’t find the novel to be anywhere near as insightful as Any Human Heart, but then, it’s a Bond novel and it went down easily, like a very dry martini. And the Bond of SOLO is a bit nicer than Fleming’s Bond, who had no trouble being cruel and on the misogynistic side. Boyd’s Bond saves starving African children.

If you’ve not read Fleming, I suggest starting there — Solo is a great way to get your Bond fix if you’ve been through Fleming.