First edition Glidrose Productions Ltd, 1954
Italian Version: Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005
Translation: Stefano Bortolussi
" There are moments of brilliance in the life of a secret agent. Surveys, for example, in the course of which must play the part of the millionaire, opportunities that offer the opportunity to enjoy a pleasant life, to forget the memory of the danger and the shadow of death, and times when, as the present, he is merely a guest of a Secret Service ally. "
Live and Let Die is the second book written by Ian Fleming after the success of Casino Royale . 007 is back from a tough mission that wounded him deeply in the heart and soul. His beloved Vesper committed suicide and he himself was tortured to the point that it took months ensure he recovered. His superior, M, decided to rely again on a mission. In fact, he will have to enter the United States to investigate the sinister Mr. Big, a giant black man who holds all the dirty business of the United States, in addition to being a smuggler of valuable coins, and most importantly a British spy the pay of the Soviets.
Bond accepts the assignment and went to New York where his friend Felix Leiter of the CIA takes him around Harlem looking for Mr. Big.
Taken prisoner by boss Bond to the enigmatic Solitaire, a young guy a prisoner of the criminal. After a daring escape the British agent goes to Florida by train with the girl but the henchmen Mr. Big are in hot pursuit of the fugitives, and soon Solitaire is kidnapped, and Leiter is the victim of a vicious attack, thrown into the shark.
Determined to get revenge, Bond goes to Jamaica where Mr. Big went along with Solitaire. In a small Caribbean island the criminal is going to take off with a precious cargo.
staff member of Her Majesty are only a few days to stop it ...
While not reaching the level of pace and pathos of the first James Bond adventure Live and Let Die confirms the literary talent of Fleming for the care of the plot and the grafting of elements of realism, sometimes as brutal as ever had read so far in views of gender. As in Casino Royale Bond's antagonist is a sadistic crime that Fleming describes in detail, focusing on its physical imperfections " The head was as big as a football, twice the normal, and almost perfectly round . The skin was gray-black, taut and shiny as the face of a corpse after a week's stay in the river. He was bald, except for a gray-brown fuzz above his ears. "Giant Big Man and animal terrifies her enemies with voodoo rituals that help fuel the fear in his opponents and mythologizing his figure among his men.
Solitaire, however, belongs fully to the classical fleminghiana female figure. A beautiful woman, exotic, fragile, which desperately needs the help of Bond and falls in love with him immediately, according to an easy cliché macho that the author never abandon in his novels.
The pace of the story, however, leaves little room for psychology of the characters who are called to act on the field. The atmosphere in some cases, raw, as in Florida when Felix Leiter, the CIA agent who joins Bond in America in its mission and which had already been helpful in Casino Royale, is thrown alive into the meal Sharks and was miraculously saved, though battered. Felix will be back with a hook instead of hand, the last novel dedicated to 007, The Man with the Golden Gun . Another strong
sequence is the death of Big Man, which is also torn by the barracuda. Fleming lingers on particular gruesome "Both arms stopped slapping water and head ended underwater and reemerged. A cloud blood extended obscuring sea. Two thin shadows marroni long over a meter retreated from cloud and then travel back. The body was thrown into the sea from the side. Half of the Big Man's left arm out of the water. It was no hand, wrist, watch. " As usual
Fleming also draws from his personal life to describe the events of the novel. In the cab the bed of Silver Meteor, the train that brings him to Miami along with Solitaire, Bond as Fleming does use a false name to Bryce, which is the surname of his best friend Ivar Bryce. It was with him on the Silver Meteor Fleming made the trip New York-Miami St.Petersburg which is one of the main events of the book. And then remained on the subject of the ruler of homonyms Bond, the Scottish May, but May is Maxwell, Ian Bryce's maid in New York who cooked for Fleming delicious eggs with sausage that the writer, which certainly was not in fact supply a hygienist, devoured tastefully. The plot of
Live and Let Die is smooth and well thought out, especially in the Jamaica, where Fleming can describe in detail the beautiful island that elected to take the place of residence when you buy the Goldeneye. The thrilling final with the two lovers bound and thrown overboard by Mr. Big is pure adrenaline. The extreme situation would be taken verbatim in the film For Your Eyes Only .
0 comments:
Post a Comment