This interesting book in the James Bond series is narrated in the first person by a young woman from Canada. The first third of the book is simply her telling about her life, loves, and woes. The next part sets up the story as she is accosted by two gangsters. Who should come on the scene by accident? Why none other than British Secret Agent James Bond. Of course Bond saves the day and beds the girl. What else could he do?

This is not the best of the Bond novels. Bond only makes an appearance in the last part of the book. Most of it was a bit tedious. The misfortunate loves of a spolied girl from Quebec isn't really what I was looking for when picking up a spy novel. It is a short book, well under 200 pages, so it was a quick read.

"All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken." --Ian Fleming, writing as the character Vivienne Michel in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.

2.5*

Written from the point of view of a woman, it actually started out pretty well done. Unfortunately, Fleming really truly does NOT understand women at all, so it got very very stupid by the end.

Whew, definitely the worst of the series so far. Pointless, boring, and deeply, irredeemably sexist.

Well, this was not Ian Fleming’s finest hour, and is probably the weakest of the original Bond novels. I get the feeling that Fleming decided to pull something out of left field, almost as an experiment. Perhaps it was a challenge from a fellow writer. Something like: “So Fleming, I dare you to write a Bond novel where Bond is a secondary character, does not appear until two-thirds into the book, and the plot has barely a shred of the international spy theme. Oh, and set the story in the Adirondacks, and tell it from the point of view of a female lead character.” If so, he took the challenge, with mostly disappointing results.

The story is mostly set at a remote motel in the Adirondacks. Young Vivienne Michel has embarked on a soul searching adventure on her little Vespa scooter, after two failed relationships. From Quebec, she finds her way to the Dreamy Pines Motel in upstate New York, where she agrees to a two-week job closing the place down for the season.

The first third of the book is a flashback to Viv’s years in Europe, finding her way and describing her failed relationships, one with a young man who tossed her aside after a summer fling, and then with a boss who dropped her like a hot potato after she became pregnant. Fleming emphasizes Viv’s sexual naivety and generally the submissive role of women, and suggests that the affairs were barely consensual. I think the point here was to illustrate Viv’s distrust of men, but it’s generally misogynistic (typical of Fleming), and more sordid than Fleming’s typical writing.

In second part, Viv is in the process of closing up the secluded motel on her own when she is accosted by two male intruders; gangster types that enjoy beating and raping women, but also have another agenda. Fleming’s characterization of these two as east coast hoodlums is hilarious, but maybe not intentionally. When it appears that Viv has reached the end of the line, enter Bond, who stumbles upon the motel after getting a flat tire. Does this feel like a James Bond adventure?
In the final third, Bond comes to her aid, shares a bed with Viv, and then is off on his way. For a while, Bond is sweaty and shirtless, battling the gangsters in the forest as Viv fantasizes over her knight in shining armor. At this point, the novel changed from cheap pulp fiction to cheap romance novel. Near the end, Fleming has the audacity to suggest that most women secretly like “semi-rape’ and direct, forceful men. I've never read any romance/fantasy novels, but is this a sentiment often portrayed in that genre? Very weird for a Bond novel. At this point I began to wonder if Fleming was aiming for a satire on both the crime noir and romance genres. Whatever the case, The Spy Who Loved Me does very little to advance James Bond as a character, except to remind Vivian, and the reader, that Bond in some ways is similar to the enemies he faces, but just on the other side of the law. The only thing that saved the book for me was the pacing. Despite its sordid clichés, I read this in about four hours, and was still interested in getting to the predictable conclusion. In case you're wondering, the movie of the same title has nothing to do with the novel, and deals with Russians and hijacked nuclear submarines, as I recall.

wanted to read casino royale, but it was out at the library, so i picked up this for my first james bond book ever. interesting partly because it is written from the perspective of a woman, and has nothing to do with international intrigue...i would imagine, although i have no frame of reference, that this is not a normal james bond book.