As mentioned in yesterday's post, most of the day was spent enjoying the sunshine in the garden, and in fact most of the day was spent enjoying the sunshine in the garden with a book. To be more specific, Live and let die, the second Bond outing. For some reason I think of Fleming's books as summer reads - I have a vague recollection of devouring several of them in a summer holiday as a teenager. Whilst I have been back to them a few times, I am officially 'allowed' to be reading them again on the basis that they haven't made it onto my Goodreads 'read' list yet. Of, course, given that I was reading no.2, this is apart from Casino Royale, which I read during our summer cruise last year.
So, what of Live and Let Die. As I say, Bond's second adventure, published sixty-six years ago, and in some places, showing some alarming signs of age. Maybe best not to dwell too long on Fleming's treatment of black people, and what comes across as a fairly casual and assumed racism, particularly given that the vast majority of the novel is set in America, and particularly in light of what is going on there right now.
It shows its age in so many other ways as well. The technology, the references, and plenty enough has been said elsewhere about Bond's (Fleming's) attitude to women, so no need to go into it here.
And yet, in Fleming's defence, he was a writer of his time. It's not fair to judge him based on attitudes from 2020. It's Bond. What more do you need to know? Having read it, I immediately want to start Moonraker, and get straight in to his exciting card game with Hugo Drax ...