Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming (1956) I sometimes engage in the worthless pastime of planning the future of the 007 franchise, but then it occurred to me that I had never read any of the Ian Fleming novels—still haven’t, but I listened to an audio book of this one—very enjoyable! Good narrator (Robert Whitfield), and I liked how it really moved along, but still spent a lot of time on seemingly unimportant (but fascinating) details—also, the characters. The move version is way different (I’m guessing most of them are), but the movie is one of my favorites of the Bonds, despite its considerable drawbacks. Also, I’m writing something (novel) and using the character name, Peter Franks—mostly to amuse myself—because I love how silly that chapter of the movie is. I was happy that the book’s very different version of that early episode is also charming, as is the character Tiffany Case—and I couldn’t help but think of Jill St. John, my first movie star crush. Right from the start, however, the book’s fascinating depiction of the James Bond character gave me a very new idea of him—and I didn’t think about Sean Connery or any of the other film Bonds. Anyway, I liked it, and I might check out more—kind of a “guilty pleasure”—but since I don’t believe in that concept, I don’t know why I said that. A lot of fun, I guess, and funny, as well. Oh, especially the character of Felix Leiter—the versions of him in the movies are many, and very different, but always pretty great—and no exception here.

9.4.25