Gutbrain Records

Sunday, 06 July 2008

While we were waiting for a train in Penn Station last weekend, I went into a newsstand and glanced at Devil May Care, the new James Bond novel by "Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming", whatever that's supposed to mean. The bit of the novel quoted on the back cover didn't strike me as very Fleming-like, but of course this "writing as" business is just a shameless ploy to get the name of Bond's creator on the front cover (where it is larger than the name of the actual author).

But what about the book's first sentence? I believe that all books, but especially thrillers, should have exciting and intriguing openings. The real Ian Fleming did pretty well with this.

Here's the first sentence of the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale:

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."

That's pretty good. Even better is the beginning of Goldfinger:

"James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death."

I like the call-and-response effect of "final departure lounge" and "life and death" in that sentence. Fleming could do atmosphere well, too, as the first sentence of Doctor No demonstrates:

"Punctually at six o'clock the sun set with a last yellow flash behind the Blue Mountains, a wave of violet shadow poured down Richmond Road, and the crickets and tree frogs in the fine gardens began to zing and tinkle."

Contrast this with the disappointing first sentence of Devil May Care:

"It was a wet evening in Paris."

Is that really the best Faulks could do? My guess is that he wants Devil May Care to be a screenplay more than a novel: "EXT: Wet evening in Paris".