they grew up from childhood with an inferiority complex. ‘Doubles… bring two more in ten minutes.’ With a slice of lemon peel.’ ‘Make it two,’ Mr Du Pont said. A cocktail to start?’ Mr Du Pont turned to Bond. Quotations from Goldfinger by Ian Fleming Bond reveals further depths of knowledge – not only what to eat for breakfast in Turkey ( From Russia with Love) or how to mix the perfect Martini ( Casino Royale) but women’s scents or a delicious-sounding set of French picnic ingredients. The account of a golf game between Goldfinger and Bond at the “Royal St Marks course” (based on the Royal St George’s course in Kent where Fleming used to play) is thrilling, even to a non-golfer.
I liked the way Goldfinger cannot remember Bond’s name, referring to him as Mr Bomb. Oddjob, Goldfinger’s Korean henchman, is a brilliant creation – so evil he even eats a cat. She said, ‘I never met a man before’ and pontificates about how votes for women (sic) have led to “a herd of unhappy sexual misfits” – see below. The sexual politics of Goldfinger sink beyond even the depths of previous volume, as Bond repeatedly addresses women as “good girl” converts a lesbian to heterosexuality: ‘They told me you only liked women’. One senses that Fleming’s editors must have pointed this out, as Bond reflects: ‘The theft of a Stratocruiser, as Goldfinger had explained it, was preposterous, but no more so than his methods of smuggling gold, his purchase of an atomic warhead.’ Dismal sexual politics and homophobia Why, for example, when (no spoilers here) Bond has driven villain Auric Goldfinger to a paroxysm of suspicion, does the latter suddenly trust him for a key task? The climax is plain silly the gangsters Goldfinger enrols to carry out his evil plan are beyond parody. The narrative is short on drive and tension and the plot makes no sense. Unfortunately, Goldfinger by Ian Fleming is my least favourite Bond book so far (I have read, this time round, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever and From Russia with Love – reviews below). The cover of my Folio Society edition of “Goldfinger” is almost parodic A pretty weak plot ‘But James Bond himself is a splendid creation and some of the novels tell a terrific yarn.’ ‘They are anachronistic, homophobic and sexist,’ I replied. ‘Are the James Bond novels any good?’ a friend asked me the other day.
“Goldfinger” by Ian Fleming is not one of the best books of all time, but is nonetheless a time capsule of 1950s homophobia which also highlights some of Bond’s positive qualities.
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