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He's Still Bond James Bond

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By DANIEL RUTH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2008

"Devil May Care," by Sebastian Faulks (Random House, $24.95)

There are probably two ways the latest James Bond novel, "Devil May Care," should be read - either during a long plane ride, preferably to Paris, or if you are of a certain nostalgic age, hidden under a bedsheet with a flashlight in hand.

I was first introduced to Ian Fleming's 007 about 1962, when I discovered "Casino Royale" at age 13. It had everything. Beautiful women! Sex! Suave villains smoking Gauloises! An elegant hero who wore tuxedos everywhere! French inhaling! Casinos! People playing chemin de fer, whatever the heck that was!

And, oh, there was the sex. Did I mention that?

When you are a 13-year-old growing up in Akron, Ohio, where air smelled like a Goodyear polyglass tire, the James Bond novels were a travelogue into the exotica and erotica of an entirely different, untouchable world.

The Bond novels, embarrassingly tame by today's standards, were, in the early 1960s, tantalizingly scandalous.

And that is the world Sebastian Faulks - "writing as Ian Fleming" - has transported the reader to in "Devil May Care," a faithful nod to the late spy writer's spare style.

This year marks the centennial of Fleming's birth, an occasion Faulks seems to honor with numerous hommages to the Bond novels. As the story begins, Bond is still nursing a bruised body and broken heart over the murder of his wife, Tracy (from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service").

Time has taken its toll on 007 after his battles with Le Ciffre, Hugo Drax and Francisco Scaramanga, when M recalls his spy back to London after a long sabbatical from saving the world for a new assignment.

The target this time is Dr. Julius Gorner, a brilliant scientist, bent on - altogether now: world domination!! - who also possesses a strange oversized monkey's paw where his left hand should be.

Readers will recall the famous golf match between Bond and Goldfinger when our hero takes on Gorner in a high-stakes tennis match. And the tense train ride in "From Russia, With Love" gets a replay of sorts in "Devil May Care."

In short, "Devil May Care" is simply a fun, simple, uncomplicated read. John le Carre can sleep easy.

Old pal Felix Leiter lends a hand (bad joke, probably), and so does French operative Rene Mathis, along with Bond's latest femme fatale/love interest, Scarlett Papava, who does what all Bond women eventually do in these stories.

Is there a plot? Have you ever read a James Bond novel? Then you know the plot. And, oh, did I mention the sex?

Daniel Ruth is a Tribune columnist.

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