
"The smell and sweat and smoke of a casino are nauseating at 3 in the morning." So is the very first line of the very first James Bond book, published in 1953. Seventy years later, it still holds up.
Just re-read for fourth time as part of my re-reading the entire series of Bond books written by Ian Fleming, which have played such an important part in my life. If I remember correctly, it is the first book I have ever read four times. I last read the book in 2012, reading it for the first time in nearly 40 years. I first read it at age 13 when I was making my way through the Bond books in non-sequential order. Two years later, I re-read all 13 books in order.
Casino Royale is an excellent thriller, as the reviews of the time that I looked up stated. Forget the slick gadgets, super-villains and wise cracks -- Casino Royale is a cold-war hard-edged thriller filled with men, like Bond, Felix Leiter, Mathis, Bill Tanner, M - and their creator Ian Fleming - who were hardened and shaped by their experiences in World War II.
Remarkably, the Casino Royale movie with Daniel Craig essentially is the same as the book, just updated. LeChiffe is a money-man for the bad guys (in the book, it's the Russians). He has squandered money that isn't his, and must earn it back in a card game. In the book, it is bacarrate, not Texas hold 'em. But the tension is every bit as powerful in the book, if not more so.
In the book as well as the film, Vesper Lynd remains one of the most intriguing of all the Bond women. In some ways, her impact on Bond is far greater than any other female character, perhaps even more so than Tracy, Bond's short-lived wife.
I think Ian Fleming would have approved of the Daniel Craig version of Bond in the 2006 version of Casino Royale, much more so than any of the other Bond movies since Thunderball.
Seventy years after it first made its way to bookstores, Casino Royale is still a riveting thriller. If you have not read Casino Royale, you owe it to yourself to do so.
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