Mr. Kingsley Amis was a novelist of great gifts, and this book is a study of the strengths and virtues of the successful writer of the James bond Corpus. Mr. Amis has a certain undercurrent of envy here, and the underlying plan of the book results in creating a portrait of Bond, as a successfully constructed "second rate person." The Aston Martin was not the "best ' car of the period, the Rolex not the "best ' watch, Bond's Beretta was not a weapon to be relied on in a pinch, and the Bond girls are definitely a bit shop worn, etc. It remains one of the most elaborate put-downs I have encountered. Fans of that sort of thing, the extended dissing, should love it! I did. I imagine John LeCarre and Len Deighton did too! ( )

I thought Amis did an excellent job providing an overview of Fleming's work, though at times he did lapse into several pages of intensely boring stuff.

Many points that were made were really good ones - especially near the end, when he began to talk about why people enjoyed the novels. I also enjoyed reading about the inconsistencies and why they hardly affect the books' popularity.

All in all, I doubt it would be very enjoyable unless you were a big Bond fan like myself. ( )