It's hard to imagine this material as the source for the fabulous film classic, by far the best Bond film ever. Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn should have won an Oscar for screenplay adaption, but alas weren't nominated. The song "Goldfinger" wasn't even nominated! The Art Direction wasn't nominated, nor was the cinematography! But back to the book: the plot is boring and unbelievable. But I must give a second star for the singularly stupendous awfulness of the sausage scene. When Bond orders a six-inch sausage (hardly sustaining)for dinner, he calmly waits to see if his lesbian date orders the same thing. And she does! Then, at the end of the book, Bond takes the gay Pussy Galore to bed. Will he turn her straight? Will we ever know? I'm reading all of these in order, this being the seventh, and I'm going to read the rest, I'm just glad I didn't read this one first.

I’m a little disappointed with this addition to the James Bond series. I liked the structure of the book, with it being in 3 sections. But I didn’t feel the same depth of character like I have with other books. Especially as any possible love interest doesn’t appear until the end. But the biggest issue for me was the racism, sexism and homophobia. I have seen these in many of the bond books and often brush it off as being down to the time it was written. But this book seemed to take it all a step too far, and it made for uncomfortable reading. I’m hoping the next book is able to step away from this again. As I would hate for this to put a dampener on a series that I’ve really enjoyed up until now.

Well like most I am also trying to go through the entire James Bond books but first obviously are the books by Ian Fleming. This was better and little bit faster paced than the earlier books but it became faster only in the second half. Ian Fleming was way too fond of Games and drinks. After covering card games in previous books and this time an entire chapter was devoted to a game of Golf. And there was a chapter devoted to another villain cheating at the cards and Bond again foiling the villain. The books might have been the product of their times but Racism, Misogynistic and other improper things can't be excused just with an excuse of "of different times" That's what whole "Me Too" movement is about. So as the usual Bond books here is Bond who is uber handsome, Uber Deadly and Lover of all find things, Smoke, Drinks, Girls, Food you name it. And Meh. And then a cartoonish villain (Goldfinger) with a over the top cartoonish henchman (Oddjob) and weirdest of names "Pussy Galore" anyone? These were just pulp fiction books which have been raised to high level only because of the successful movie franchise. This is definitely the case where in most of the cases the adage "Book was better" doesn't apply on either of the books and the movie was always tighter and better made.

So there you have it, I like these books but I also can't excuse the bad parts of the books. So you know mine and other reviews too so pick them if you want and then Keep on Reading.

People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put I just love reading and so to that end I have made it my motto to just Keep on Reading. I love to read everything except for Self Help books but even those once in a while. I read almost all the genre but YA, Fantasy, Biographies are the most. My favorite series is, of course, Harry Potter but then there are many more books that I just adore. I have bookcases filled with books which are waiting to be read so can't stay and spend more time in this review, so remember I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.

My purpose with these reviews has never been to compare the books to the films but in this instance I want to come out and say that, for the first time in my view, the movie was actually superior to the novel in a number of ways. Spoilers ahead.



In the book Bond is forced to team up with the sister of the poor, gold-painted Jill Masterton, who is cool to James' various advances and innuendoes thanks to her being of a Sapphic disposition (come on James, the golf clubs in her trunk should have offered at least a bit of a hint- even creepy Goldfinger picked up on it quicker than you!), which doesn't really add very much to the story besides yet another "damsel in distress" 007 needs to protect whilst he ogles.
Goldfinger never says, "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" one of the most famous lines from the film franchise. Furthermore, he has him splayed out on a buzz saw table, no goofy lasers in sight. What saves Bond's (and the girl's) lives isn't even a bluff like in the film but Bond actually telling Goldfinger that they'll work for him as his support team for his schemes in return for their lives. I guess GF hates paperwork so much that he actually acquiesces!



Also, in the novel Goldfinger actually wants to keep the gold from Fort Knox and is actually willing to lethally poison the water supply to the entire city around it AND detonate what I guess we'd call today a "tactical nuke" to crack the vault.


This bro would have gotten along famously with the book version of Goldfinger, tbh.

The cropdusters with knockout gas and irradiating the bullion as opposed to sneaking tons of it away to a conveniently awaiting Soviet sub was a much more clever plan, kudos to the scriptwriters.

Finally, Pussy Galore only shows up in the final chapters or so following a ludicrous American gangster summit in which she is allowed to participate as she is the head of a gang of lesbians and they need female crooks to impersonate nurses. Not making this up. More on her later.



Beyond ALL THAT, this is a step further into recognizable Bond tropes as for the first time he's issued a tricked-out car, but nothing so fancy as the Aston Martin with machine guns behind the headlights in the movie, just reinforced bumpers and compartments to hide guns and oddments.



Also I guess his blade-concealing shoes count as a gadget? though we have not seen anything like a helicopter that fits in a suitcase or a wristwatch that shoots frickin' laser beams yet.



Goldfinger is an excellent adversary but I can't help but feel that Fleming already used a lot of his same characteristics with Hugo Drax just a few books earlier in Moonraker. James sussing him out as a cheat, this time both at cards and golf, is fun but familiar and his general boorishness and "enemy within" persona coming from the Baltic to England before the second world war were thus familiar, likewise his use of "exotic" (in this case Korean, for whatever reason) henchmen to further his nefarious schemes.


Some of Goldfinger's henchmen are more talented than others, though in the book it's Oddjob's phenomenal strength, martial arts skills and iron hard hands and feet that are his greatest threat.

n  Time for the now-traditional rundown of the book's principle "problematic" elements:n

Casino Royale - Misogyny
Live and Let Die - Racial pandering
Moonraker - Paranoia re: 'Enemies within', particularly post-War Germans and the Soviets
Diamonds are Forever - Homophobia
From Russia With Love - Sexual Harrassment
Doctor No - More Racial Pandering! but this time of the "Yellow Peril" variety.
Goldfinger - Take your pick! but I'll go with Sexual Politics Fleming's using Bond as a mouthpiece for views that were, even for his time, astonishingly retrograde was something else. Blaming women getting the vote for generations of "sexually confused" people who don't confirm to rigid gender roles? Good Lord... Also, probably enough ink (digital or otherwise) has already been spilled over how problematic Bond turning avowed lesbian Pussy Galore straight via his undeniable masculine charms, so I'll confine myself to "Wow". And I won't even expound on the casual racism toward Oddjob and GFs otherwise nameless other Korean flunkies who are treated little better than slaves.


Nope, Sean, he actually wrote all that bollocks.

I still recommend this one, if only as an intellectual exercise to compare and contrast to one of the more famous classic 007 films and also the possible apex of the Secret Agent fiction genre, for good or for ill, before it became a worldwide cultural phenomenon via films and television.

n  Reading, Good Reading!n


n  GOOD AS GOLDn

n  Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.n

This quote from the novel is quite relevant, since Goldfinger, the book, is separated in three parts precisely named after the terms: “Happenstance”, “Coincidence” and “Enemy Action”, describing the interaction between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger, respectively protagonist and antagonist in the story. Also, defining how the story in general is evolving in its own development.

Goldfinger is the seventh (007) novel in the series of James Bond original books, and you won’t be mistaken how relevant this story is, in the middle of the legacy of the most famous secret agent in literatura (and movies).

I have watched A LOT of times the film of the same name, and finally I was able to read the original novel. I liked that while both format have many similitudes, both are enough different to justify the reading and giving a great experience while doing it.

The Bond movies weren’t produced in the same order of the books, so Goldfinger while was the seventh book, it was the third movie, but definitely, besides being my favorite movie of the “Connery Era”, it was a crucial one to ensure turning the movie into a saga. In the movie is re-introduced the musical theme from Dr. No becoming now “The Bond Theme”. Also, it’s presented the (now famous) Austin Martin DB5 (on the novel it’s an Austin Martin Mark III, that I guess was the latest model at the time of the publishing of the book) starting a legacy of cool cars with techno-gadgets. And finally presenting “Pussy Galore”, one of the “Bond Girls” with one of the names most remembered by the audience (for obvious reasons) but also, if “Pussy” was a memorable character on the movie due being portraited by Honor Blackman (getting previous fame on the British TV series “The Avengers), on the book she is certainly one of the most complicated and unusual kind of “Bond Girl” ever, she isn’t just “somehing shining” in the scenario, but a relevant character in the story, with an important role in the plot, but also with an unexpected interaction with James Bond making her certainly unique in the long list of female characters attached to the “Bond Girls’ List”.

n  Prohibition is the trigger of crimen

It was good to see that the character of Tilly Masterson has a longer role in the book than in the movie, and also due her relationship to Pussy Galore, becoming a more interesting character in the book.

Oddjob is the same as cool (and dangerous) henchman in the book as he is in the movie.

While both presentations of Auric Goldfinger (in book & movie) are quite similar, I was left with a sensation that Goldfinger is a little more menacing and smart in the movie version than his original presentation on the book.

It’s interesting the “introduction” of the story in the book, since until the main plot of “Operation Grand Slam” begins to kick off, the narrative is more like a noir detective one than an espionage secret agent tale.

Even while it could be called like a “braking scene” when James Bond is instructed about gold smuggling methods at the end of the first part in the book. I liked that scene since it’s a fair showing that while James Bond is formidable, it’s impossible for him to know it all about everything, so it’s a realistic touch (in the middle of this glamorous world of techno-cars and villain organizations) to see that depending of the details of certain mission, even a top agent from the 00-section of MI6 needs to learn new stuff to be better prepared on the field.

Possibly the most famous of the Bond books, featuring 2 of his most memorable villains: Oddjob and Auric Goldfinger. While Fleming is up to his old tricks of racism and sexism (and he includes short people and lesbians in his dislikes as well this time) if you can overlook the dated aspects this is another good novel.

I liked Dr. No the best so far, although I will admit it is more comicbookish than most Bond novels. This one was more sophisticated and more "adult", nearing the line but not quite passing "trashy." It's still amazing just how creative Fleming was with his characters as he created many memorable ones. He also must have been passionate about cards and golf as some of his books go so into depth on these subjects it almost gets boring, but thankfully doesn't really reach that point.

The main plot involves a man obsessed with gold attempting to rob Fort Knox, operating with the Russian smersh operation's backing. One thing leads to another and only James Bond can stop him from killing an entire city and stealing all of the gold.

If you liked the other Bond novels I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well.

Always bond was movies to me. For the first time, "listened" to the original. A gentle reminder to those hooked to movies for Bond, he is so "human" in form in the books. No fantasy filled roller-coaster as depicted in movies. Mistakes are made, and he is very much in flesh and blood in the book form. Loved it.

Having completed an assignment in Mexico, James Bond, Secret Service agent 007 (licensed to kill), is having a drink at the airport in Miami while he waits for his connecting flight when he's approached by a man he met during the infamous poker game in n  Casino Royalen, Mr Du Pont. It's soon apparent that this older, overweight, wealthy American has an ulterior motive in striking up a conversation with Bond: he wants to hire James to check out a man Mr Du Pont has been daily playing canasta with and losing large sums of money to, a Mr Goldfinger. Due to the nature of canasta, Mr Du Pont is sure Goldfinger is cheating in order to win every single time, and Bond figures much the same thing.

His investigation of Goldfinger comes to a satisfying conclusion when Bond susses out his clever swindle, and he figures that'll be the last he'll see of Goldfinger. Not so: a connection is made between large quantities of gold leaving Britain - and making the pound lose its value - and Goldfinger, and Bond is back on the case - and discovering just how much of an evil genius and gold fanatic Goldfinger really is, and the lengths he'll go to to possess gold.

I'm pretty sure this is the Bond book I read at uni for one of my favourite courses, on popular fiction, but I've never been able to remember if it was Goldfinger or The Man With the Golden Gun. The book is quite different to the movie, and it felt like the first time I'd read it, but certain scenes made me sure this is the one. I've been wanting to re-read it again so it worked out well!

I've always loved Bond. Because my parents - my dad in particular - are a big fans, I grew up watching the movies (I'm of the Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton era and they're still my two pre-Daniel Craig favourites: Moore was campy fun and Dalton was simmering sexy anger). I also remember seeing a great movie about Ian Fleming, his life up until he started writing the Bond books, forget what it was called; and I still have to read Operation Mincemeat, which Fleming was involved in (the operation to trick the Germans into believing the Allied forces were going to land somewhere other than Normandy).

The books are something else, though. They're slow and gripping at the same time, heavily detailed and include wonderful character studies. They're also a product of their time, and James Bond is inherently sexist and racist. I remember from my uni class, when the lecturer brought this up and talked about how Bond is still so popular with women, both in the books and as a fictional character, and why. His theory, which I agree with, is that Bond gives women a chance to be liberated, especially sexually but in other ways too.

In Goldfinger, there's the character of Tilly Masterton, who is the sister of Jill Masterton who worked for Goldfinger at the beginning of the book (and who Bond had a rather exciting train ride with). It takes Bond a while to realise she's a lesbian; when they first meet in Europe and he ends up giving her a ride (not knowing who she is or why she too seems to be following Goldfinger), he feels a mixture of patronising patience and sexual desire towards her. This paragraph really highlights my old lecturer's theory, as to how Bond is so attractive to women even when they are't interested in sleeping with him:

The girl sat upright and kept her eyes on the road. ... They flashed through Bourg and over the river at Pont d'Ain. Now they were in the foothills of the Jura and there were the S-bends of N84. Bond went at them as if he was competing in the Alpine Trials. After the girl had swayed against him twice she kept her hand on the handle on the dash and rode with the car as if she were his spare driver. Once, after a particularly sharp dry skid that almost took them over the side, Bond glanced at her profile. Her lips were parted and her nostrils slightly flared. The eyes were alight. She was enjoying herself. [pp.128-9]

Later, when he finally catches on that she prefers women, he assesses Tilly in this way:

Bond came to the conclusion that Tilly Masterton was one of those girls whose hormones had got mixed up. He knew the type well and thought they and their male counterparts were a direct consequence of giving votes to women and 'sex equality'. As a result of fifty years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused, not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits - barren and full of frustrations, the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied. He was sorry for them, but had no time for them. [.189]

Such opinions don't make Bond any less popular with women, though, either in the stories or as readers of the books. Bond is an exciting character, charismatic, brave, trustworthy, knowledgeable, experienced, strong and so on. He's flawed, for sure, and he doesn't always come out on top of a fight, so he's no superhero - he's more real for his embarrassing under-estimatins of people, especially women, who often use their sexuality to trap him (though he often wants to be trapped, I think: gets him closer to the heart of the matter).

Then there's Pussy Galore (what a name!), who doesn't have a huge role in the book compared to the film but who is the leader of an all-female (all-lesbian) gang: she's a beautiful, strong figure (see the cover) who speaks up in a room full of dangerous men without fear. And despite being a lesbian herself, this one Bond does conquer (she happily goes to bed with him at the end of the book: such is the power of Bond's sexual charisma).

To be fair to Bond, he also feels deep regret and sadness at the loss of women, who as we all know, are prone to die in these stories, pretty much always because of their association with Bond. With liberation comes great risk, especially if you're "just" a woman - and especially if you're a lesbian who won't listen to men like you're s'posed to, apparently. ;)

Then there's Bond's racism, which is offensive to us today but you have to keep in perspective - they were common opinions of the time and true to the character:

The encounter put Bond in good humour. For some reason Goldfinger had decided against killing them. He wanted them alive. Soon Bond would know why he wanted them alive but, so long as he did, Bond intended to stay alive on his own terms. Those terms included putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation, was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy. [p.154]

These passages were definitely eyebrow-raising, but so clearly dated that their present offensiveness was been watered-down to a "tut-tut" wry head shake: we can admire Bond today but be somewhat patronisingly affectionate of his views, which allows us to enjoy him and the stories without coming to hate him. (I wonder whether the books were still selling well during the PC - political correctness - years?)

But I haven't even talked about the story, the plot, itself yet! This is only the second Bond book I've read so far, but like Casino Royale it contains detailed explanations of activities that Bond is involved with. While I can't even picture what canasta must look like or how it's played, there is some explanation of the game and why it's so impossible to win every hand. There's an excellent explanation of why gold is so important to currency and the value of a country's money, which was enlightening and made a lot of sense to me. There's a long golf game between Bond and Goldfinger and while normally golf bores the pants off me, this was not just relevant but also very engrossing. We learn a lot more about Goldfinger and the type of man he is during the golf game, and it's the drive to understand his adversaries - knowing that getting them and what makes them tick is the key to beating them - that makes Bond and his detective work so fascinating.

In fact, I think if contemporary authors in this genre wrote with such care and detail, I would probably be more interested in reading their books. But mysteries and the like bore me because they don't develop characters or give you a sense of time or place and read too contrived. Nor do they make social or political commentary. The Bond books are pulp fiction, but they're intelligent pulp. And loads of fun.

It's been some time since I saw the film version, but essentially the last half of the book felt unfamiliar - I'm pretty sure the movie took a different direction away from Goldfinger's plot to rob Fort Knox (sounds so cliched now!); I really should watch it again. The books, though, offer so much more depth than the films, and I've very much enjoying them.

"He's the man, the man with the Midas touch..."

Goldfinger was the first time James Bond was really done well on screen. It still remains one of the best Bond films and in my opinion at least the best with Sean Connery as Bond. So is the book as good?

The plot here is very similar to the film. The book is split into three sections- 'Happenstance', 'Coincidence' and 'Enemy Action'. First Bond meets Auric Goldfinger when he helps an acquaintance prove that Goldfinger cheats at Canasta. Then he is called upon by MI6 to investigate the man and begins by playing a round of golf with him. In the third part Bond is caught spying on Goldfinger and finds himself in the middle of a massive heist which would kill thousands of people.

The biggest strength here was the characterisation. For a start we get to see Bond as more of a rounded person for the first time as he reflects on killing people. But the really excellent characterisation is in Goldfinger himself, the series' best villain yet. This guy is a criminal mastermind in the truest sense yet manages not to be a pantomime villain as so many Bond villains end up.

As with all the novels so far, Fleming did a fantastic job in building up the tension here. It begins really calm but things get extremely tense by the start of the third section. I so often feel though that Fleming never quite satisfies that tension and here lies the biggest problem with this novel. I was expecting a massive showdown but the plot is foiled with more of a whimper than a bang. But it's one of those Fleming false endings where there is still a major showdown with the villain to be had, though you could see this one coming a mile off. For me, it never quite gave the excitement it promised.

Like the other novels, in some aspects this is very much of it's time. There's plenty of racism towards Goldfinger's Korean staff and Bond even gets off with lesbian Pussy Galore as she hasn't "met a real man before". The homophobia in this book was painful and in terms of plot I could see no good reason why Galore's sexuality needed to be explicitly stated at all. As always, we should remember that this book is of it's time and be pleased we have moved on.

Not the best Bond book then but one of the better ones so far.

This is my second James Bond book and I liked this one as well. The James Bond in these books though, don't feel like the same James Bond on the silver screen. But that is okay with me....I still really enjoy these books. There was even a scene where James is playing golf with Goldfinger and as much as I dislike golf, I was riveted to that scene. Reading this makes me want to look up the movie.

These are fun. I want to add more to my reading list.

In this book James Bond seems to be at his most smug, entitled and racist. Goldfinger is one of the most despicable enemies Bond has encountered, but as the hero, he doesn't seem to be much more delightful. Women are always presented as serving the needs of men in a childish position. Bonds insights and thoughts about lesbians are probably to be overlooked given the year in which they were written. Overall, the golf, gambling, money and power vibe just wasn't as interesting as some of the books with more clever commentary about politics or other things.

"A step up from the previous book (Dr No), but not near the best of the series so far. The most surprising thing about it is that Fleming re-uses the opening of Moonraker: a super-multi-milliornaire is suspected to be cheating at cards for comparably small sums and tremendous social risk. Bond puts the cheat in place and is immediately (unrelatedly) given an assignment directly involving said cheat.

The card game in this one is a pretty straightforward affair though, nothing like the suspense Fleming created in Moonraker (a suspenseful game of bridge! I do think that this was one of his abilities that made him a great thriller writer). In Goldfinger, there is instead the famous game of golf, present in slightly different form in the movie.

In previous Bond books, you have to skip quickly over ugly racial prejudice, telling yourself that the writer was an child of his time, in this it is homosexuality that is up for some comments, and it is even less appealing, since the thoughts and opinions are clearly ascribed to Bond himself. "