...
Show More
I never saw the movies based on the Jason Bourne novels written by Robert Ludlum. I never read the novels either except for 'The Bourne Identity' some years ago. I thought I'd give the book another chance since I can see how wildly popular the books are still.
Poor Bourne cannot remember who he is. He has amnesia - but he knows he was attacked before he lost his memory, and he does possess some clues to his identity. When he decides to resurface in France after six months of recovery, starting his investigation where he was told he had been, the attacks continue which he fends off with surprising black-ops skills he didn't know he knew. Some memory flashbacks tell him he might be an assassin. Since he has met a woman during one wild escape, and the two have fallen in love at the first slap he belted her with, the last thing he wants to find out is he might really be a killer for hire! Yes, the trek across Europe one step ahead of a multitude of people trying to kill him makes for a story which is quite a thriller and a mystery, and the word intricate doesn't begin to describe the triple crosses and double dodges and false feints of the plot as a cast of dozens of shady and highly placed diplomats and spy characters muddy the track Jason Bourne follows from France to Switzerland and back to France throughout the book. Follow he must, whatever the danger!
Ummm. I don't like the author's style. I just don't. I read another Ludlum novel so long ago it doesn't matter, but I hated that one. It is why I avoided the Bourne movies and books until now. That said, I found 'The Bourne Identity' interesting and entertaining, but I just don't like Ludlum's emphasis on intricacy and puzzles over all other elements of plotting. His story has some terrific scenes, but his book is often just one fast-cut scene after another for hundreds of pages. Dialogue often veers into lame territory. But occasionally, the main character Jason feels such realistic angst, terror, sorrow and horror, I ended up being invested in his survival despite everything the author messes up by seemingly to clone the fast-moving action of a James Bond movie - I thought of 'From Russia, With Love' sometimes, gentle reader, although the plots themselves are nothing alike. Marie St. Jacques, Bourne's love interest, is a very accomplished and able executive, matching Bourne in intelligence and in nerve - definitely not a Bond bimbo, despite that she apparently got interested after Jason knocked her around when they first met. Oh, well. Given Jason Bourne's true mission and profession, it's good she likes a bit of S&M from the man of her dreams.
Three and a half stars.
Poor Bourne cannot remember who he is. He has amnesia - but he knows he was attacked before he lost his memory, and he does possess some clues to his identity. When he decides to resurface in France after six months of recovery, starting his investigation where he was told he had been, the attacks continue which he fends off with surprising black-ops skills he didn't know he knew. Some memory flashbacks tell him he might be an assassin. Since he has met a woman during one wild escape, and the two have fallen in love at the first slap he belted her with, the last thing he wants to find out is he might really be a killer for hire! Yes, the trek across Europe one step ahead of a multitude of people trying to kill him makes for a story which is quite a thriller and a mystery, and the word intricate doesn't begin to describe the triple crosses and double dodges and false feints of the plot as a cast of dozens of shady and highly placed diplomats and spy characters muddy the track Jason Bourne follows from France to Switzerland and back to France throughout the book. Follow he must, whatever the danger!
Ummm. I don't like the author's style. I just don't. I read another Ludlum novel so long ago it doesn't matter, but I hated that one. It is why I avoided the Bourne movies and books until now. That said, I found 'The Bourne Identity' interesting and entertaining, but I just don't like Ludlum's emphasis on intricacy and puzzles over all other elements of plotting. His story has some terrific scenes, but his book is often just one fast-cut scene after another for hundreds of pages. Dialogue often veers into lame territory. But occasionally, the main character Jason feels such realistic angst, terror, sorrow and horror, I ended up being invested in his survival despite everything the author messes up by seemingly to clone the fast-moving action of a James Bond movie - I thought of 'From Russia, With Love' sometimes, gentle reader, although the plots themselves are nothing alike. Marie St. Jacques, Bourne's love interest, is a very accomplished and able executive, matching Bourne in intelligence and in nerve - definitely not a Bond bimbo, despite that she apparently got interested after Jason knocked her around when they first met. Oh, well. Given Jason Bourne's true mission and profession, it's good she likes a bit of S&M from the man of her dreams.
Three and a half stars.
