Day 179: From Russia With Love First Impressions

The most immediately striking thing about this novel is Ian Fleming's attention to detail. From the moment you open the book, there is a flood of information coming at you. From the tiniest bead of sweat, the density of curled hairs, the tone of sunburned skin, and the color of the roses that surround everything in the first few chapters, everything is defined in great detail. This could easily come out as a tedious read, but Fleming is careful to ensure that each of these seemingly innocuous details have clear purpose. They all come together to form a crisp picture of the person or environment he's chosen to focus on. Furthermore the writing is flowing and precise, making this deluge of information easy to wrap your head around. His style is so ubiquitous throughout the book so far that I haven't even been paying as much attention to the plot as I probably should be. Le Carre's style was transparent, so that I felt so immersed in the novel that I sometimes forgot I was even reading, but with Fleming I'm so taken by the prose that I have trouble focusing on what's actually happening sometimes. Not that I'm complaining. This is probably only a problem someone interested in the ins and outs of the style would have.

Another thing I noticed about Fleming, beyond the writing I mean, is that he seems a little obsessed with the relationship between the physical characteristics of a person, and who they really are on the inside. Where another author might separately describe a person's body and their personality, Fleming entwines the two intimately. Affects, musculature, hair, facial expressions, all of them are tied directly to the character's inner life. It creates a wholistic view of someone in a comparatively tiny amount words because instead of describing two things and then relating them, he defines the tiniest details about a person, and those tiny details naturally inform the reader about who they are. Of course he also goes into great detail about the past and upbringing of important characters, but always the initial description covers who they are based on how they look, dress themselves, what they carry, and how they hold themselves. This is something that most authors do to some extent (otherwise, why would you define how a character looks at all?), but I've never read anyone who so closely tied the two together on the page.

I'm excited to read more and try to understand his style. I'm surprised to find it so colorful. I guess my preconceptions have been tainted by the slate gray worlds of the previous two spy thrillers.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley