GOLDFINGER

1959

    Goldfinger gets the series back on track as an engaging entry in the series.  The novel is divided in to 3 sections: Happenstance, Coincidence and Enemy Action, which describes Bond's encounters with Auric Goldfinger in the chapters withing those sections.

    At novel's beginning, we find 007 at Miami Airport* just back from a mission.  In a great display of continuity, he meets Mr. Julius DuPont, a millionaire he met during his Casino Royale adventure.  DuPont recalls Bond and his skill with cards.  Goldfinger seems to be cheating DuPont out of several thousand dollars, and DuPont employs Bond to assist in finding out how this is done  Of course, Bond succeeds.

    The coincidence meeting is a golf match between 007 and Goldfinger.  The British government suspects Goldfinger is smuggling gold into India for Russian use.  Bond arranges to meet Goldfinger casually for a game of golf, which was offered to 007 by Goldfinger.  The passage, like similar ones in other novels, assists people enfamiliar with the game of golf with a basic understanding of how it is played.

    Afterward, Bond plants a homig device in Goldfinger's car, so he can trail him.  This is enemy action.  007 learns of Goldfinger's plan to rob Fort Knox with the assistance of the different organized crime gangs in the United States, including the Spangled Mob from Diamonds Are Forever.  Bond gambles and gets a note to Felix Leiter, who makes the military aware of Operation Grand Slam and helps Bond save the day.

    As with most of the novels, a very different experience is had with the novel Goldfinger and the movie version.   Fleming's plan of STEALING gold from Fort Knox seems unbelieveable.  Also, the book is hard to follow and gets bogged down by lectures during the final third of it.

    Overall, though, another high recommendation comes from me.

    *Note: Back in December 1997, my wife and I were at this same airport where we had a 2 hour layover to catch a connecting flight to Trinidad.  At one of the bars in this airport, I had a "James Bond Vodka Martini- Shaken, Not Stirred" which was a promotional tie-in for Tomorrow Never Dies by Smirnoff.

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