Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site ahuta.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ahuta!ecl From: ecl@ahuta.UUCP (ecl) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: MODESTY BLAISE Message-ID: <205@ahuta.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 11:53:53 EST Article-I.D.: ahuta.205 Posted: Wed Dec 12 11:53:53 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 13-Dec-84 02:32:18 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 55 MODESTY BLAISE A book review by Mark R. Leeper A few weeks back I reviewed a film called AMERICAN DREAMER. In it I said that the fictional character that JoBeth Williams imagines herself to be is based on Modesty Blaise. At the time my only knowledge of Modesty Blaise was derived from conversations with a friend who was fond of the "Modesty Blaise" books by Peter O'Donnell. In order to get some better knowledge of the character and the books, I read the first book in the series, titled, logically enough, MODESTY BLAISE. The series involves the adventures of a most remarkable woman. Her earliest memories were from a DP camp in the Middle East. By age 26 she has been married and divorced, has set up a criminal syndicate called The Network, made herself independently wealthy, and retired. Yet she remains a well-oiled fighting machine, master of many martial arts. Her best friend, and through the series of books her sidekick, is Willie Garvin, a hood with a cockney accent. It is the relationship between Modesty and Willie that creates the greatest curiosity of the series. It seems that it is one of mutual admiration and some sexual attraction, but in actions, anyway, it is totally platonic and professional. It is extremely rare in popular fiction to have close relationships between men and women that are not romantic. It is this subtly frustrated sexual tension between the Willie and Modesty that makes the relationship live for the reader. There is no doubt for the reader that Willie means much more to Modesty than any of her casual paramours. The "Modesty Blaise" novels, in fact, are an adaptation from another medium and the writing style reflects it. The stories started as a comic strip and in 1965, at the height of the James Bond craze, the cartoonist started writing the stories as novels. There are vestiges of the comic strip origins in O'Donnell's writing. Part of the comic strip's attraction was in the the title character's sexual attraction. O'Donnell always takes pains to describe what Modesty's clothing which is often just enough to cover the subject. While the real plot of MODESTY BLAISE does not start until the second half of the book, there is action throughout so that the reader is never bored. O'Donnell has a straightforward, clean writing style that makes his prose very easy to read. In the first novel the British government calls Modesty out of retirement asking a favor and paying her by giving her information that her old friend Willie is in danger and how she can save him. In return for the information, they would like Modesty use her connections in the underground to guarantee that a certain shipment of diamonds to an Arab sheik gets to its destination. The story makes for a crisp thriller with comic strip style villains, but not more exaggerated than Ian Fleming would have created, and certainly more believable than most that one would find in a James Bond film. The book makes for fun light reading and is enjoyable enough that I would want to read more in the series. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. (Evelyn C. Leeper for) Mark R. Leeper ...ihnp4!lznv!mrl