The Spy Who Came Out of the Closet Book

Ian Fleming's bestselling thrillers relied for their appeal on the attractions of danger, especially in the sexual allure of their handsome, fearless, hardhearted hero, James Bond. Although the Bond of the movies is as devoted a womanizer as the character in the books, his sadistic tendencies are played down, as is his mental instability. In the most recent films, even the ubiquitous Bond cigarette is gone. Is nothing sacred? Now Mabel Maney's giddy and outrageous spoof of the Bond books ousts the main character himself. As her story opens, James has been locked away in a Swiss sanitarium, having at last "lost his nerve." The British Secret Service plots to recruit his bookish, unambitious lesbian twin sister, Jane, hoping that in disguise, she will be a convincing stand-in for the world-famous agent. Although thrilled by the tailored suit the government provides, Jane is a reluctant spy. What she doesn't know is that her new girlfriend, Bridget, ostensibly a cosmetic sales girl, is in fact a feminist counterspy struggling to foil a fascist scheme to put the aging Duke and Duchess of Windsor on the throne. Will Bridget misplace her top-secret cipher panties in a moment of passion? Can Jane avoid being killed for England? Can she keep the suit? With her usual flair for period detail, Maney (The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend) paints a vivid, irreverent picture of the Bond era and spoofs Fleming's lingering romance with Empire. --Regina Marler Read More