Ian Kinane offers a thoughtful and thorough consideration of how Ian Fleming, through his Jamaican-set James Bond novels, registered and (re)imagined shifting British-Jamaican relations. With chapters dedicated to Live and Let Die (1954), Dr No (1958), and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), Kinane fleshes out, in fascinating detail, Flemings politics of ambivalence towards the decolonization and ultimate independence of Jamaica. * Lisa Funnell, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA * Challenging simplistic readings of the representational politics in Ian Flemings works, this excellent book offers a nuanced analysis of racial discourse, colonial ideology and the place Jamaica occupies within the Empire and the British imagination. While the rigorous research underpinning this original study is a timely and much needed addition to the growing field of Bond studies, Ian Kinanes engaging investigation will inspire anyone interested in delving deeper into the complex politics of James Bond. * Dr Monica Germanà, author of Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender * Ian Kinane's Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence is an intriguing study of the role of Jamaica in Flemings' James Bond novels. It offers a reconsideration of the three Jamaica-based Bond novels - Live and Let Die (1954), Dr. No (1958) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965) - as works that showcase Fleming's own, often conflicted, concern for British-Jamaican relations, rather than novels that merely uphold colonial discourse. As such, Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence fills a void in the existing criticism on Fleming's work, and is a must-read for all scholars working on James Bond, empire, and cultural politics. * Dr Christine Berberich, Reader in Literature, University of Portsmouth * Ian Kinanes in-depth comparative analysis of the Bond novels set in Jamaica makes significant contributions to scholarship. His work not only reminds us that Jamaica is where Bond is born in 1953, resurrected in 1958, and renewed in the final novel published in 1965. By tracing shifts in Flemings depictions of Jamaica, its people, and its colonial administrators, Kinane illuminates the fraught complexity of Flemings sentiments about Britishness in a modern world marked the empires decline. * Cynthia Baron, Professor of Theatre and Film, Bowling Green State University * Engaging and provocative... [ Kinane's] critical focus enables him to formulate first-rate readings of the global and racial politics of Flemings fiction. * International Journal of James Bond Studies *
