Reading “Pride and Prejudice” as a Man

Where do I begin. 2/5 stars for the 2/5 of the book that was attention-grabbing. Nothing like the movie, which, to be honest, is much better than the book. Ludlum tries to do way too much and wrote himself into a hole with all the ‘historical background’ for Bourne… or Cain, or delta, or David, same dude. The Vietnam ties, the secret missions in Nam, which are explained through frantic flashbacks; his previous life, which is hinted at well; then the telling-no-showing explanation of the Cain and Carlos years.

Too many Characters, the ‘romance’ is majorly forced (overuse of the word ‘darling’, please make it stop) to the point where I can’t tell what the character of Bourne/David/Cain/delta even is. Is he a cold and calculated stud spy or a sensitive dude who is low-key mental? Seems to be both, but it’s balanced poorly.

And the setting… GUYS, LET’S DO ANOTHER HOTEL, A TAXI, AND A RESTAURANT! Don’t even bother trying to visualize the hotel, I gave up after the 5th switch. The majority of the 600 page book consists of Bourne doing something, taking a taxi (cooly pays the man a 5o franc note), then meeting someone in a disguise and asking them a bunch of questions. He will then return to the hotel (taxi, 50 franc note, of course), where he and Marie, his Stockholm syndrome partner, will talk lovey-dovey and about his past, then plan another taxi-spy-taxi-hotel trip. Maddening.

Now it wasn’t all bad. The beginning or ‘book/part 1’ was actually really good. Time with the doctor, the exodus from Marseille is doing a great job of showing, not telling, us his field skills. I was even invested in him going into the bank and withdrawing money. The first hotel (if only I knew) was really cool, the following escape using Marie and her saving being awesome and super involving.

The story just got too large too fast, and a stable line of “reasoning” needed to be more present throughout the book, and the characters were all too displaced to be brought together in the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if I suddenly start reciting off all the BS Bourne would say to himself throughout the next week.

“𝘊𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘢𝘪𝘯”, and this book is for those who like the movie but wish that Bourne did less cool stuff and more talking and thinking.