I finally got through The Bourne Identity. There was some stuff I liked about the book, but, overall, well, I guess spy/thriller just ain’t my genre, unfortunately.
But dammit, I want to know who Carlos is.
All that really stands out in my memory regarding that book was the truly atrocious romantic interludes. Some of the worst dialogue ever written IMHO.
“Carlos” is a legendary? hitman that may have some basis in fact. Ludlum isn’t the only spy/thriller author that references him, IIRC.
There was a story about somebody that is thought to be him on one of the cable channels in the past year or two.
You won’t find a resolution of the Carlos character in the Bourne series. The books were only so-so in my opinion.
It Carlos that one infamous hitman that went by the codename The Jackle?
Here is some info I just googled on him.
At the end of The Bourne Identity, Ludlum lets it drop that Carlos is someone well known–a figure in government or media or something.
Which struck me as odd, since he seemed awfully busy, what the plotting and the meeting with all the old men in churches and the assassinating of people and the running of his criminal empire and the hey hey. But what do I know . . .
Now that Bourne has seen Carlos, I figgered it’d be just a matter of time before he saw a picture in Newsweek, or whatever, and the Mystery would be Revealed, so John Carter’s response is puzzling to me. I don’t really care about the real-life Carlos, just who he is in the Bourniverse. But, then again, I don’t really care enough to read any more books.
Did anybody see the movie? My husband and I rented it and waited and waited for The Jackel to show up. He never did.
I ate up The Bourne Identity (the novel) but could not slog through The Bourne Supremacy. Should I try again?
Delta is for Cain,
Cain is for Carlos
The Bourne Supremecy is my favorite Robert Ludlum novel. There were some very good characters in the book, besides David Webb [Jason Bourne]. Webb’s wife Marie is heroic, as is a female Canadian diplomat whose name I forget. Plus “good old Echo” helps Bourne regain some of his memory. I would recommend The Bourne Supremecy
Don’t bother with The Bourne Ultimatum, Infinity or whatever the final book was called. It was just silly, almost a parody of the earlier books. Bourne finally catches up Carlos, but it is just a drawn out mess.
I didn’t mean to be obscure, Podkyne. I was trying to indicate that that there was no “Ah-ha, Gotcha’” scene in the series that provided a satisfactory end to Carlos. I don’t remember particulars, but I do rember being PO’ed at Ludlum for the way he handled that.
::::::::::Movie spoiler without the spoiler tag:::::::::::::::
I haven’t read the books.
I did see the movie a few weeks ago on pay per view.
In an opening scene, Bourne is laying face down on the fishing boat having his scuba suit cut open and the doctor remove the bullets. He is wearing no clothing under the scuba suit, at least in that part.
Later on, Bourne is wearing an orangey colored sweater that looks like it has bullet holes in the back. It looks intentional.
Is this something that was edited out but is in the book or what?
I just finished reading the Bourne Colossus (all three books), and thought I’d comment, seeing that the thread has been bumped recently. We watched the movie recently (gotta love netflix), and that set me on the books.
First, Bourne is 37 in the first book. That’s never clearly laid out until the last book, where he says he’s almost 51 and the first book happened 13 years previously.
Second, the last book did get a bit absurd. There were too many almost-got-Carlos-but-not-quite moments. It was beginning to look like Gilligan’s Island (we didn’t quite get off the island this week!).
Here’s the exact quote Podkayne was referring to (from the end of The Bourne Identity):
The funny thing about this is that I really had forgotten about it by the time I’d read through the books. Apparently, so had Ludlum.
I saw the movie. While it was a good movie, a friend who’s read the series tells me it has very little to do with the books…
I saw the movie and read the book. The movie is just one plot strand from the book-- with a very large expansion of the girl part. So while the movie is slightly changed fraction of the first book, it’s not completely different from it.