Plot Differences:

Film - Bond is trying to find an assassin who's connected to the San Monique consulate in New York. The ambasador's name is Kananga, who doubles as Mr. Big. As always Felix plays a minor role, providing back-up. When Bond first visits Big, he's captured and Tee Hee is supposed to take him out and kill him. Bond escapes, and heads to San Monique, where he meets double agent Rosie Carver and figures out that Big is actually smuggling heroine. That's about chapter 17.

Novel - Bond is tasked with figuring out who's stealing and recirculating gold coins from a pirate's treasure. The coins are being used to fund SMERSH. He's sent to NYC to investigate a man named Mr. Big. He meets with Mr. Big and Solitaire. Big asks Tee Hee to break Bond's finger for him (This injury stays with him throughout the novel. There are very few cases of Bond's injuries staying with him throughout the films. Bond is hampered by his broken finger. He is flawed, he gets frustrated as he struggles). Big tells Tee Hee to take Bond to the hospital after he's been sufficiently roughed up. Bond escapes and kills Tee Hee, along with a couple guys in the garage. The next day, Solitaire calls and asks if she can leave for Florida with him. Bond is heading to Florida to investigate Mr. Big's warehouse. He agrees and they meet the next day. After they arrive in florida, Bond meets up with Felix, leave Solitaire at the hotel and heads over the warehouse. They talk to the manager and decide to come back the next day. Solitaire is kidnapped and Felix heads to the warehouse the following day by himself. Felix gets tricked into falling into a shark tank and has his arm and leg eaten. Bond gets on the next plane for Jamaica to investigate Mr. Big's home base.

As you can see, there's really not much in common between the plots of the film and the book except for the characters.

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Live and Let Die is certainly Fleming's most controversial novel because of his portrayal of African-Americans and Afro-Carribeaners. I can certainly understand why his descriptions are controversial today, but were they when he wrote the novel. Are we looking back at a novel, applying it to today's social standards, and then claiming that it's somehow inappropriate? Here's an example. You'd be shot walking through Harlem today asking why a "negress" was driving the car. Today, this is insensitive on a number of levels: 1) Bond was shocked that a woman was driving a car, and 2) Bond was shocked that a black woman was driving a car. However, Fleming critics will skip over these observations and focus on the term "negress". While they certainly didn't emerge from the black community, "negress", "negro", and "nigger" were socially acceptable referents to black people in the 1950s. After the civil-rights movement in the 1960s, they acquired the "racist" and "derogatory" connotations that they have today. When Fleming used these terms, he was being descriptive and accurately reflecting the terminology used at the time. How do we know this? Aside from the dated descriptions, both Bond and M are quite complementary of blacks, explaining how the group creates geniuses in every aspect of human endeavor... except for in crime. Mr. Big ends up rounding out this dubious honor.

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