Book info

• Title The Bourne Identity
• Author Robert Ludlum
• Year 1980
• Genre Thriller

He was dragged from the sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues: a frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the skin of his hip; evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face; strange things he says in his delirium, which could be code words. And a number on the film negative that leads to a bank account in Zurich, four million dollars and a name for the amnesiac: Jason Bourne. Now he is running for his life. A man with an unknown past and an uncertain future, the target of assassins and at the heart of a deadly puzzle. He's fighting for survival and no one can help him - except the one woman who once wanted to escape him...

Thoughts

I found this one a bit of a disappointment, if I’m honest, but only because I couldn’t follow the twists and turns, the who’s who of spies and secret agents and super villains. The trouble with having a protagonist that doesn’t know who he is, is that it becomes quite an ungrounded story, with wild theories flying around. I found it difficult to know where I was at any given time.

Having said that, it’s great to get an insight into the mind of someone who discovers horrifying things about himself. Who figures out gradually that he knows how to do super spy things, military style procedures, and says all kinds of things without knowing why.

Fascinating but confusing.

Rating: 3 / 5