Everything but "an assassin with memory loss is picked up by a boat and meets a Swiss lady."

I'm afraid I must be the anti-brenda in this and say Thank God. I got the first two or three books when I was trapped on bedrest, staggered through the first one, got 20 pages into the second, and quit when I realized I was eagerly looking forward to my late-morning nap as an excuse to put the book down.

I don't know what his earlier stuff is like, but Bourne Ludlum struck me as unbearably wet. Jason Bourne was always fretting about his girl and singing great internal arias about Oh God, my love. How I love you! I tremble at the danger I have put you in, o love my love! I would kill to protect you, you who know me, whose eyes see into my soul -- it tears at me, devouring me from beneath, the terrible burden of this love! I must go kill a ratty German to ease the pressure, the pressure on my heart, o my love! I really wanted to slap Book!Bourne. Of course, he would've killed me as dead as Movie!Bourne, but first he would have sniveled like a wibbly little emo boy and I could point and laugh before he shivved me or whatever.

I love Movie!Bourne. He's all woobieful and etched with pain, but he doesn't burble about it; he just shoots the shit out of people and snaps their neck and stuff, and then he looks broken some more, occasionally in shirts that show off some arm. That's good enough for me.

Wait--isn't she Canadian in the books? I know they end up in Montreal, and I thought that was why.

Probably. I may be confused because they meet in Zurich. She's a scientician! And they run around town buying wigs or somesuch.

it tears at me, devouring me from beneath

Starting with his bottom?

he just shoots the shit out of people and snaps their neck and stuff

Except he only kills people who are actively trying to kill him. Cops and security guards and people like that who are just doing their jobs he tries not to hurt more than he really has to. Yes, sometimes that still a lot of hurt, but he tries!

I love Movie!Bourne. He's all woobieful and etched with pain, but he doesn't burble about it; he just shoots the shit out of people and snaps their neck and stuff, and then he looks broken some more, occasionally in shirts that show off some arm. That's good enough for me.

As always, JZ says it best.

You were just waiting for that one, weren't you?

I'd have answered sooner, but y'know. Happy hour.

Except he only kills people who are actively trying to kill him. Cops and security guards and people like that who are just doing their jobs he tries not to hurt more than he really has to.

"Here's your double mocha latte with extra whipped cream, Mr. Bourne."

"Do you know how much sugar is in this? How much fat? Do you know what this will do to my cholesterol?"

*snapcrunchspackleowiepunchtodeath*

"Fucker was trying to kill me. Hey, where are the napkins?"

I liked BookBourne just fine. He's not as hot as MovieBourne, but he was more complicated and had the decency to fall for a woman who had some use to the plot beyond her death.

She was in banking, IIRC.

The fact that book-Marie was in banking is the reason why there is a 100-page digression about how to transfer money illegally across national borders before the advent of the internet. Let us merely say that Ludlum had a pretty good idea for the first Bourne novel (the other two struck me as faintly ridiculous) and went about it in methods that don't fly very well for people who aren't already fans of angsty spy novels.

I was raised on angsty spy novels. Well, them and stories of racial violence in the deep south. So I had no learning/loving curve at all.

I mean, there are people that don't like angsty spy novels? And pick up Ludlum?

Harrumph.

I wiki'd, and apparently she's a Canadian economist. Which would explain why we're all right. I remember her being at a conference.

I've had a bad day at work, this is why I'm trainspotting here.