The dialogue is clunky at times (who repeatedly calls their lover “my love, my love, my only love?”, the events that spark romance between the main characters is forced at first, after that the relationship between Bourne and Marie is actually one of the better pairings in the genre, and some subplots are forgotten about and left unresolved. But none of that ruins the furious pace with which readers are propelled from page to page, because The Bourne Identity boasts a simple, yet intriguing premise and an ingenious plot. A man is pulled from the sea riddled with bullets and without a memory. His quest to find his identity leads to disturbing implications that he might be an assassin. This premise in itself is brilliant enough that it’s been repurposed in countless other films and stories to the point that assassins and amnesia have become almost inseparable in popular culture.
Extracted from the Mediterranean and treated by a benevolent but drunken English doctor named Washburn, no memory, and the only clue to his identity, besides the bullets the doctor pulled out of him, is the number of a Swiss bank account implanted under his…show more content… For a blank slate, he has quite a lot of personality. While he may have amazing combat skills—armed and unarmed—he is far from a suave know-it-all. In fact, he’s prone to fits of despair at his predicament, and has a tendency to always embrace the worst-case scenario. He frequently relies on nasty sarcasm to cope with nightmare situations. Without Marie’s support, it’s doubtful he’d ever succeed at discovering his identity, or staying alive. Also in the mix is the elusive real-life assassin/terrorist Carlos. Various clues indicate that Bourne may have been hunting him, or competing with him in his pre-amnesia life. Whatever the case, it’s clear now that Carlos wants him dead, and he has a vast network of informants and thugs who will stop at nothing to carry out their master’s
