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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This month’s Hard Case Crime was a real winner. The kind of book I wish they could find and/or publish more often.
Of course, unpublished works from crime masters aren’t exactly lying around waiting. Charles Ardai and co. lucked out when some mutual connects hooked them up with the last James Cain manuscript, one that had never seen the light of day.
Cain is often considered part of the Hardboiled Trinity, along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet he didn’t write the kind of detective/crime novels those two did. Cain’s modus operandi was the domestic thriller, similar to Patricia Highsmith but more hardboiled, less psychological/horror.
To classify this would almost be giving the game away because most of it reads like Cain wrote a hornier revision of his classic domestic tale Mildred Pierce. A woman who loses her husband has to navigate patriarchal bounds for the good of her child. In this particular instance, she has to do it at a cocktail lounge, basically a 1950s gentleman’s version of Hooters. Yeah these rich white Masters of the Universe wouldn’t stoop so low to go to see women strip but watching them cart around cocktails in dresses that are one step above lingerie is societally acceptable.
Yet as the book reaches its conclusion, it becomes something else. I don’t usually like it when writers yank the rug out at the end to make you question what you’re reading. Cain doesn’t do that but in an ever-so-subtle manner, he asks the reader who we really think Joan is. Plucky protagonist? Or something else? Something sinister? And is it sinister given who she is interacting with?
There’s a lot of food for thought here, making this one of Cain’s best and probably one of the best HCC books I’ve ever read.
Of course, unpublished works from crime masters aren’t exactly lying around waiting. Charles Ardai and co. lucked out when some mutual connects hooked them up with the last James Cain manuscript, one that had never seen the light of day.
Cain is often considered part of the Hardboiled Trinity, along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet he didn’t write the kind of detective/crime novels those two did. Cain’s modus operandi was the domestic thriller, similar to Patricia Highsmith but more hardboiled, less psychological/horror.
To classify this would almost be giving the game away because most of it reads like Cain wrote a hornier revision of his classic domestic tale Mildred Pierce. A woman who loses her husband has to navigate patriarchal bounds for the good of her child. In this particular instance, she has to do it at a cocktail lounge, basically a 1950s gentleman’s version of Hooters. Yeah these rich white Masters of the Universe wouldn’t stoop so low to go to see women strip but watching them cart around cocktails in dresses that are one step above lingerie is societally acceptable.
Yet as the book reaches its conclusion, it becomes something else. I don’t usually like it when writers yank the rug out at the end to make you question what you’re reading. Cain doesn’t do that but in an ever-so-subtle manner, he asks the reader who we really think Joan is. Plucky protagonist? Or something else? Something sinister? And is it sinister given who she is interacting with?
There’s a lot of food for thought here, making this one of Cain’s best and probably one of the best HCC books I’ve ever read.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I’ve never read any James M. Cain, but I have watched and loved the movie versions of his “big three” books (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Idemnity, and Mildred Pierce for those who are interested). I am also a huge fan of noir and crime novels so this was definitely a book that I was looking forward to reading.
I liked the writing style and it reminded me of watching film noirs, snappy dialogue and everything. I liked Joan a lot, she was tough and determined and I liked reading her narrative. This isn’t, however, a plain mystery. Mostly it’s seeing Joan navigate her life once her husband is dead. It’s not until the last third of the book that bodies even start to show up. So, I admit I was a little disappointed by this, but the book was so engaging that I wasn’t too cut up over it.
There are definitely two bodies, one of whom was clearly murdered, one of whom is simply suspicious. You never actually find out who is responsible, and at first I was confused, because after all the point to a mystery is to kind of solve the mystery. Upon further thought however, I wondered if possibly this was on purpose: we have the whole book from Joan’s point of view. How do we know she’s a reliable narrator? It’s definitely something I’m going to keep thinking about, and it’s a thought that’s added more to my enjoyment of the book.
Overall, I really liked the book: it was a fun, fast read, and it’s in keeping with my love of film noirs. I’m definitely going to be reading more James M. Cain.
I liked the writing style and it reminded me of watching film noirs, snappy dialogue and everything. I liked Joan a lot, she was tough and determined and I liked reading her narrative. This isn’t, however, a plain mystery. Mostly it’s seeing Joan navigate her life once her husband is dead. It’s not until the last third of the book that bodies even start to show up. So, I admit I was a little disappointed by this, but the book was so engaging that I wasn’t too cut up over it.
There are definitely two bodies, one of whom was clearly murdered, one of whom is simply suspicious. You never actually find out who is responsible, and at first I was confused, because after all the point to a mystery is to kind of solve the mystery. Upon further thought however, I wondered if possibly this was on purpose: we have the whole book from Joan’s point of view. How do we know she’s a reliable narrator? It’s definitely something I’m going to keep thinking about, and it’s a thought that’s added more to my enjoyment of the book.
Overall, I really liked the book: it was a fun, fast read, and it’s in keeping with my love of film noirs. I’m definitely going to be reading more James M. Cain.
SPOILER ALERT: One of my guilty pleasures is pulp fiction. In its day it was billed as the trash literature of its day but when you wade into it you find some extremely well written novels with good character development and strong plots. Sure, the content tends toward the tawdry but only in order to strip away the false pristine veneer of accepted societal norms. This one is not the most tawdry I’ve read but it nudges the lower part of the scale. Written at a time when women on their own had a hard row to hoe, this novel is written in the first person from the viewpoint of a recently widowed woman suspected of murdering her husband. Determined to secure a good life for her three year old son she vows to do “whatever it takes.” This path leads her into the lives of two men, a wealthy older man with health problems old enough to be her grandfather and a young gadabout to whom she has a visceral reaction just being in the same room as him. She makes hard and often ill-advised decisions and ends up with two more deaths laid at her feet. Throughout she maintains her innocence and our first impulse is to believe her but we have to remember that she is telling us her own story in her own words and she can be telling us anything to win us over to her side. Is she telling us the truth or is she tossing sand in our eyes?
This is my first experience reading James M. Cain who is known for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity. I’m adding more of his books to my reading list.
This is my first experience reading James M. Cain who is known for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity. I’m adding more of his books to my reading list.
WOW!
You ever get those moments where you've got really excited about something, wether it be a movie, a book or an album and you have really high expectations but it turns out they were incredibly justified?
Well I sure have after reading "The Cocktail Waitress". First of all I'm a huge fan of Cain's novels, he really brings out the most taboo topics and presents them in a mature and realistic manner, also his decision for characters to feature in them are sort of the low down everyday types that generally hide a dark secret. This was no different either.
So this book was published 35 years after he died but the quality of writing is the same. This isn't one of those unfished books where someone else gets paid to complete it failing miserably 9 times out of 10. The fluidity of the pacing and sharp dialogue/prose is still there, which makes sense right?
It introduces us to our protagonist, Joan Medford, a woman whose husband has died in a car accident due to a supposed D.U.I, but there are rumours going round that suspect her of foul play. But the book is less about the unsolved mystery and more on the psychological front. We see her start from rock bottom and semi gradually changes to better herself financially (there's also some really cool moments in the coctail bar with the ensemble characters), but Cain has a way of tapping into the human psyche because even if Joan is slightly better off than before she still suffers from negative human emotions. This is mostly displayed when she gets into a heated discussion with others and when she falls in love with more than one person but tries to play both sides to her advantage.
On that front she is a bit hard to relate to because she gives information about herself but the theme of the suspected murder leaves you asking some questions as to wether her statements are truly credible because for the most part the entire murder subplot is left ambiguous.
Would I say this is as good as his others? Yes. But then again I'm completely biased when it comes to Cain's gritty writing, do I recommend it to fans of crime novels, especially of the hard boiled variety? Definitely Yes! There's a great layer of suspense but there's also some emotional depth included to save it from becoming totally forgettable.
A perfect swansong for Cain and a nice companion piece to his other seminal novels.
You ever get those moments where you've got really excited about something, wether it be a movie, a book or an album and you have really high expectations but it turns out they were incredibly justified?
Well I sure have after reading "The Cocktail Waitress". First of all I'm a huge fan of Cain's novels, he really brings out the most taboo topics and presents them in a mature and realistic manner, also his decision for characters to feature in them are sort of the low down everyday types that generally hide a dark secret. This was no different either.
So this book was published 35 years after he died but the quality of writing is the same. This isn't one of those unfished books where someone else gets paid to complete it failing miserably 9 times out of 10. The fluidity of the pacing and sharp dialogue/prose is still there, which makes sense right?
It introduces us to our protagonist, Joan Medford, a woman whose husband has died in a car accident due to a supposed D.U.I, but there are rumours going round that suspect her of foul play. But the book is less about the unsolved mystery and more on the psychological front. We see her start from rock bottom and semi gradually changes to better herself financially (there's also some really cool moments in the coctail bar with the ensemble characters), but Cain has a way of tapping into the human psyche because even if Joan is slightly better off than before she still suffers from negative human emotions. This is mostly displayed when she gets into a heated discussion with others and when she falls in love with more than one person but tries to play both sides to her advantage.
On that front she is a bit hard to relate to because she gives information about herself but the theme of the suspected murder leaves you asking some questions as to wether her statements are truly credible because for the most part the entire murder subplot is left ambiguous.
Would I say this is as good as his others? Yes. But then again I'm completely biased when it comes to Cain's gritty writing, do I recommend it to fans of crime novels, especially of the hard boiled variety? Definitely Yes! There's a great layer of suspense but there's also some emotional depth included to save it from becoming totally forgettable.
A perfect swansong for Cain and a nice companion piece to his other seminal novels.
Cain may very well be my favorite writer. His final posthumous novel is a workshop in how to construct an unreliable narrator--a grotesque, intriguing, and surprisingly believable character, despite the lurid sensationalism that is Cain's hallmark. Unlike any other writer, Cain can mix pulp excess with moments of startling and subtle psychological insight that demands close attention from readers, even as we flip pages furiously to get to the next thrilling page. After reading this one, I have the desire to read everything he's ever written.
The interesting question about this novel - unfinished at the time of Cain's death - is whether or not he meant us to believe in the narrator's innocence. It's a first-person book, and she tells us she's innocent... But when she escapes the electric chair and is about to live happily ever after, we're left with an implied 'punishment' looming over her, which she can't see. This punishment derives from the poison she used on 2-3 men-- if she's guilty-- so it's the perfect downfall. I suspect Cain was trying to figure out a subtle way to signal that we shouldn't trust her narrative...
That said, it's not the best hard-boiled nourish novel... You have to ignore some of the writing, stereotypes, cliches, etc. to enjoy it. And if we're meant to trust the narrator, it's not all that interesting, in the end.
That said, it's not the best hard-boiled nourish novel... You have to ignore some of the writing, stereotypes, cliches, etc. to enjoy it. And if we're meant to trust the narrator, it's not all that interesting, in the end.
The plot was a little thin and moved a little slowly, but I liked the story and the main character, Joan.
I HAD to read this just because it is Cain's final, unpublished novel. Cain is one of my favorite pulp fiction writers - I only love Frederic Brown, Cornell Woolrich & Jim Thompson more. Cain died in 1977 and the editor of this novel wasn't totally clear in the afterward as to when Cain worked on the story - throughout the seventies was what I inferred. All of his other books I have read were written in the 30s, 40s, and 50s - it was a bit weird reading a more modern - for him - story.
Yet for all the talk of hot pants and colored tvs, the story still seemed to be set in the 40s or 50s. I guess Cain was a bit out of touch with the current times of the seventies since he was born in 1892. The story didn't seem to fit in any time period, it was like a hodgepodge of characteristics from many decades. Compared to other crime stories I've read that were written in the seventies - Donald Goines, Lawrence Block, even PD James - this book seemed really dated.
The part that got to me the most was Cain choosing to tell the story of a Russ Meyer-esque 21 yr old cocktail waitress in the first person. It just didn't ring true. Now I'm not saying a man can't write from a woman's perspective or vice versa; there are plenty of novels that I have no issue with the writer being one gender and the protagonist another. But in this case, nope, no way is a man in his 80's able to create a believable character of a 21 yr old woman. All I could picture when reading this book was some voluptuous sex kitten from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls or Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! with the personality of an elderly man.
As for the crime itself, it was pretty weak. Subplots were brought up and discarded. Characters appeared only to vanish and never appear again. It wasn't so much red herrings the author throws out to distract you from the main story. Rather it just felt unfinished and not totally thought out. I wasn't shocked or surprised at the ending - more like "huh , uh, that's it?" I could see the glimmer of an interesting story but it just wasn't there.
There were several "uh...what" moments for me in the book. My favorite by far is when the main character is arrested and at jail she can't wear a bra because none of them are big enough for her - what??? Since I have not ever been arrested I don't know if women get to keep their own bras or have to wear jail issued bras. Assuming the jail issues the bras, I find it impossible to believe there wouldn't be larger bras. It was just such a weird bit of the book. I guess to Cain that was super sexy sexy - a woman going braless. Wearing a prison uniform. Oooh la la, so hot! He also had a really long aside all about the character's waitress uniform. He went on and on about her pantyhose and silky panties and velour hot pants....and no bra there either. I found it funny. Another bit I loved was that the main character's son was named Tab. Haha -oh my God, it is such a funny dated name. Maybe she's supposed to be a big Tab Hunter fan?
If this had not been written by Cain I would have given it a two star rating -and that mainly for all the funny bits rather than the plot itself. But since it is James Cain - albiet as a dirty old man - the book gets 3 stars from me.
Yet for all the talk of hot pants and colored tvs, the story still seemed to be set in the 40s or 50s. I guess Cain was a bit out of touch with the current times of the seventies since he was born in 1892. The story didn't seem to fit in any time period, it was like a hodgepodge of characteristics from many decades. Compared to other crime stories I've read that were written in the seventies - Donald Goines, Lawrence Block, even PD James - this book seemed really dated.
The part that got to me the most was Cain choosing to tell the story of a Russ Meyer-esque 21 yr old cocktail waitress in the first person. It just didn't ring true. Now I'm not saying a man can't write from a woman's perspective or vice versa; there are plenty of novels that I have no issue with the writer being one gender and the protagonist another. But in this case, nope, no way is a man in his 80's able to create a believable character of a 21 yr old woman. All I could picture when reading this book was some voluptuous sex kitten from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls or Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! with the personality of an elderly man.
As for the crime itself, it was pretty weak. Subplots were brought up and discarded. Characters appeared only to vanish and never appear again. It wasn't so much red herrings the author throws out to distract you from the main story. Rather it just felt unfinished and not totally thought out. I wasn't shocked or surprised at the ending - more like "huh , uh, that's it?" I could see the glimmer of an interesting story but it just wasn't there.
There were several "uh...what" moments for me in the book. My favorite by far is when the main character is arrested and at jail she can't wear a bra because none of them are big enough for her - what??? Since I have not ever been arrested I don't know if women get to keep their own bras or have to wear jail issued bras. Assuming the jail issues the bras, I find it impossible to believe there wouldn't be larger bras. It was just such a weird bit of the book. I guess to Cain that was super sexy sexy - a woman going braless. Wearing a prison uniform. Oooh la la, so hot! He also had a really long aside all about the character's waitress uniform. He went on and on about her pantyhose and silky panties and velour hot pants....and no bra there either. I found it funny. Another bit I loved was that the main character's son was named Tab. Haha -oh my God, it is such a funny dated name. Maybe she's supposed to be a big Tab Hunter fan?
If this had not been written by Cain I would have given it a two star rating -and that mainly for all the funny bits rather than the plot itself. But since it is James Cain - albiet as a dirty old man - the book gets 3 stars from me.
Listened to this on my runs/walks in early prep for a 10k in March. It works because I can miss a lot over the audio cues from Runkeeper and trying to breathe properly and not run into people, and still not miss anything important.