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A review by jlmb
The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain
3.0
I HAD to read this just because it is Cain's final, unpublished novel.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.