367. The Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice
James M. Cain
1934
Around 120 pages

Tale as old as time, or at least, as old as Therese Raquin. After Henry Miller, it's quite nice to read a coherent story that doesn't focus on flatulence and vaginas. Instead, we get a story that could really be written in any genre. This time, we get the hard-boiled version.

Frank Chambers is a drifter who stops at a rural California diner for a meal. The diner is owned by an old Greek guy, and his much younger wife Cora. Frank and Cora fall in love and decide not to go the expensive divorce route.

This is a prototypical hard-boiled story. The way that the entire narrative is framed as a confession, the hot dame that turns alcoholics into killers, the inevitable betrayals. So the predictability might be boring to some people, but I enjoyed the ride. Cora actually felt like a real person instead of just some male fantasy. Well, mostly.

It was also a nice departure from the tough as nails detective telling the story to a different sort of narrator. The Listmakers are so obsessed with this story, it's on the movie list as well. Twice.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted as a film seven times. 

Dorothy Parker, on the novel: "Well, there's all sorts of stuff written about what kind of novel it is—it seems to baffle these critics as they keep trying to label it. But to me it's a love story and that's all it is." The Queen hath spoken.

UP NEXT: Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev. Sounds straightforward.