The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M Cain > Reviews (1)

Introduction
Like, I suspect, most people in the UK, I had heard of the film, but didn't know that the book existed and when I found out that it did, thought that it must have been based on the film. This is not the case; the book was first published in 1934 and was banned in Boston, because it was believed to be too erotic and violent. Like Lady Chatterly's Lover, banning it probably did as much to make it famous as the fact that it was an incredibly well-written and powerful novel and it became a best-seller. In 1946, it was made into a film starring John Garfield and Lana Turner; a later version stars Jack Nicholson.

The author
James M Cain was born in Maryland in 1892 and served in the First World War. He then became a journalist and later a Hollywood scriptwriter. The Postman Always Rings Twice was his debut novel, published at the age of 42, and because of its 'obscene' content, it immediately piqued people's interest. It is probably his best-known work, although Double Indemnity is also much-loved.

The plot
Told by the main perpetrator of the crimes that take place throughout the course of the book, the story is about a young man, Frank Chambers, who spends his life wandering from place to place. He comes across Nick Papadakis, who runs a café and petrol station, who offers him a job. Frank is reluctant to take the job, but needs the money and is also attracted by Nick's wife, Cora.

Frank quickly makes his intentions towards Cora clear and finds that she has married Nick in order to escape a lifetime of poverty, but does not love him and has no desire to stay with him. Between them, they hatch a plot to murder Nick, but it fails and Nick recovers. They manage to escape blame.

Nick eventually dies and both Frank and Cora are questioned about the incident. Cora finally goes to trial for his murder. But is she really guilty and will she be acquitted? And what is Frank's role in the situation?

The characters
Our knowledge about Frank is obviously the greatest as he is telling the story. He is a strong character who knows what he wants and will go out of his way to get it, not minding who he runs down in the process. Yet his feelings for Cora take him by surprise and although he tries to run the relationship, Cora plays an enormous part in it.

Cora is determined to escape her life with Nick, and yet is not quite as hard-nosed as Frank about doing so. She falls in love with Frank, yet never completely trusts him, but leads to a complicated relationship.

Both are incredibly powerful characters that leap off the page. Yet most of the knowledge that we have about them is through dialogue rather than through descriptions. This is not an easy feat for any author to achieve.

Conclusion
At just 116 pages, this book manages to grip you by the throat and doesn't let go until the final pages. It also kept me thinking for days afterwards. It is a story about good and evil and how good wins through, but not always in the way we expect. Cain was apparently likened to Ernest Hemingway and Dashiell Hammett, but claimed to have not read any of their works.

For its time, it is unusual in that the storyteller is the perpetrator, rather than those on the side of the law. This helps to make it far more raw and desperate than it otherwise might have been. For a debut novel, the fact that this book is so awesome is even more amazing. A film version starring Jack Nicholson is on the TV tonight and having read the book, I am looking forward to watching it. If you haven't read the book though, record the film and watch it after you've read it. This book is a true classic and I cannot imagine that the film can even come close to its standards, much as I admire Jack Nicholson.

In case you were wondering, there is a certain amount of sex and violence in the book. However, compared with today's crime fiction, it is nothing out of the ordinary.

The book is available from Amazon for £5.59, published by Orion. ISBN: 075286436X.