Product Description

Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter.

Out of these elements, Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85820 in Books
• Published on: 1989-05-14
• Released on: 1989-05-14
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.98" h x .63" w x 5.15" l, .50 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Cain's classic novel, and the source for the 1945 film starring Joan Crawford, makes its way onto audio with this reading by actor and singer Williams. Cain's purple prose and then-scandalous dialogue take on new life under Williams's direction, her assured tone underscoring the legendary noir writer's rip-roaring tale of a woman scorned who survives no-good men and a hateful daughter to make it in 1930s Los Angeles. Williams is out of her depth encountering tense or high-pitched dialogue, reading it in a clipped monotone that does little for Cain's drama, but is on far stronger ground with the rest of the book, which flourishes under her steady, patient, ever-so-slightly melancholic gaze. Williams's reading lacks the rage that moved Crawford's Mildred, but her version of the now-familiar story amplifies our sense of Cain's heroine as an abandoned woman who finds her own way, on her own terms. (Apr.)
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From AudioFile
Poor Mildred. Her husband leaves her. She has no job skills, and there aren't any jobs anyway--it's the Depression. But, by gum, she will not let her problems get her down. Narrator Christine Williams does the best she can with the material, affecting a high-toned delivery reminiscent of heroines of films from the '40s. While appropriate, the performance eventually strains the nerves of the listener. Mildred has great legs and a wonderful figure, and she has sex when she feels like it--it was shocking for its time, but it's not that interesting for modern listeners. Cain's other novels, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY, feature tough broads like Mildred, but when put in the spotlight, she fails to carry the load. R.O. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
James Mallahan Cain (1892 - 1977) was a first-rate writer of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Born in Baltimore, the son of the president of Washington College, Cain began his career as a reporter, serving in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and writing for The Cross of Lorraine, the newspaper of the 79th Division. He returned from the war to embark on a literay career that included a professorship at St. John’s College in Annapolis and a stint at The New Yorker as managing editor before he went to Hollywood as a script writer. Cain’s famous first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, was published in 1934 when he was forty-two, and became an instant sensation. It was tried for obscenity in Boston and was said by Albert Camus to have inspired his own book, The Stranger. The infamous novel was staged in 1936, and filmed in 1946 and 1981. The story of a young hobo who has an affair with a married woman and plots with her to murder her husband and collect his insurance, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a benchmark of classic crime fiction and film noir. Two of Cain’s other novels, Mildred Pierce (1941) and Double Indemnity (1943), were also made into film noir classics. In 1974, James M. Cain was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Cain published eighteen books in all and was working on his autobiography at the time of his death.