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The postman book manual#
The postman book series#
The film also spawned a series of ‘Cain template’ films that featured adultery, spousal homicide and characters who committed crimes, but were not themselves criminals. Lost is the desperation that explains her actions without justifying them. Cora for example, is more of a manipulator for its own purpose than in the book. The film captures the greed, lust and penchant for violence that fill the book, but there were changes that were more to do with the film industry, which Cain disliked, than the book. The novel also spawned a few films, notably the 1946 adaptation that stands out as an early example of film noir, in both good ways and bad. He was a champion of featuring the perpetrator of the crime, rather than law enforcement.
In a way, most crime novels other than procedurals and private detective stories owe a nod to Cain.
The postman book full#
Dennis Lehane has been quoted about the impact Cain’s dialog – full of vernacular and true to character – had on him. Albert Camus remarked that the themes and style of Postman were an influence on The Stranger. Postman’s influence ranges across genre and time. It is the perfect cap to a tale of people following the most indecent of human desires. The ending provides a measure of both just and unjust retribution on the narrator of the story. Neat endings are not the playground for the types of characters he creates. Of course, one of Cain’s other themes, and the characteristic that places his work firmly in noir, is the hopelessness. Some fancy legal manoeuvring keeps Cora out of jail and allows reconciliation with Frank. However, that neat and just ending is not what Cain has in store. Under suspicion for what they’ve done, Cora is willing to betray the man she plotted with. Not the elegant murder of a hit, but the messy and inefficient work of a man with no talent for the task, but a determination to finish.Īnxiety and fear lead to betrayal.
Like other works from Cain, the story follows the characters’ path to self-destruction, motivated by base desires. Cora, sick of her life and desperate for something better, convinces Frank that getting rid of her husband is the only route to freedom and a better life. Their affair, full of lust and overtones of violence, leads Frank and Cora down a dangerous path. The book tells the story of a Frank, a drifter who takes a job at a diner and falls for the greasy owner’s seductive wife, Cora. Despite its age, The Postman Always Rings Twice still holds up and is something that any fan of this edgier type of crime fiction should read. It’s one of the earliest examples of noir and a book that was both successful and notorious when it was published in 1934. This classic novel by James Cain is full of flawed people, violence, lurid sex, bad choices and doomed people.